A Judge of Los Angeles decided on Friday (11) that a new audience for Lyle and Erik Menendez can proceed. This represents a setback for the prosecutor who opposed any mercy to the siblings, who fulfill perpetual penalty for the murder of his parents with shotgun in 1989.
Los Angeles County Public Prosecutor Nathan Hochman, opposed the new sentence, which could make the brothers eligible for parole and possibly result in their release after 35 years behind bars.
But Judge Michael Jesic of the Los Angeles County Superior Court denied Hochman’s petition to withdraw the new sentence and decided that the process could continue on April 17 and 18.
now 57 and 54, they watched through a prison video link and were able to be seen at court sitting next to each other in the blue uniforms of the prison.
“Today is a good day. Justice has won politics,” said lawyer Mark Geragos, who represents the brothers, reporters after the hearing.
Hochman’s predecessor as a public prosecutor, George Gascon, was in favor of evidence that came up recently, suggesting that they may have.
But Hochman defeated Gascon in last November’s election and adopted a harsher line against the brothers, saying that they must completely recognize the lies they told about the murder of their parents with a shotgun before he supports his release from prison.
For first -degree homicide and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole to shoot their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, at his home in Beverly Hills on August 20, 1989.
The case captivated the US in the 1990s due to the wealth and privileges of the brothers as children of an entertainment industry executive. Lyle was 21 years old and Erik, 18, at the time of the murders.
He raised new evidence to support the allegations that they were sexually abused by their parents, which led Gascon to argue that they were sentenced again to a smaller and loose crime.
The brothers initially denied involvement and tried to make the shots seem like an organized crime, but then admitted to killing their parents, claiming self -defense. A jury condemned them for first -degree murder after the second of two widely released judgments, the first of which ended with a tied jury.
Some members of the Menendez family supported the brothers’ liberation, including the sisters of José and Kitty Menendez. A remarkable exception – Milton Anderson, brother of Kitty Menendez – died recently. Anderson repeatedly opposed their liberation and contested the allegations of abuse.
Separately, Governor Gavin Newsom, who has the power to commute his sentences, asked the Conditional Freedom Council to consider whether the Menendez7 brothers would pose a risk to public safety if they were released.
