Erik and Lyle Menendez could learn this week whether they will get reduced sentences — and the chance of freedom — nearly 30 years after they were convicted of murdering their parents.
A Los Angeles judge will preside over the resentencing hearing that’s expected to last two days starting Thursday. The judge could rule during the hearing or issue a written decision later. If he shortens their sentences, the brothers would still need approval from the state’s parole board to leave prison.
The district attorney’s office filed a motion late Wednesday to delay the resentencing hearings so the court can obtain one aspect of the state parole board’s comprehensive risk assessments. California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the assessments in February and the brothers’ final risk assessment hearings are scheduled for June 13. Prosecutors said in their filing that one part of the risk assessment has already been completed.
The brothers were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murdering their entertainment executive father Jose Menendez and mother Kitty Menendez in their Beverly Hills home in 1989. The brothers were 18 and 21 at the time of the killings. While defense attorneys argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.