LOS ANGELES — Erik and Lyle Menendez’s bid for freedom hit another possible roadblock this week as California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that he will not review their clemency request until after the incoming Los Angeles County district attorney makes a resentencing recommendation.
Nathan Hochman is set to take office Dec. 2 after his win earlier this month over District Attorney George Gascón, who has supported Menendez resentencing and urged clemency. Hochman has said he will review the case himself before making any decisions.
The governor “respects the role of the district attorney in ensuring justice is served and recognizes that voters have entrusted District Attorney-elect Hochman to carry out this responsibility,” a spokesman for Newsom said.
Erik and Lyle Menendez are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for the 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez. Their case has been thrust back into the public spotlight after recent documentaries and a Netflix series that dramatizes the murders and highlights the brothers’ accounts that they acted in self-defense after years of alleged physical and sexual abuse by their father.
This fall, Gascón recommended that the brothers be resentenced to 50 years to life in prison, citing good behavior during their 35 years behind bars. If a judge agrees, they would be immediately eligible for parole and could be released. A hearing is scheduled before a judge on Dec. 11
But the incoming DA said he needs to review the case, including transcripts from two trials and prison disciplinary records, before making a recommendation. He could ask a judge for a delay.
Hochman questioned the role politics may have played in Gascón’s decision to support resentencing.
“Was it a just decision or was it just a political ploy?” Hochman asked NBC News. “That’s why I have to do this thorough review of the facts and the law to make sure that there’s no credibility problems with my decision.”
Gascón has denied that his re-election bid played any role in his support for resentencing.
High-profile names, including Kim Kardashian, are among those who have called for the brother’s release, citing a cultural shift in how society views sexual abuse allegations and victims. Several of the brothers’ relatives are also asking that the men be set free.
“We will look at all the facts of the underlying crimes and what created those crimes,” Hochman said. “But as far as whether or not there’s a cultural shift or not that’s in some ways irrelevant for whether or not the facts in the law in the Menendez case justify a resentencing, and if so, what that resentencing should be.”
The brothers have asked the court to weigh a piece of potential evidence centered on the sex abuse allegations to challenge their convictions — a letter Erik said he wrote to his cousin about the alleged abuse decades ago.
But Juan Mejia, who is now a head deputy for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office but was a prosecutor on the brothers’ second murder trial, said there are questions about that potential “linchpin” evidence as one of the brothers’ attorneys described it.
“Are they trying to pull another fast one on the court?” Mejia said.
But many do believe the brothers.
Last week, Gascón filed more than 600 pages of documents supporting resentencing, including several letters from prison employees and correctional officers who describe the brothers as rehabilitated “model” prisoners who deserve a second chance.
If Hochman were to make a different recommendation than Gascon, he can introduce additional material to the judge ahead of the hearing next month but ultimately the decision will be made by a judge followed by the parole board and then, if he ultimately chooses to weigh in, Newsom.