Lyle and Eric Menendez’s chance at freedom has once again been suspended in limbo after the progressive Los Angeles County District Attorney recommended they be incarcerated. ousted by voters,
George Gascón, the so-called godfather of progressive prosecutors, announced last month that his office was recommending the brothers, now both in their 50s. eligible for parole After spending more than 30 years behind bars for murdering his wealthy parents in 1989.
However, Gascón on Tuesday lost his re-election bid by a landslide to Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor who said he wanted to review the case with his own eyes before moving forward.
“Before making any decisions regarding the Menendez brothers’ case, I will have to be fully familiarized with the relevant facts, evidence and law,” Hochman said in a statement Wednesday. Independent,
He said, “I will have to review each brother’s confidential prison files, the transcripts of both trials, and talk to prosecutors, law enforcement, defense attorneys and family members of the victims.”
Hochman, who successfully campaigned against Gascón’s unpopular criminal justice reforms, will take office on Dec. 2 — just nine days before the Menendez brothers’ scheduled hearing to consider Gascón’s request.
“If for any reason I need additional time, I will ask the court for that time,” Hochman said.
Gascón said last month that his office Was considering the brothers’ case afresh “For more than a year” in light of new evidence indicating that he was regularly sexually abused by his father while growing up.
The final decision will be left up to the judge – but Gascón said the murdered siblings were on a “journey of redemption and rehabilitation” and that they had “paid their debt to society” for the time they served and all they did. Help others while in jail.
If a judge agrees with Gascón’s recommendation, convicting the Menendez brothers of murder would mean their new sentences would change from life without parole to 50 years – 25 years for each murder.
Because he was convicted under the age of 26, if convicted he would be immediately eligible for parole under California’s youthful offender law.
In August 1989, the brothers murdered their parents, Josh and Kitty, with a shotgun while they were watching TV in their Beverly Hills mansion.
They were sentenced to life in prison without parole for the brutal murders following a highly publicized trial in 1996, making Eric and Lyle – who were 21 and 18 respectively at the time – household names.
The brothers’ lawyers argued at trial that they had acted in self-defense after years of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of their father, including testimony from other family members that supported the allegations. Prosecutors argued that they were after their parents’ $15 million estate. The trial ended in a hung jury in 1994.
The second trial in 1995 ended with the conviction of both brothers on two counts of first-degree murder, when a judge ruled that the jury could not hear most of the testimony about the alleged sexual abuse.
The case largely fell out of the headlines as both brothers spent time in prison, but a new Netflix series, “Monsters: The Lyle and Eric Menendez Story,” sparked renewed interest in the brothers and the murders.
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