A California judge ruled Friday that the resentencing hearings for Erik and Lyle Menendez, who were convicted of murdering their parents over three decades ago, will go ahead as planned.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic said following arguments in Los Angeles Superior Court that the hearing will proceed next Thursday.
Deputy LA District Attorney Habib Balian had argued that the brothers should remain in prison, saying they “hadn’t changed” since their conviction, and claimed that former District Attorney A George Gascon’s move to request reduced sentencing had been politically motivated.
Gascon’s successor, Nathan Hochman, reversed course on the brothers, and submitted a motion last month to withdraw the resentencing request.
The brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos, harshly criticized the prosecution Friday for showing gruesome crime scene photos in what Geragos said was an attempt to restage the original trial.
Jesic noted in his ruling, referring to the prosecution’s arguments, that “everything you argued today is absolutely fair game for the resentencing hearing .”
The brothers were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole at ages 18 and 21 after being convicted of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home in 1989.
In 2014, California passed a law allowing inmates who had committed offenses before they turned 26 and had spent 25 years behind bars to ask for youth offender parole.
While the defense argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
On the night of the murders, Jose and Kitty Menendez were watching a movie in their theater den when their sons entered and shot them.
The brothers were convicted in 1996 and have spent 30 years behind bars, most recently being held at the Richard J Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County.
Friday’s hearing became heated as the prosecution spent nearly two hours arguing the brothers hadn’t been rehabilitated, according to news reports. No cameras were allowed inside the courtroom.
The brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos, accused the prosecution of grandstanding and trying to relitigate the case, claiming “they don’t want to finish today,” according to Newsweek. Geragos separately accused the prosecution of retraumatizing family members by flashing photos of the bloody crime scene, telling reporters the action was politically motivated.
Last month, Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who took office in December, asked the court to withdraw the resentencing motion filed last year by then-District Attorney George Gascón.
“The District Attorney’s Office is prepared to proceed forward with the hearing on the Court’s initiation of resentencing proceedings for the Menendez brothers but we are requesting that the prior District Attorney’s motion for resentencing be withdrawn,” Hochman said in a statement last month.
Gascón, a progressive, had advocated for the brothers to receive a sentence that would make them eligible for immediate parole.
During the hearing, Deputy District Attorney Habib Bailan told the court Gascon’s request to reduce sentencing was politically motivated because it came two weeks before an election when he was “down 30 points in the polls.”
The most pertinent issue is whether the brothers, who are now in their 50s, learned their lesson behind bars, said Habib, opining that they hadn’t taken accountability for the murders.
“The question is did they learn the most important lesson of all: Did they learn the severity and depravity of their conduct?” he asked the court. “You must take responsibility. If you don’t have insight…you might repeat the past.”
Most of the men’s family members support their release. One relative, Milton Andersen, Kitty Menendez’s brother, did not, but he passed away last month.
A handful of celebrities attended the hearing, including Actor Cooper Koch, who played Erik Menendez in the 2024 series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
There has been much debate surrounding whether the brothers might pose a risk to public safety.
Governor Gavin Newsom has asked a state parole board to conduct a risk assessment, the results of which are expected by June 13.
