Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said Thursday he will seek resentencing for Lyle and Erik Menendez in their parents’ murders, paving the way for their potential release from prison after decades.
Gascón filed a motion later Thursday asking that they be resentenced to 50 years to life. Currently, the brothers are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A Superior Court judge will make the ultimate decision.
Gascón said because the men were younger than 26 when they killed their parents, they would be eligible for parole immediately if a judge follows his resentencing recommendation.
No hearing date had been set as of Thursday night.
The brothers fatally shot their parents, entertainment company executive José Menendez and Kitty Menendez, with shotguns in their Beverly Hills home in 1989. The brothers were 21 and 18 years old at the time.
Defense attorneys for the brothers argued they were sexually abused by their father, and, after two trials, they were convicted of murder and sentenced to life without parole.
Gascón said his recommendation Thursday for resentencing was not universally backed.
“There are people in the office that strongly believe that the Menendez brothers should stay in prison the rest of their life, and they do not believe that they were molested,” Gascón said.
“And there are people in the office that strongly believe that they should be released immediately and that there were in fact molested.”
He added, “I believe that they have paid their debt to society.”
The DA’s announcement comes three weeks after Gascón said his office was reviewing the case and would consider whether they should be resentenced.
Gascón, who is seeking re-election next month, said then that “we have a moral and ethical obligation to review what has been presented to us.”
The evidence provided to Gascón’s office included a photocopy of a letter from one of the brothers to another family member that alleged sexual abuse, Gascón said.
Defense attorneys also provided evidence that one of the members of the Menudo boy band alleged he was sexually abused by José Menendez, Gascón said.
Roy Rosselló, a member of the pop group from 1983 to 1986, said on the 2023 Peacock series “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed” that he was raped by José Menendez, who was then an executive at RCA.
Gascón argued in the motion seeking resentencing that the Menendez brothers no longer pose a public safety risk.
“When Erik and Lyle Menendez were sentenced to Life Without the possibility of Parole in 1996 their sentences were aligned with what was considered the best public safety practices,” Gascón wrote. “What is considered best practices for public safety, however, has evolved.”
Anamaria Baralt, the niece of José Menendez, lauded Gascón’s decision, saying at a news conference that the family stands “united in hope and gratitude”
“Together, we can make sure that Erik and Lyle receive the justice they deserve and finally come home,” she said.
The brothers’ attorney Mark Geragos celebrated after the DA’s recommendation was announced.
“Today is a monumental, monumental victory on that path” toward their freedom, he said.
The brothers alleged sexual abuse by their father at their first trial. That trial resulted in a mistrial after the juries deadlocked.
At their second trial, the abuse allegations were limited in court. The brothers were convicted in 1996 of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Lyle Menendez is now 56, and Erik Menendez is 53.
They filed petitions on both habeas grounds and seeking a resentencing. A habeas petition argues that if certain evidence had been presented at trial, the outcome might have been different.
California law also allows a prosecutor to evaluate whether a person has been rehabilitated and then ask a court to determine whether the person should be resentenced, Gascón said.
Prosecutors had accused the brothers of killing their parents to inherit a fortune.
Milton Andersen, Kitty Menendez’s brother, opposes any early release, his attorney said in a letter to Gascón.
“Mr. Andersen is opposed to any Resentencing and objects to any concession of the Habeas claims,” his attorney, Kathy Cady, wrote.
“Erik and Lyle Menendez’ motive was pure greed,” Cady wrote in the letter, which was sent Oct. 14.
The DA’s Resentencing Unit handled the recommendation for the Menendez case. It was launched by the Los Angeles County DA in April 2021 address over-incarceration.
The team, along with the DA’s Murder Resentencing Unit, has reviewed or is actively reviewing 705 cases, resulting in 332 resentencings, the DA’s office said.
Last week, about 20 Menendez family members gathered outside the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles and rallied in support for the brothers’ release from prison.
Relatives launched a petition for their freedom and argued justice has been served because they have spent more than 35 years behind bars.
The brothers were victimized by society and a judicial system that decades ago did not understand or have the capacity for compassion in cases of boys and young men who were sexually abused, family members said.
“Their continued incarceration serves no facilitative purpose. It’s time to recognize the injustice they’ve suffered and allowed them the second chance they deserve,” said Baralt, José Menendez’s niece. “If Lyle and Eric’s case were heard today, with the understanding we now have about abuse and PTSD, there is no doubt in my mind that their sentencing would have been very different.”
Joan Andersen VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez’s sister, said that she struggled to come to terms with the slayings but that as more and more information came to light about the brothers’ allegations of abuse at the hands of their father, their actions were a “desperate response” of two boys trying to survive his cruelty.
“They were just children. Children who could have been protected and were instead brutalized in the most horrific ways,” she said. “Lyle and Eric have already paid a heavy price. … They have grown, they have changed, and they have become better men despite everything that they’ve been through. It’s time to give them the opportunity to live the rest of their lives free from the shadow of their past.”