California governor orders parole board to investigate if Menendez brothers would pose risk if freed

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Attorneys for Lyle and Erik Menendez said Wednesday that California Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered the state parole board to investigate whether the brothers would pose a risk to the public if they are released after nearly three decades in prison for the 1989 killing of their parents.

The board will undertake a “comprehensive risk assessment” into whether the brothers have been rehabilitated, according to Mark Geragos and Cliff Gardner. The defense attorneys said they were grateful for Newsom's decision.

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

Newsom said he wants the parole board to finish the risk assessment within 90 days. Following the assessment, there will be a hearing allowing victims' family members and prosecutors to participate in the process, according to the governor's office.

Newsom said on his podcast Wednesday that the goal is to make sure the state is doing its due diligence and ensuring transparency.

“The question for the board is a rather simple one: Do Eric and Lyle Menendez, do they pose a current what we call unreasonable risk to public safety?” Newsom said.

The state's legal standard for parole is whether an inmate poses an unreasonable risk to public safety. That must be determined before the governor can make a decision on commutation.

The brothers are pursuing multiple avenues to win their freedom: Clemency from Newsom, a resentencing hearing, and a new trial. Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Friday that he opposes a new trial for the brothers, but he hasn’t made up his mind on whether to support a resentencing bid that could lead to their freedom. Newsom has said he will not make a clemency decision until Hochman finishes reviewing the case.

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.

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 attorneys said new evidence of their father’s sexual abuse emerged, and they have the support of most of their extended family.

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 reexamination of their case that centers in part on the allegations that Jose Menendez sexually abused Erik Menendez.

Hochman cast doubt on the evidence of abuse and said it was not pertinent to the case, disputing claims that the killings constituted self-defense. He also characterized the brothers’ own testimony of sexual abuse as untrustworthy because they had given five different explanations for why they committed the murders.

The Menendez family called 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.

Former Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón recommended last year the brothers be resentenced to 50 years to life. Gascón lost his bid for reelection in November to Hochman.

The possible resentencing will take into account the brothers’ rehabilitation during their time in prison. Hochman has met with the brothers’ relatives as he reviews their case, which includes thousands of pages of prison records.

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

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Associated Press writer Tran Nguyen contributed from Sacramento, California.