California Gov. Gavin Newsom put on hold a decision on clemency for Erik and Lyle Menendez until the newly elected Los Angeles County district attorney took office, dashing their hopes for release this holiday season after spending three decades behind bars for they had killed their rich parents.
The fate of the convicted siblings now rests in the hands of Republican Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor who defeated George Gascón in his bid for re-election after the ultra-liberal top prosecutor advocated for the brothers’ release from prison.
“The Governor respects the district attorney’s role in ensuring justice and recognizes that voters have entrusted District Attorney-elect Hochman to carry out this responsibility,” Newsom’s office said. said in a statement to CNN.
“The Governor will defer the elected district attorney’s review and analysis of the Menendez case before making any clemency decisions.”
The decision gives Hochman, who campaigned for a tougher stance on crime, time to review thousands of pages of prison records and trial transcripts and speak with law enforcement officials, prosecutors, attorneys and victims’ family members before making his recommendation to the court do. .
The elected prosecutor expressed his commitment to thoroughly review the high-profile case upon taking office on December 2.
“This is the same kind of rigorous analysis that I have done throughout my 34-year career in criminal law as a prosecutor and defense counsel, and the same kind of thorough review that I will provide to all cases, regardless of media attention,” Hochman said. CNN.
Gascón announced last month that his office was recommending that the two brothers, now in their 50s, be considered for parole after serving more than 30 years behind bars for shooting their parents in 1989.
He claimed the much-publicized parricides had paid their debt and were no longer a threat to society, citing new evidence – including a handwritten letter from Erik to his cousin before the murder, in which he claimed his father had sexually abused him.
The two brothers were sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1996 for the brutal 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty.
Erik and Lyle, who were 21 and 18 respectively at the time, killed the couple with a shotgun while they were watching TV in their Beverly Hills mansion.
The much-discussed trial that followed made them 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, with testimony supporting other family members’ allegations. Prosecutors argued they were after their parents’ $15 million fortune.
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The trial ended in a hung jury in 1994.
A second trial in 1995 ended with the convictions of both brothers on two counts of first-degree murder after a judge ruled that the jury could not hear most of the testimony about the alleged sexual abuse.
The case has largely fallen out of the spotlight during their prison sentences, but a recent Netflix series, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” brought renewed interest to the case.
