Prosecutors are calling for Erik and Lyle Menendez to be resentenced for the 1989 murders of their parents

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors will recommend resentencing Erik and Lyle Menendez for the 1989 killings of their parents in the family’s Beverly Hills home, giving the brothers a chance at freedom after 34 years behind bars.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced during a news conference Thursday that his office would recommend that the brothers be sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. Because they were under 26 at the time of the crime, they were immediately eligible for parole, he said.

“I’m at the point where I believe resentencing is appropriate under the law,” Gascón said. He said some members of his office opposed the decision.

Prosecutors will file the petition Friday and a hearing before a judge could take place within the next month or so.

The Menendez brothers were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1996.

Lyle Menendez, then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, admitted they fatally shot their father, Jose Menendez, an entertainment executive, and their mother, Kitty Menendez. The brothers said they feared their parents would kill them to prevent people from finding out that Jose Menendez had sexually abused Erik Menendez for years.

The family largely agreed and demanded the brothers’ freedom

The brothers’ extended family has campaigned for their release, saying they deserve to be free after decades behind bars. Several family members said that in today’s world, where the impact of sexual abuse is more acutely felt, the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Several members of her extended family, including her aunt Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sat in the front rows of Thursday’s news conference. VanderMolen was Kitty Menendez’s sister and publicly supported her release. Mark Geragos, an attorney for the brothers, was also present.

Anamaria Baralt, a niece of Jose Menendez, said the district attorney’s “brave and necessary” decision means that “Lyle and Erik can finally begin to heal from the trauma of their past.”

The Menendez brothers were tried twice for their parents’ murders, with the first trial ending in a hung jury.

Prosecutors at the time claimed there was no evidence of harassment and many details in her story of sexual abuse were not admitted at the second trial. Prosecutors also said at the time that the brothers were after their parents’ multi-million dollar estate.

District Attorney believes Erik and Lyle have “paid off their debt.”

Gascón said he made the final decision only an hour before the news conference and that family members were informed of it only a few minutes beforehand.

Despite their life sentences, Gascón said the brothers worked toward reparation and rehabilitation while in prison.

“I believe they have paid their debt to society,” he said.

Not all members of the Menendez family support resentencing. Attorneys for Milton Andersen, the 90-year-old brother of Kitty Menendez, filed a statement of claim asking the court to uphold the brothers’ original sentence. “They shot her mother, Kitty, while reloading to ensure her death,” Andersen’s lawyers said in a statement Thursday. “The evidence remains overwhelmingly clear: the jury’s verdict was fair and the sentence fits the heinous crime.”

Although Kitty Menendez has not been accused of abusing her sons, she appears to have facilitated the abuse, according to her sons’ court records. A cousin testified during the brothers’ first trial that Lyle told her he was too scared to sleep in his room because his father came in and touched his genitals. When the cousin told Kitty Menendez, she “angrily dragged Lyle up by his arm,” the petition says.

Another family member testified that no one was allowed to walk down the hallway when Jose Menendez was in the bedroom with one of the boys.

Could an election turn the tide again?

L.A.’s district attorney is in the middle of a tough re-election campaign against former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman, who has blamed recent high-profile murders and rising retail crime on Gascón’s progressive reform policies.

Gascón said Thursday that his office has recommended resentencing about 300 offenders, including people behind bars for murder.

Hochman on Thursday questioned the timing of Gascón’s announcement, which came less than two weeks before the election, calling it a “desperate political move.”

Without access to confidential documents and relevant witnesses, he said he could not form his own opinion on the case.

“If I become prosecutor and the case is still pending at that point, I will conduct a review consistent with the way I would review any case,” Hochman said.

The Menendez case has gained traction in recent weeks after Netflix began airing the true crime drama “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”

Evidence examined by prosecutors included a letter written by Erik Menendez that his lawyers said corroborated allegations that he was sexually abused by his father.

Roy Rossello, a former member of the Latin pop group Menudo, also recently came forward and said he was drugged and raped as a teenager in the 1980s by Jose Menendez, the boys’ father.

Menudo was signed by RCA Records, which was then managed by Jose Menendez.

Rossello spoke about his abuse in the 2023 Peacock docuseries “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.” His claims are part of the evidence detailed in the petition filed last year by the Menendez brothers’ attorney and a calls for a review of her case. Rossello’s claim that he was raped twice by Jose Menendez is part of the Menendez brothers’ petition. ___ This story corrects the spelling of Milton Andersen’s name. It’s not Anderson.