On Monday, a California district attorney said he is seeking to withdraw a motion from his predecessor which sought to have Erik and Lyle Menendez resentenced for their parents’ 1989 slayings.
Newly-elected Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said he wants to rescind ex-prosecutor George Gascón’s request for a resentencing hearing in the Menendez brothers’ case. Gascón sought to have the brothers’ sentence of life without parole changed to 50 years to life — but Hochman said his analysis of the case has uncovered facts unfavorable to the pair and contradicted their claims of self-defense, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Hochman said that after Jose and Kitty Menendez’s slayings, Erik and Lyle Menendez, then 18 and 21, claimed the Mafia killed them and attempted to fabricate an alibi.
READ: Key Prosecutor Says Menendez Brothers Could Have Different Fates as Resentencing Hearing Looms
“The Menendez brothers have continued to lie for over 30 years about their self-defense — that is, their purported actual fear that their mother and their father were going to kill them the night of the murders,” Hochman wrote in a recent motion. “Also, over those 30 years, they have failed to accept responsibility for the vast number of lies they told in connection with that defense.”
Gascón’s plan would have made Erik and Lyle Menendez immediately eligible for parole. However, his plans were stalled when he lost re-election to Hochman, who removed two deputy district attorneys who were heavily involved in the Menendez brothers’ resentencing bid.
In 1989, Erik and Lyle Menendez, then 18 and 21, purchased two shotguns with cash and used them to kill their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, at their Beverly Hills home. Investigators originally suspected the mafia was behind the slayings. However, a break in the case occurred in 1990 when Erik Menendez confessed to a therapist.
Evidence of Erik and Lyle Menendez’s father molesting them was presented at their first trial — which ended with a hung jury. However, those details were not as prominent during the second trial, resulting in their convictions.
The Menendez brothers filed for clemency in October, before Gascón’s loss to Hochman. California Governor Gavin Newsom paused all proceedings related to clemency in November as Hochman reviewed the case.
Hochman said on Monday that his office will not explore any resentencing options until Erik and Lyle Menendez take responsibility for killing their parents, admit their parents were not planning to kill them, and confess to any lies they told after the slayings.
“[Until then,] they do not meet the standards for resentencing,” Hochman said on Monday, per the Los Angeles Times. “They do not meet the standards for rehabilitation.”
[Feature Photo: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP]
