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California Gov. Gavin Newsom halted a decision on clemency for Erik and Lyle Menendez until the newly elected Los Angeles County district attorney takes office — squashing their hopes of being free for the holidays after spending three decades behind bars for killing their wealthy parents.
The fate of the convicted killer siblings is now in the hands of Republican Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor, who defeated George Gascón in his bid for re-election after the ultra-liberal top prosecutor advocated for the brothers’ release from prison.
“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,” Newsom’s office said in a statement to CNN.
“The Governor will defer to the DA-elect’s review and analysis of the Menendez case prior to making any clemency decisions.”
The decision will allow Hochman, who campaigned on a tougher stance on crime, time to review the thousands of pages of prison files and trial transcripts and speak with law enforcement, prosecutors, defense attorneys and victims’ family members before making his recommendation to the court.
The district attorney-elect expressed his commitment to thoroughly reviewing the high-profile case upon taking office on Dec. 2.
“This is the same type of rigorous analysis I have done throughout my 34-year career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense counsel, and the same type of thorough review that I will give to all cases regardless of media attention,” Hochman told CNN.
Gascón announced last month that his office was recommending the two brothers, now in their 50s, should be eligible for parole after spending more than 30 years behind bars for gunning down their parents in 1989.
He proclaimed the highly publicized parent-killers had paid their debt and were no longer a threat to society, citing new evidence — including a bombshell hand-written letter from Erik to his cousin before the slaying claiming his father had sexually abused him.
The two brothers were sentenced to life without parole in 1996 for the brutal killings of their parents, Jose and Kitty, in 1989.
Erik and Lyle, who were then 21 and 18, respectively, murdered the pair with a shotgun while they were watching TV at their Beverly Hills mansion.
The highly publicized trial that followed made them household names.
The brothers’ attorneys argued at trial that they had acted in self-defense following years of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of their father, with testimony supporting the accusations from other family members. Prosecutors argued they were after their parents’ $15 million fortune.
The trial ended in a hung jury in 1994.
A second trial in 1995 ended with both brothers’ convictions on two counts of first-degree murder after a judge ruled the jury could not hear most of the testimony about the alleged sexual abuse.
The case has largely fallen out of the spotlight during their prison sentence, but a recent Netflix series, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” brought renewed interest into the case.
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