California Gov. Gavin Newsom will not make “any clemency decisions” about convicted murderers Erik and Lyle Menendez until District Attorney-elect Nathan Hochman completes his “review and analysis” of the case, the governor’s office said in a statement Monday.
While resentencing for the brothers was supported by outgoing D.A. George Gascón following new evidence of sexual abuse and the success of Ryan Murphy’s Netflix hit “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and its coinciding documentary “The Menendez Brothers,” the newly elected Hochman has remained more conservative in his view of the case.
“You’ve really got to get beyond the Netflix documentary,” Hochman told “Good Morning America” on Thursday. “If you decide this case based on just viewing a Netflix documentary, you are doing a disservice to the Menendez brothers, to the victims’ family members, to the public.”
Responding to ongoing calls and mounting petitions for resentencing the Menendez brothers, Gov. Newsom said Monday that Hochman has been entrusted to carry out justice in the case via the recent vote.
“The Governor respects the role of the District Attorney in ensuring justice is served and recognizes that voters have entrusted District Attorney-elect Hochman to carry out this responsibility,” the governor’s office statement read, as obtained by TheWrap. “The Governor will defer to the DA-elect’s review and analysis of the Menendez case prior to making any clemency decisions.”
Gascón had previously recommended resentencing and even clemency for the Menendez Bros. following the success of Netflix’s “Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story” and other similar docuseries. However, he was voted out in this month’s election, postponing the chance of the pair being freed by Christmas.
Hochman told the TheWrap in an interview earlier this month that he intends to get “thoroughly familiar with the relevant facts, the evidence and the law” before making a decision. Related hearings have been set for both later in November as well as in December.
Lyle and Erik, now 56 and 53 years old, respectively, have been imprisoned since being found guilty of the 1989 double murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. Both were initially given life sentences without the possibility of parole in 1996.
