By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2025-03-12 19:24:54 | Updated at 2025-03-13 00:32:05
5 hours ago
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has set a date for the final parole hearing for Lyle and Erik Menendez — emphasizing that his office could choose to let the killer duo out of jail even if the court decides to keep them in prison.
“On June 13th, both Lyle and Erik Mendez, independently, will have their final hearing. A report will then be submitted to me on the 13th of June for consideration,” the governor said Tuesday on his podcast “This is Gavin Newsom.”
If the state parole board decides that the brothers are fit to re-enter society, the governor could set them free on parole regardless of the decision by Los Angeles County Superior Court.
The announcement came the day after LA District Attorney Nathan Hochman urged the court not to re-sentence the brothers for the 1989 execution of their wealthy parents in their Beverly Hills mansion.
Newsom acknowledged that Hochman’s announcement was “significant,” but he said it has no bearing on whether he will grant the brothers clemency after more than 30 years behind bars.
“It doesn’t fundamentally change the facts as it relates to the independent investigation in my office, the board of parole hearings, or fundamentally change or alter the process that’s underway with the resentencing,” Newsom said.
The June 13 hearing will be the final phase of a “risk assessment” conducted with the aid of public safety experts and psychologists to determine if the brothers are fit to re-enter society.
The assessment will call on public safety experts and forensic psychologists to help determine whether or not the brothers should be set loose more than thirty years after gunning down their parents in the living room of their Malibu mansion.
The announcement offers a glimmer of hope for the brothers, whose path to freedom has been rapidly shrinking since Hochman reversed the soft-on-crime policies of his predecessor George Gascón, who had recommended that the court change their sentences from life in prison without parole to them to 50 years to life.
With the more than three decades served, Gascón’s re-sentencing request would’ve made them immediately eligible for parole.
Lyle and Erik Menendez, 57 and 54, have long claimed that they pumped their parents Jose and Kitty full of birdshot on an August night 35 years ago because they were fearful their abusive father might kill them.
Their case recently became a cause celebre among the true crime set in recent months after a Netflix documentary and new evidence that they were sexually abused by their father.
On Monday, Hochman detailed 16 instances in which the brothers had lied about killing their parents, beginning with the first 911 call.
