Menendez brothers’ parole hearings live: Duo who killed parents 36 years ago push for prison release – UK Times

Erik Menendez is expected to face the parole board at 8.30 a.m. PDT, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The hearing, taking place virtually from a room in the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, is expected to last between two and three hours.

The parole board is likely to make a decision immediately, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The CDCR does not live-stream the parole hearings, despite them being a matter of public record.

Lyle Menendez is due to take place at the same time tomorrow.

If Erik and Lyle Menendez are denied parole during their hearings over the next two days, it would be years until they could attempt to gain their freedom.

If an inmate is denied parole, California law dictates that the board schedule another hearing three, five, seven, 10 or 15 years in the future, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The inmate can petition to bring the hearing date forward.

According to CDCR data, last year, 31 percent of cases from across 3,764 hearings were granted parole.

Along with disciplinary records while incarcerated, the parole board could review the Menendez brothers’ track record of rehabilitative work and support from some correctional officials.

Erik and Lyle Menendez are both classified as low-risk prisoners.

They do, however, have nine and eight rule violation reports, respectively, according to the district attorney’s office. They include being found with cell phones and possessing contraband to fighting with other inmates.

The board might also consider risk assessments that have been conducted by a forensic psychologist at the request of California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Erik has helped start at least five programs, including a support group for disabled and elderly inmates.

Lyle co-founded several groups, including a Green Space program that plans to install trees, plants and gathering spaces in the prison yard.

In May, a California judge resentenced the Menendez brothers, giving them a shot at freedom after the siblings served three decades in prison for the 1989 shotgun murder of their parents.

The sentences of Erik, 54, and Lyle, 57, were reduced from life without parole to 50 years to life, which made them eligible for parole under California’s youthful offender law because they committed the crime under the age of 26.

The ruling by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic in May was issued after the brothers’ loved ones pleaded with the court, claiming the two were “different men” than who they were at the time of the killings, and that they had been “universally forgiven by the family.”

Jesic said he did not believe the brothers posed an “unreasonable risk” to the public if released, with the caveat, “I’m not saying they should be released,” adding: “It’s not for me to decide.”

Erik Menendez’s wife hopes today’s parole hearing can close a dark chapter and start a new one after her husband’s three decades behind bars.

Tammi Menendez, who married Erik in Folsom State Prison’s waiting room in 1999 after he proposed a year earlier in the prison’s visiting room, expressed her words of support in a late-night X post on Wednesday.

“Wishing my amazing husband all the love and strength for his parole hearing tomorrow. I believe in you and can’t wait for this new chapter together. You’ve got this,!” she tweeted, along with the hashtag “newbeginnings.”

The family of Erik and Lyle Menendez said it is “cautiously optimistic” that the brothers will be granted parole after three decades behind bars.

“As always, our family remains cautiously optimistic, grounding ourselves in the reality that California’s parole process is incredibly rigorous, with low grant rates,” the family said in a statement.

“We respect that and know Erik and Lyle are prepared for that level of scrutiny.”

The family created the Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition and has advocated for the brothers’ release for years.

They claimed the brothers have shown “sincere remorse” and taken full responsibility for the murders.

Mark Geragos, the attorney for Lyle and Erik Menendez, said that the brothers are “deserving” of parole and “should be out” of prison.

Speaking to NewsNation’s Cuomo earlier this week, Gergos said: “They are being judged separately. They each are fascinating, intriguing and deserving of getting parole. They both should be out.”

Gergos also explained what the brothers might say to the parole board in their respective hearings on Thursday and Friday.

“I think on Thursday, what you will see with Erik is a lot of discussion about the programs that he’s instituted. Not the least of which is the hospice program, which he pioneered in California,” he said.

“I think when you get to Lyle on Friday, you’re going to hear about the green space program. This is a back-and-forth.”

Erik Menendez, one of the brothers serving a 50 years-to-life sentence for the 1989 murders of his parents in Beverly Hills, returned to state prison in California after being hospitalized last month for kidney problems, according to a family member.

“My dad is out of the hospital and back at the prison, preparing for our upcoming parole hearing,” his stepdaughter, Talia Menendez, wrote on Instagram stories, TMZ reported earlier this month.

Menendez was temporarily removed from the San Diego-area Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in July and hospitalized for about a week for what his attorney called a “serious medical condition.”

The Menendez brothers’ high-stakes hearings are not scheduled to occur on the same days.

Erik Menendez’s parole suitability hearing is scheduled to begin Thursday morning, while Lyle Menendez’s hearing is set to commence Friday.

The brothers are expected to dial in separately via video from their prison in San Diego.

Mark Geragos, the attorney for Erik and Lyle, said that each brother “stands or falls on their own.”

“There will be different parole board members each day. There will be different lawyers from the D.A.’s office each day, as well, is my understanding,” he said. “And you’re going to have a different proceeding. Each brother, if you will, stands or falls on their own.”