Menendez brothers move closer to freedom as Newsom drops clemency investigations, sets parole hearing
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Erik and Lyle Menendez may be another step closer to freedom after Gov. Gavin Newsom withdrew his request on Thursday for clemency investigations into their case, turning a hearing scheduled in June before the parole board into an opportunity for them to be granted early release.
The move streamlines the potential path to freedom for the brothers, who have served more than 35 years in prison since being sentenced for killing their parents with shotguns in 1989 and who successfully argued before a judge earlier this week to be resentenced to 50 years to life from life without parole.
“We are hopeful that the governor will write the final chapter in the brothers’ release,” their attorney, Mark Geragos, said.
Newsom’s decision is the latest in a series of moves this week that placed the Menendezes closer than ever before to a decision about release from prison.
On Tuesday, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic modified the brothers’ original sentence of life without parole to 50 years to life, which under the state’s youthful offender law makes them immediately eligible for parole because the shootings happened before they turned 26.
Erik and Lyle Menendez received a chance at freedom after more than 35 years in prison Tuesday, with a judge resentencing the brothers after relatives testified it was time for them to come home.
Legal experts say the energy and momentum are clearly with the brothers, but parole is never guaranteed.
“Assuming they can show genuine remorse and rehabilitation at the hearing, they will be recommended for parole. Gov. Newsom is the only person who can get in the way of it,” said Louis Shapiro, a high-profile Los Angeles defense attorney.
Indeed, Newsom this week noted he does occasionally reject the parole board’s recommendations.
“I have great respect for their judgment and the very relatively small percentage of parole applications they actually approve, and I tend to approve most of them,” he said. “I’m the ultimate arbiter, [and] will have to review the parole board’s recommendations.”
The board on Wednesday informed legal representatives that the governor was no longer pursuing the clemency investigations because of the decision to change the Menendezes’ sentences. As a result, officials said their clemency hearings will now become parole hearings. Technically, clemency isn’t off the table and the requests for the brothers are still considered active.
“In light of the court’s ruling [Tuesday], resentencing Lyle and Erik Menendez to terms of 50 years to life, the Governor has withdrawn the request for clemency investigations,” Scott Wyckoff, executive officer of the Board of Parole Hearings, stated in an email to attorneys on both sides of the case. “Since the ruling makes them immediately eligible for parole consideration as youth offenders, it is the Board’s intent to convert the June 13, 2025, clemency hearings to initial parole suitability hearings.”
At the hearings, a panel of commissioners could deem the brothers suitable for parole, but that would not be the end of the process. A 90-day review period would follow, and Newsom could still block their release. A California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman said the Board of Parole Hearings is giving the parties an opportunity to raise objections to changing the clemency hearings to parole hearings.
At a parole hearing, the Menendezes will have to take accountability for their crimes and argue to commissioners that they are unlikely to re-offend. They made statements in that vein to Jesic through a camera feed from prison on Tuesday.
“My actions were criminal, selfish, cruel and cowardly,” Erik Menendez said. “I have no excuse, no justification for what I did. ... I take full responsibility for my crimes.”
Lyle also said he made “no excuses” for felling his mother and father with shotgun blasts, and apologized to the nearly two dozen relatives who have spent years fighting for his release.
“I’m so sorry to each and every one of you,” Lyle told the court Tuesday. “I lied to you and forced you into a spotlight of public humiliation you never asked for.”
The decision to turn the clemency hearings into parole hearings continues the Menendezes down a path set in motion last year by former Dist. Atty. George Gascón, who was elected on a platform of restorative justice and filed a motion to resentence the brothers before he was defeated in November.
Delivering on a campaign promise, L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman says he will allow prosecutors to seek capital punishment in certain murder cases, undoing a policy of his predecessor, George Gascón.
His successor, Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman, has argued that the brothers had failed to show proper “insight” into their crimes and have not atoned for the lies they told over the last 30 years about the nature of the killings. But Jesic dismissed those arguments as irrelevant.
Under state law, Jesic said, the court could block resentencing only if the defendant poses an “unreasonable risk of danger to public safety,” meaning they will commit another crime, such as murder, manslaughter, and sexual assaults, if released. He said prosecutors failed to prove the brothers continued to pose that threat.
Hochman said after Jesic’s ruling he still considered his opposition to their resentencing a success because it presented to the judge, parole board and governor — all of whom would have a say in the Menendezes’ fate — a “full record of the facts.” Hochman said his prosecutors would appear at parole hearings to considering the brothers’ release.
Dmitry Gorin, another L.A. defense attorney, said winning over the commissioners is never easy, and they will want to see plenty of evidence that the Menendezes are ready for release.
“It is not a guarantee of release, however, and many defendants who apply get denied parole,” he said.
The Menendezes have long argued they carried out their crime for fear their parents would kill them to cover up years of sexual abuse committed by their father. To that end, the brothers also have a pending petition for a new trial. In the motion, defense attorney Geragos pointed to additional evidence of sexual abuse committed by Jose Menendez, including a fresh allegation from a member of the boy band Menudo, which, if known, would have altered the outcome of their trial.
But that is now likely to be put on the back burner with a clear path to freedom in front of them with the parole panel.
Times staff writer Taryn Luna contributed to this report.
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