Prosecutor likely to demand resentencing of Menendez brothers: What that means

The Menendez brothers could be one step closer to potential freedom as Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón is expected to recommend Thursday that a judge review their case, excoriating them, a source said The New York Times.

That means the brothers, who have been jailed since 1996 after a jury convicted them of shooting their millionaire parents in their Beverly Hills home seven years earlier, may soon have their sentences commuted.

The resentencing of Lyle (56) and Erik (53) can only bring good things. They are currently serving life sentences without parole in a California prison outside San Diego.

Gascón, a progressive struggling to win re-election, will announce his endorsement in a news conference Thursday afternoon. However, the alleged resentencing recommendation is just that, and the final resentencing decision rests with a Los Angeles County judge.

Should that judge grant Gascón's request, he will be given the herculean task of weighing old evidence from the men's high-profile trials with the new.

In the 1990s, after two mistrials that received incessant national media coverage, prosecutors successfully argued in 1996 that 21-year-old Lyle and 18-year-old Erik had killed their parents to gain control of their family's fortune , which were worth $14 million at the time.

The brothers' failed defense was that they killed their parents in self-defense after their father, Jose Menendez, sexually abused them for years, which they supposedly knew about but their mother, Kitty, failed to act on. Had they not shot their parents with shotguns, they argued, their father might have killed them himself to cover up the abuse.

The same defense has some new oomph this time around. A letter reportedly written by Erik and sent to a cousin months before the murders was recently uncovered by a journalist who has documented the Menendez brothers' case over the years. In this letter, Erik described how his father had sexually abused him.

Also helping the brothers' cause is a 2023 documentary that revealed new sexual assault allegations against Jose – their music manager father – made by a member of the boy band Menudo.

All of this new evidence, and perhaps more yet to be revealed, would be considered part of a resentencing. A judge will also be tasked with considering extenuating circumstances such as trauma and abuse, as well as the brothers' behavior in prison.

The brothers were model prisoners behind bars, both their lawyers and prison authorities said. They have worked as hospice aides to help sick inmates in prison; led Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and meditation groups for inmates; and have completed college courses. This list could help their cause when it comes time for resentencing.

A legal team for the brothers has said they should have been charged with manslaughter, not murder, and that – at 28 years old and counting – they have already served enough time in prison for a crime of this nature. If they can argue this successfully, Lyle and Erik could soon be on the loose again.