Los Angeles County’s top prosecutor said Monday that he had withdrawn a recommendation to reduce the prison terms of , who are serving sentences of life without parole for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents.
In a reversal of his , District Attorney Nathan Hochman said there were “legitimate reasons” to justify the withdrawal.
Hochman said Erik and Lyle Menendez, who have served 35 years in prison and are 54 and 57, respectively, have not fully acknowledged more than a dozen lies they have told about the murders, including that they killed their parents in self-defense.
“In looking at whether the Menendez brothers have exhibited full insight and complete responsibility for their crimes, they have not,” he said, adding: “They don’t meet the standards for resentencing. They don’t meet the standards for rehabilitation.”
If they “come clean” and “unequivocally and fully accept complete responsibility for their criminal actions,” Hochman said, his office would reconsider their resentencing request.
That request is set to go before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic for a two-day hearing this month.
Menendez family spokesperson Anamaria Baralt said she did not believe the brothers would follow the path laid out by the prosecutor.
“I can’t imagine they’ll sacrifice their integrity and character now,” she said, adding that Hochman wants the siblings to “agree to his truth — not the truth.”
In a statement earlier, Baralt and other relatives who support the brothers’ release accused Hochman of holding their family “hostage,” saying that he appears “fixated on their trauma-driven response to the killings in 1989 with blinders on to the fact they were repeatedly abused, feared for their lives, and have atoned for their actions.”
“How many times do we have to hear the same attempts to bury who they are today and rip us back to that painful time?” the statement said.
The brothers were of José and Kitty Menendez at the family’s Beverly Hills home on Aug. 20, 1989. Erik and Lyle claimed their father abused them, and they described the killings as self-defense. Prosecutors said the abuse allegations were false, and they described the killings as cold-blooded and financially motivated.
The brothers were prosecuted twice for murder in the 1990s. A judge declared a mistrial in the first trial when the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. They were convicted of first-degree murder at their second trial.
Hochman said last month that he opposed to challenge their convictions with what their lawyers described as new evidence.
The brothers have also sought their freedom through clemency. Last month, to determine whether the brothers pose an “unreasonable” public safety risk if they were released.
In the bid for resentencing, former Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said the brothers’ sentences of life without the possibility of parole should be reduced to 50 years to life, which would make them eligible for parole immediately.
In an with NBC News’ “Dateline,” Gascón said there was no question the brothers had committed brutal, premeditated murders, but he said they had been model inmates during their three decades in prison. The brothers had helped inmates with disabilities, started a green space “beautification” project and attended college courses, he said.
And there was no evidence they had been violent toward other inmates, Gascón said. Many of the brothers’ relatives have publicly supported the effort to release them, though Kitty Menendez’s brother has said through a lawyer that their motive was “pure greed” and that he opposes early release.
That relative, Milton Anderson, died March 3.
Hochman said his predecessor’s resentencing recommendation appeared to be based on an “incomplete” review of the brothers’ criminal actions and whether they had taken responsibility for them.
In addition to their claim of self-defense, Hochman said, the brothers have not acknowledged that they sought to have a friend and a girlfriend provide false testimony to bolster their defense at trial. Nor have they taken responsibility for other deceptive actions they took in connection with the killings, including staging the murders to look like a “Mafia-style hit.”
Jose and Kitty Menendez were shot in the kneecaps, Hochman said. Jose Menendez was shot in the back of the head, and Lyle Menendez shot his mother in the face after he reloaded his shotgun.
Hochman compared his resentencing determination to that of the three-member board that , the man who fatally shot Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.
He was initially found to be suitable for parole, but the decision was rescinded after Newsom said he had “determined that Sirhan has not developed the accountability and insight required to support his safe release into the community.”
