With Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón and his progressive policies out after Tuesday’s election, previous predictions that Lyle and Erik Menendez will be home by Christmas look far less likely.
D.A.-elect Nathan Hochman, who positioned himself as a “hard middle” candidate, is expected to take a much tougher stance on resentencing the Menendez brothers. He told the TheWrap in a statement on Wednesday that he still needs to become “thoroughly familiar with the relevant facts, the evidence and the law” before making a decision.
Amid the massive amount of attention on the case following the hit Netflix series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and the emergence of new evidence that corroborates their accounts of abuse, Gascón recommended resentencing the brothers in October, as they are still serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for the 1989 double murder of their parents.
As Hochman told KTLA on Wednesday, the case “may or may not land on my desk, but I will tell you, if I do have to make that call, I will do the hard work to make the right decision.”
Hochman will take office on Dec. 2, making it far less likely that the Menendez brothers would be home by the end of the year, as “Monsters” co-creator Ryan Murphy predicted in early October.
A separate request by Gascón to grant the brothers’ clemency, based on their having been victimized by their father — testimony that was largely excluded from their second trial — and their good behavior in prison for the past 35 years, was submitted to California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 28.
In a statement provided Thursday to TheWrap, Bryan Freedman, the attorney for the 24 extended family members of Kitty and José Menendez, said that his clients “should no longer have to suffer.”
The 24 family members I represent are both victims and the family of those that have been sentenced … It’s time Erik and Lyle Menendez are released. For theirs and their family’s sake,” Freedman said. These men have served their time and proven themselves to be exemplary citizens during their incarceration despite no hope of release. It’s time they and the family are allowed to heal.
“Childhood sexual abuse is not gender based, and a failure to recognize that sets an extremely dangerous precedent,” the attorney continued. “Politics should not stand in the way of doing the right thing. I would find it hard to believe Nathan Hochman would feel differently. The family of the victims and my firm will continue to exercise their victims rights and are cautiously optimistic that the D.A., the D.A.-elect, the governor and anyone committed to upholding true justice will join us.”
“Monsters,” which premiered on Netflix Sept. 19, quickly becoming the most-watched series on the streamer. It’s the second installment of Murphy’s true-crime anthology series. Season 1 focused on serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and Season 3 will be about another infamous murderer, Ed Gein.
