A judge last week denied a request from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office to withdraw a motion that supported re-sentencing Erik and Lyle Menendez.
The Menendez brothers are serving life without parole for the 1989 shotgun murder of their parents.
The backstory: Former DA George Gascón requested re-sentencing for the brothers based on new evidence of alleged sexual abuse by their father.
- This would change their sentence to 50 years to life.
The big picture: Judge Michael Jesic ruled that the resentencing hearing could move forward despite opposition from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office led by Nathan Hochman.
- The brothers did not make any public statements during the court appearance conducted over Zoom.
- Deputy district attorney Habib Balian focused on issues regarding rehabilitation and the original crime committed by the brothers, stating that they killed their parents out of greed, not self-defense.
- The prosecution presented evidence and video clips from the brothers’ testimony from the first trial, indicating instances where they “hunkered down in their bunker of deceit, lies, and deception.”
Go deeper: The new evidence, including a letter allegedly written by Erik Menendez detailing the sexual abuse, was questioned by the court for not being mentioned during the brothers’ trials in the 1990s.
- The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office raised concerns that the brothers had not admitted to lies told during the trials or fully accepted responsibility for the crime, hindering support for resentencing.
