US parole board ordered to investigate if Menendez brothers pose risk if freed

A California governor has ordered the state parole board to investigate whether Lyle and Erik Menendez pose a risk to the public if they are released after nearly three decades in prison for the 1989 killing of their parents, lawyers for the brothers have said.

The board will undertake a “comprehensive risk assessment” into whether the brothers have been rehabilitated, according to Mark Geragos and Cliff Gardner.

The defence lawyers said they were grateful for Gavin Newsom’s decision.

“The family realises that the governor’s action does not mean he will commute the sentences,” Mr Geragos and Mr Gardner said in a statement.

“Instead, this initial step reflects the governor’s considered decision to at least obtain the information required to make a fair decision as to whether Erik and Lyle, after 35 years in prison, have done the hard work necessary to have a chance at a life outside prison.”

No timeline was given for the board’s investigation.

A message seeking further details was sent on Wednesday to the governor’s office.

The brothers are pursuing multiple avenues to win their freedom including clemency from Mr Newsom, a resentencing hearing, and a new trial.

Los Angeles district attorney Nathan Hochman said on Friday that he opposes a new trial for the brothers, but he has not made up his mind on whether to support a resentencing bid that could lead to their freedom.

Mr Newsom has said he will not make a clemency decision until Mr Hochman finishes reviewing the case.

The brothers were found guilty in the murders of their entertainment executive father, Jose, and their mother, Kitty Menendez, and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

They began their latest bid for freedom in recent years after their lawyers said new evidence of their father’s sexual abuse emerged, and they have the support of most of their extended family.

Mr Hochman said he has filed an informal response urging the Los Angeles County Superior Court to reject a habeas petition filed by the brothers’ attorneys in 2023 that seeks a re-examination of their case that centres in part the allegations that Jose Menendez sexually abused Erik Menendez.

Mr Hochman cast doubt on the evidence of abuse and said it was not pertinent to the case, disputing the claims that killings constituted self-defence.

He also characterised the brothers’ own testimony of sexual abuse as untrustworthy because they had told five different explanations for why they committed the murder.

The Menendez family called Mr Hochman’s decision “abhorrent” and said he “discredited the trauma” experienced by the brothers.

The family said in a statement last week that new evidence should not be needed, as the justice system failed the brothers back then and “continues to fail them now”.

Lyle Menendez, who was then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, admitted they killed their parents with a shotgun, but they said they feared their parents were about to kill them to prevent disclosure of their father’s long-term molestation of Erik.

Prosecutors said at the time there was no evidence of molestation, and many details in the brothers’ story of sexual abuse were not permitted in the trial that led to their conviction in 1996.

Prosecutors accused the brothers of killing their parents for money.

The proposed resentencing for the brothers is still set to be taken up at a March hearing and would make them immediately eligible for parole.

Former Los Angeles county district attorney George Gascon recommended last year the brothers be resentenced to 50 years to life.

Mr Gascon lost his bid for re-election in November to Mr Hochman.

The possible resentencing will take into account the brothers’ rehabilitation during their time in prison.

Mr Hochman has met with the brothers’ relatives as he reviews their case, which includes thousands of pages of prison records.

The case has gained new traction after Netflix began streaming the true-crime drama “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”.