The Los Angeles district attorney has said he is opposed to the resentencing of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who have been in prison for decades for the 1989 killings of their parents, and said the brothers first needed to acknowledge and fully accept responsibility for the murders.
Nathan Hochman said at a press conference on Monday that he would ask the court to withdraw the resentencing motion filed in the case by his predecessor George Gascón. The new DA, who took office in December, said last month that he did not believe the brothers should receive a new trial.
The announcement means the brothers’ hopes for release will face yet another hurdle.
The siblings were convicted in 1996 of the shooting deaths of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. They have long argued they killed in self-defense, and were afraid their parents were going to kill them to cover up years of sexual, physical and psychological abuse by their father.
In recent years the brothers have sought freedom through multiple legal avenues, including by asking for a new trial in light of new evidence of their father’s abuse, a petition for clemency from the governor, and a request for resentencing.
In October, Gascón announced he was recommending that the brothers be resentenced, citing he believed they were “subjected to a tremendous amount of dysfunction … and molestation” and in the time they spent in prison they had achieved “redemption and rehabilitation”. He said that with resentencing because of their ages at the time of the murders, they would immediately be eligible for parole.
Gascón lost his seat in November to Hochman, who said the timing of the announcement put a “cloud over the fairness and impartiality of his decision”. Hochman has appeared far more skeptical of the brothers.
Family members, the majority of whom support their release, have been highly critical of the new DA. They have asked that he be removed from the case and say he has taken a “hostile, dismissive and patronizing” tone with them in meetings.
At the news conference on Monday morning, Hochman defended himself, and said he would follow “the facts and the law wherever they take us”. Hochman said he looked at whether the siblings had “accepted and exhibited full insight into the crimes they have committed”, as well as “lies” they told in the aftermath of the murders.
His office would consider supporting resentencing in the future if they “unequivocally [and] sincerely fully accept complete responsibility” and acknowledged their claims of self-defense, among others, were false, Hochman said.
“In the future the court can weigh these new insights into making a determination in to whether they now qualify for rehabilitation and resentencing,” he said.
Last month, Gavin Newsom ordered the state parole board to examine whether the Menendez brothers would pose a risk to the public if they are released from prison. The California governor could commute their sentences at any point, but Newsom has said he will not make a decision until Hochman completed his review.
