Los Angeles County’s top prosecutor said Friday that he had not made a decision about whether the prison sentences for Erik and Lyle Menendez, who are serving life without parole for the heavily publicized 1989 murders of their parents, should be reduced.
Nathan Hochman, who was elected district attorney in November, said he was still reviewing extensive court and prison records ahead of resentencing hearing scheduled for Jan. 30 and Jan. 31.
Lawyers for the brothers sought to have their sentences reduced to 50 years to life, a request that would make them eligible for parole immediately.
Hochman made the announcement after what the prosecutor described as an hours-long meeting with relatives of the siblings who support their release.
Hochman declined to say what the relatives told him, but he described the meeting as “productive.”
An earlier statement from the the family-led Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition said more than 20 family members were expected to sit down with Hochman to show their “support for a resentencing process that reflects Erik and Lyle’s abuse, trauma, and demonstrated rehabilitation over the last 35 years.”
Members of the Menendez family said Friday that they were grateful for the meeting with Hochman.
They said they are hopeful there is a way to get the murder conviction reduced to manslaughter, and that they want the brothers released immediately.
Family who spoke Friday after the news conference said having to go to a parole board would traumatize them more.
Erik and Lyle were sentenced in 1996, after two trials, for the shooting deaths of Jose and Kitty Menendez at the family’s Beverly Hills home on Aug. 20, 1989.
The brothers’ first separate trials ended with hung juries after they could not deliver a unanimous verdict, but they were convicted of first-degree murder during a joint retrial.
The brothers said they shot their parents after years of horrific sexual abuse at the hands of their father — an allegation disputed by prosecutors, who argued the claims were false. Prosecutors described the murders as calculated and cold-blooded and said Erik and Lyle killed their parents for financial gain.
Their trials became media sensations — the first was televised —and the killings have since been the subject of multiple dramatizations and true crime documentaries, most recently a high profile series and a film that were both on Netflix.
Former Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón endorsed the effort to reduce their prison sentences to 50 years to life. But Gascón was voted out in November and Hochman has said he will review the facts and law in the case before determining whether he should support the decision.
In an interview with NBC News last month, Hochman confirmed personnel changes on the team that led the resentencing effort under Gascón and, as he reiterated Friday during the news conference, said he was reviewing thousands of pages of documents in the case.
A judge will ultimately determine whether the brothers should have their sentences reduced.
Hochman’s office is also weighing a petition from the brothers that challenges their convictions and raises what their lawyers have described as new evidence confirming the alleged abuse.
The Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition said it hoped the meeting with Hochman could provide “an open and fair discussion.”
“Despite the abuse they endured as children and the unfairness of their current sentence, Erik and Lyle Menendez have spent the last three decades taking responsibility for their actions and contributing positively to their community through leadership and rehabilitation,” the statement read.
“During our meeting with DA Hochman, we look forward to sharing our perspective on Erik and Lyle’s immense personal growth over the last 35 years and the ways in which we plan to support them in their next chapters,” the coalition said. “We hope that this meeting will put us a step closer to spending next Christmas reunited as a family.”
