Los Angeles County’s prime prosecutor mentioned Friday that he had not decided about whether or not the jail sentences for Erik and Lyle Menendez, who’re serving life with out parole for the closely publicized 1989 murders of their mother and father, ought to be lowered.
Nathan Hochman, who was elected district lawyer in November, mentioned he was nonetheless reviewing in depth court docket and jail information forward of resentencing listening to scheduled for Jan. 30 and Jan. 31.
Lawyers for the brothers sought to have their sentences lowered to 50 years to life, a request that will make them eligible for parole instantly.
Hochman made the announcement after what the prosecutor described as an hours-long assembly with relations of the siblings who help their launch.
Hochman declined to say what the relations instructed him, however he described the assembly as “productive.”
An earlier assertion from the the family-led Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition mentioned greater than 20 relations had been anticipated to sit down down with Hochman to indicate their “help for a resentencing course of that displays Erik and Lyle’s abuse, trauma, and demonstrated rehabilitation during the last 35 years.”
Members of the Menendez household mentioned Friday that they had been grateful for the assembly with Hochman.
They mentioned they’re hopeful there’s a strategy to get the homicide conviction lowered to manslaughter, and that they need the brothers launched instantly.
Family who spoke Friday after the information convention mentioned having to go to a parole board would traumatize them extra.
Erik and Lyle had been sentenced in 1996, after two trials, for the taking pictures deaths of Jose and Kitty Menendez on the household’s Beverly Hills dwelling on Aug. 20, 1989.
The brothers’ first separate trials ended with hung juries after they may not ship a unanimous verdict, however they had been convicted of first-degree homicide throughout a joint retrial.
The brothers mentioned they shot their mother and father after years of horrific sexual abuse by the hands of their father — an allegation disputed by prosecutors, who argued the claims had been false. Prosecutors described the murders as calculated and cold-blooded and mentioned Erik and Lyle killed their mother and father for monetary acquire.
Their trials turned media sensations — the primary was televised —and the killings have since been the topic of a number of dramatizations and true crime documentaries, most just lately a excessive profile collection and a movie that had been each on Netflix.
Former Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón endorsed the hassle to scale back their jail sentences to 50 years to life. But Gascón was voted out in November and Hochman has mentioned he’ll assessment the details and legislation within the case earlier than figuring out whether or not he ought to help the choice.
In an interview with NBC News final month, Hochman confirmed personnel modifications on the workforce that led the resentencing effort beneath Gascón and, as he reiterated Friday in the course of the information convention, mentioned he was reviewing hundreds of pages of paperwork within the case.
A choose will finally decide whether or not the brothers ought to have their sentences lowered.
Hochman’s workplace can also be weighing a petition from the brothers that challenges their convictions and raises what their attorneys have described as new proof confirming the alleged abuse.
The Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition mentioned it hoped the assembly with Hochman may present “an open and honest dialogue.”
“Despite the abuse they endured as kids and the unfairness of their present sentence, Erik and Lyle Menendez have spent the final three a long time taking duty for his or her actions and contributing positively to their group by management and rehabilitation,” the assertion learn.
“During our assembly with DA Hochman, we sit up for sharing our perspective on Erik and Lyle’s immense private development during the last 35 years and the methods wherein we plan to help them of their subsequent chapters,” the coalition mentioned. “We hope that this assembly will put us a step nearer to spending subsequent Christmas reunited as a household.”