Erik and Lyle Menendez have spent 35 years in prison for murdering their parents in 1989. They’re now eligible for parole under California’s youthful offender law because they committed the crime while under the age of 26.
Erik and Lyle Menendez will have a new shot at freedom after 35 years behind bars for murdering their parents, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic reduced the brothers’ sentences from life without parole to 50 years to life. They’re now eligible for parole under California’s youthful offender law because they committed the crime while under the age of 26. The state parole board must still decide whether to release them from prison.
“I’m not saying they should be released, it’s not for me to decide,” Jesic said. “I do believe they’ve done enough in the past 35 years, that they should get that chance.”
The brothers did not show any apparent emotion during most of the testimony as they appeared via livestream video, but chuckled when one of their cousins, Diane Hernandez, told the court that Erik Menendez received A+ grades in all of his classes during his most recent semester in college.
Jesic is presiding over the hearing before deciding whether they should be released after serving nearly 30 years in prison for the double murder of their parents. He said Tuesday that prosecutors must prove that if released, the brothers still pose a risk of committing a violent crime again.
If he shortens their sentences, the brothers would still need approval from the state’s parole board to get out of prison. They could then potentially go free based on time served.
They were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murdering their father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home in 1989. The brothers were 18 and 21 at the time. Defense attorneys argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, but prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
The case has captured the public’s attention for decades — and last year, the Netflix drama “ Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story ” and documentary “The Menendez Brothers” brought new attention to the case.
