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2024-12-22

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Menendez Brothers’ Cases Will Be Handled Separately Under New Los Angeles D.A.

The legal cases for Erik and Lyle Menendez will be handled separately, new Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman said on Monday.

“This is an important decision, although that decision is not going to get a more rigorous review of the facts and law than any other decision,” Hochman told NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.

The update is the latest in a winding road of headlines regarding the fate of the two brothers, who are currently serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for killing their parents in 1989 in California prison. The brothers admitted to the murder, but have been model inmates for nearly three decades since then. Recently, Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story from Ryan Murphy as well as the Peacock docuseries, Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed have led to an uptick in public interest regarding their story, which has included several appeals and now, a petition for a habeas corpus hearing.

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Lyle and Erik Menendez during a 1992 court appearance in Los Angeles. News

Freedom for Menendez Brothers Unclear as New D.A. Weighs Resentencing

Erik Menendez (L) and his brother Lyle (R) listen during a pre-trial hearing, on December 29, 1992 in Los Angeles after the two pleaded innocent in the August 1989 shotgun deaths of their wealthy parents, Jose and Mary Louise Menendez of Beverly Hills, Calif. General News

Menendez Resentencing Hearing Delayed Until January

Previous L.A. district attorney George Gascón had bolstered the process to free the brothers, but many have expressed curiosity whether the incoming D.A. will handle the situation differently.

Hochman, a Beverly Hills native, in some ways won his election against Gascón by positioning himself as the tougher-on-crime candidate, saying he will take a “hard middle approach” to crime in the city.

“Starting today, I will get access to confidential prison files that number in the 1000s of pages [and] trial transcripts from two months-long trials,” he told TMZ when he first gained access to the Menendez file. “I’ll get a chance now to meet with the prosecutors, law enforcement officers, the defense counsel [and] victim family members and then we’re going to look at what the different motions are that are currently pending.”