From Thursday, Erik and Lyle Menendez will be in turn with a California parliament board, which will decide whether the brothers should be able to be free, spending more than three decades behind bars in 1989. For their parents’ murders at their Beverly Hills at home.
The brothers can be released newly after the judge resented them in May, marking the stunning victory of menendesis and their families, who have long struggled to eliminate their original life sentences without parole.
The brothers will face the California probation council separately: Erik on Thursday and Lyle Friday.
Even if the probation is given, their start -up may still depend on the decision of the final Governor of California Gavin Newsom, which has a rare power to confirm, modify or deny probation for convicted killers. His office has remained strictly as the governor can weigh.
Although Erik and Lyle Menendez are inextricably linked to the public, the couple will have their own cases independently. There is a chance that one brother may be given probation and the other rejected.
The main moment of the Menendez Brothers observes decades of new trial offers, resentment and release. Their last fight was a critical impulse in 2023, when potential new evidence emerged, the support of the former Los Angeles County lawyer and the fierce social media movement, prompted by the release of the documentary and later by a fictional Netflix exhibition depicting their crime.
Nathan Hochman, a lawyer for Los Angeles County, strongly opposed the brothers’ efforts, regardless of his predecessor’s defense. The Hochman’s office in May contradicted their outrage and stated that he would submit his arguments this week at parole hearing.
During this week’s meetings, the probation council will determine whether the brothers are “unjustified risk of danger” to the public if they are released, says the California Amendments and Rehabilitation Department. Among the factors that the Board will consider is their criminal history, “personal changes”, behavior and activities are imprisoned and their age when they committed a crime. Because they were 18 and 21 during the massacre, they are considered young people under the laws of California.
The probation council will also examine the statements of brothers, their family members, the district law firm and the public, the California Correctional Department said.
More than 20 members of the Menendez family, who are considered victims in this case, formed a coalition aimed at the launch of the brothers. The coalition will participate in virtual listens and 12 relatives will speak on behalf of the brothers, a family spokesman said.
“For more than 35 years (Erik and Lyle) have shown constant growth. They have assumed complete accountability. They express sincere compassion to our family to this day and have created a meaningful life that was defined by purpose and service,” says Erik and Lyle’s correctness before the meeting.
Supporting family members pointed out the list of long rehabilitation programs founded by the brothers in prison, as well as the public’s change of understanding of sexual abuse for children.
Erik and Lyle Menendez admitted to killing their parents, José and Kitty Menendez. However, they have long maintained that the crimes have been committed in self -defense after their father lasted physical and sexual abuse for many years, which they said they knew and chose to ignore.
Erik (left) and Lyle Menendez (right) are now in the same prison. – California Correction Department
However, Hochman said the brothers did not take all responsibility for their crime and should not be liberated. County lawyer accuses Erik and Lyle for lying for his motive and said that he believes evidence confirmed by violence is “very lacking.”
Earlier this year, the only member of the family, contrary to their release, Kitty Menendez’s brother Milton Andersen died. Andersen believed that his nephews were lying for their allegations of abuse, and said he had never forgiven them for the murder of his sister.
If their parole offer is not possible, the Menendez brothers are still seeking to release other ways: Newsom and the petition for a new trial based on the evidence revealed.
Government Newsom’s last word
If the brothers have given probation, the brothers are confronted with the arbitrator of their case and perhaps unpredictable: governor.
According to 1988 Newsom has an unusual power to approve, deny or modify the probation Board decisions of people convicted of murder, and convicted of indescribable terms. It has 30 days since the board announces its decision to choose.
The governor’s office did not respond to CNN investigation into a possible Newsom solution.
While Newsom has a great freedom to make its own decision, judicial decisions in the last two decades require the Governor to assess the defendant’s risk of public security and allow him to consider whether the person has demonstrated his insight into his crime, Christopher Hawthorne, Loyola Law Professor and Loyola at the Law School.
Newsom has previously used the power to deny probation for Sirhan Sirhan, a man who in 1968. Killed the US elder Robert F. Kennedy. In addition to other reasons, the governor quotes Sirhan’s “refusal to take responsibility for his crime” and “lack of insight and accountability”.
Hochman, in an effort to maintain the Menendez brothers in prison, compared their case several times with Sirhan, stating that the brothers “created the history of self -defense” and never accepted all responsibility for their crime.
As Newsom weigns the decision, Menendez’s relatives will be able to express their opinion to the Governor’s Office through calls, letters and other documents.
What may the probation board may consider
While the Menendez Brothers’ probation case may be useful for some correctional support and strong rehabilitation work experience, the Board will also review its disciplinary records and personal development before being imprisoned.
Erik and Lyle Menendez are classified as low -risk prisoners, but according to the District Prosecutor’s Office, they have several reports of violation of the rules: nine and eight reports respectively. Erik’s last message was 2021 and Lyle’s was last year.
Based on a resentful offer last year, the brothers were quoted after they divide with other prisoners in cells. Erik’s quotes include the fight against other prisoners in 1997. And 2011. Lyle’s crimes include the smuggling Adidas from the visitor in 1988. Receipt and 2013 Had a lighter.
The Board may also consider risk assessments by a forensic psychologist in the Newsom application as part of its review of the brothers’ request.
Currently, the brothers are located in separate cells in the RJ Donovan correctional device in San Diego, which allows prisoners to create and carry out their rehabilitation programs-a feature of which the couple seems to take advantage of.
Erik helped to start at least five programs, including supporting the disabled and elderly prisoners. He learned American sign language to communicate with the deaf people he lives with, based on Rementsinent’s proposal made by former Los Angeles County lawyer George Gascón. According to the proposal, Erik is also certified to teach meditation courses and conducted seminars related to alternatives to “toxic shame” and violence.
“At one time Erik Menendez founded Erik Menendez, Erik Menendez taught five different classes a week,” Gascón said.
Lyle founded a group of prisoners to investigate how negative childhood experiences may have encouraged their criminal behavior, as well as a mentoring group that combines pores in prisoners performing their life -long heads with younger prisoners who can be spent. He also founded and helps to run the Green Space, a programming that plans to install trees, grass and outdoor community gatherings in the prison yard.
According to their cousin, Anamaria Baralt, the brothers said they would continue their defense for prison rehabilitation and violence before childhood. Despite their release results, CNN said CNN this year, she believes her cousin’s work will affect the lives of those around her.
“It was a desire for their lives to be worthy of something, and they were lucky,” Balyt said of the brothers’ prison programs. “As far as I am excited, they live a complete life, a truly full life, a full goal and meaning.”
CNN Matt Friedman and Taylor Romin contributed to this report.
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