Prosecutor recommends Menendez brothers be resentenced for 1989 murders

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón announced Thursday that he is recommending the resentencing of Erik and Lyle Menendez, the brothers serving life sentences without parole for the murders of their parents in a case that went nationwide 35 years ago attracted attention.

Gascón told reporters he would submit his recommendation to the court on Friday, urging that the possibility of parole be brought back to the table. The penalty for two murders is 50 years to life in prison, but because the brothers were under 26 at the time of the crime, Gascón said they would be immediately eligible for parole under California law.

“I believe they have paid their debt to society,” he said.

Gascón reviewed new evidence in the case and met with family members who pleaded for her release. Relatives say the new evidence proves the abuse the brothers suffered at the hands of their father, wealthy music executive Jose Menendez.

A jury found the brothers guilty of killing Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1996 after their widely watched and televised first trial ended in a mistrial.

Erik Menendez was 18 and Lyle was 21 at the time of the murders in 1989. Their lawyers argued they acted in self-defense and were sexually abused by both parents. The brothers had confronted their parents and believed that they would kill them to prevent them from making the abuse public, the defense lawyers argued.

Prosecutors dismissed the abuse allegations as untrue and said the brothers targeted their parents' fortune, then valued at about $15 million. A spending spree by the brothers between the murders and their arrest helped fuel public skepticism about their plight.

The brothers' lawyers and the coalition of family members said the judge overseeing the second trial excluded key evidence of the abuse the Menendez brothers suffered.

The decision comes two days after Gascón announced that a November 1 exoneration and release hearing for two other convicted murderers, Charlotte Pleytez and Lombardo Palacios, would be held. Both served more than 17 years in prison for a 2007 East Hollywood murder that his office's Conviction Integrity Unit concluded they had not committed.

“We must continually reevaluate questionable prior convictions in the interest of justice,” Gascón said in a statement announcing the hearing. “This recognizes that the system has failed at times, and when it does happen, the consequences are life-changing.”

Push for release: Family makes fervent plea amid new evidence

There was considerable interest in the Menendez case long after the conviction. The case then gained new attention amid several new documentaries and excitement over the new evidence, including a letter Erik Menendez allegedly wrote to his cousin Andy Cano several months before the murders. Excerpts were included in the 2023 petition filed by the brothers' lawyers.

“I tried to avoid dad. It still happens, Andy, but now it’s worse for me,” one excerpt reads. “I never know when it's going to happen and it drives me crazy. Every night I stay awake thinking he might come in.”

Later the letter says: “I know what you said before, but I'm scared. You just don't know Dad as well as I do. He's crazy! He warned me a hundred times not to tell anyone.”

Investigators are also looking into allegations by a member of the 1980s pop band Menudo that he was mistreated by Jose Menendez.

These allegations were made public last year in the Peacock documentary series Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.

Prosecutor recommends Menendez brothers be resentenced for 1989 murders

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