LOS ANGELES — The brand new Los Angeles County District Lawyer met with the Menendez brothers’ household as he continues to overview their bid for freedom 35 years after they have been convicted of killing their mother and father.
Nathan Hochman, who took workplace in December, mentioned Friday that he had a “productive session” with the members of the family, who shared their ideas with him on whether or not the brothers needs to be launched. The assembly lasted about three hours.
Brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez have been discovered responsible of murdering Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989 and sentenced to life in jail with out parole. Now of their 50s, they started their bid for freedom in recent times after new proof of their father’s sexual abuse emerged of their case. Their attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition — a request for a courtroom to look at whether or not somebody is being lawfully detained — in Could 2023, asking a decide to think about the proof.
The brothers have the help of most of their prolonged household, who have mentioned they should be free after a long time behind bars. A number of members of the family have mentioned that in at present’s world — which is extra conscious of the influence of sexual abuse — the brothers wouldn’t have been convicted of first-degree homicide and sentenced to life.
In October 2024, then-District Lawyer George Gascon really helpful the brothers be resentenced to 50 years to life, which might make them instantly eligible for parole. Hochman, who was operating towards Gascon, known as it a “determined political transfer.”
“By releasing it now, Gascon has forged a cloud over the equity and impartiality of his resolution,” he mentioned on the time.
A decide delayed the brothers’ resentencing listening to, initially set for early December, to the top of January. Superior Court docket Decide Michael Jesic mentioned he wanted time to overview in depth proof and provides Hochman time to weigh in on the case.
Hochman mentioned Friday he was nonetheless reviewing hundreds of pages of jail data to “analyze the rehabilitation facet of resentencing.” Proof of rehabilitation may embody not participating in criminal activity whereas in jail, beginning organizations that helped different prisoners, and utilizing that point to enhance oneself, he mentioned.
On the brothers’ unique trials, their protection attorneys argued that they’d been sexually abused by their father. Prosecutors denied that and accused them of killing their mother and father for cash. Within the years that adopted, they repeatedly appealed their convictions with out success.
The brothers are being held on the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.
