The Menendez brothers may soon have a shot at freedom.
Los Angeles district attorney George Gascon announced Thursday his office will recommend that Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were sent to prison for life with no shot at parole in 1996 after being convicted of their parents’ murders, be resentenced to 50 years to life, making them immediately eligible for parole.
“I came to a place where I believe, under the law, resentencing is appropriate,” Gascon said.
Prosecutors will go to court Friday to make the request, but Gascon said some members of his office oppose the decision and may be in court as the case proceeds.
Lyle, then 21, and Erik, 18, admitted to fatally shooting their father Jose Menendez, an entertainment executive, and mother Kitty Menendez at the family’s Beverly Hills, Calif., home in 1989 and have spent the last 34 years behind bars.
The case gained international attention and has been in the spotlight again recently after the release of Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
Prosecutors originally argued that the brothers killed their parents after allegedly finding out they were about to be removed from their will. The brothers, however, contend they feared their parents were about to kill them to stop others from finding out that Jose had sexually abused Erik for years.
The brothers’ extended family has pleaded for their release, saying they deserve to be free after decades behind bars. Several family members have said that in today’s world – where people are more aware of the impact of sexual abuse – the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life.
Multiple members of their extended family, including their aunt Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sat in the first few rows of Thursday’s news conference. VanderMolen was Kitty’s sister and has publicly supported their release. Mark Geragos, an attorney for the brothers, was also there.
The Menendez brothers were tried twice for their parents’ murders with the first trial ending in a hung jury.
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Prosecutors at the time contended that there was no evidence of molestation and many details in their story of sexual abuse were not permitted in the second trial. The district attorney’s office also said at the time that the brothers were after their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate.
Not all Menendez family members support resentencing. Attorneys for Milton Andersen, the 90-year-old brother of Kitty, filed a legal brief asking the court to keep the brothers’ original punishment.
“They shot their mother, Kitty, reloading to ensure her death,” Andersen’s attorneys said in a statement Thursday. “The evidence remains overwhelmingly clear: The jury’s verdict was just and the punishment fits the heinous crime.”
The L.A. district attorney is in the middle of a tough re-election fight against former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman, who has blamed Gascon’s progressive reform policies for recent high-profile murders and increased retail crime.
– With files from The Associated Press