California Gov Newsom sets Menendez brothers parole board hearing date in bid for clemency
On his new podcast, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Tuesday that the Menendez brothers will have parole board hearings in mid-June for the governor’s office to determine whether they should be granted clemency.
While discussing Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman’s recent opposition to the Menendez brothers’ legal battle for re-sentencing, Newsom announced that Lyle and Erik Menendez will go before the California Board of Parole Hearings individually on June 13 and plead for clemency from the governor.
The brothers are in prison for killing their parents in 1989.
“The DA now, the new DA, is pulling back recommending from the Menendez brothers to be re-sentenced,” Newsom said on his “This is Gavin Newsom” podcast. “But it doesn’t impact the processes underway, that review for clemency in my office or the independent risk assessment that will be concluded on June 13 by the Board of Parole Hearings. And I’ll repeat that, on June 13, both Lyle and Eric Menendez independently will have their final hearing.”
Lyle and Erik Menendez are seen as young men with their mugshots overlayed. The brothers are currently serving life sentences for the murders of their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez, in 1996. (Ronald L. Soble/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Newsom explained that after the parole board hearing, a report will be submitted to his office for consideration in deciding whether he should commute the brothers’ sentences.
“A report then will be submitted to me on the 13th of June for consideration,” Newsom said. “We will submit that report to the judge for the re-sentencing, and that will weigh into our independent analysis of whether or not to move forward with the clemency application to support a commutation of this case.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a news conference in Sacramento, California, on Thursday, March 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
The brothers were each convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the Aug. 20, 1989 killing of their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez, and were sentenced to life in prison.
A recent California law made re-sentencing hearings a possibility, and aside from the June parole board hearing, the brothers are scheduled for a March 20 and 21 re-sentencing hearing. Before that, the brothers had exhausted all legal avenues for freedom.
The hearing was granted by former District Attorney George Gascon.
On Monday, Hochman submitted an 88-page court filing asking a judge to rescind the initial order for the re-sentencing hearing, arguing that the brothers have shown little contrition and are unwilling to take responsibility for the killings.
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Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman talks about the resentencing of Erik and Lyle Menendez for the murders of their parents decades ago during a news conference in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
“As a full examination of the record reveals, the Menendez brothers have never come clean and admitted that they lied about their self-defense as well as suborned perjury and attempted to suborn perjury by their friends for the lies, among others, of their father violently raping Lyle’s girlfriend, their mother poisoning the family, and their attempt to get a handgun the day before the murders,” Hochman said.
The brothers’ attorney Mark Geragos attacked Hochman during a Tuesday interview on “Today.”
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This combination of two booking photos provided by the California Department of Corrections shows Erik Menendez, left, and Lyle Menendez. (California Dept. of Corrections via AP, File)
“This DA had made up his mind,” he said. “Mind you, there were 22 family members who signed on, met with the DA’s office, told them ‘stop re-traumatizing us.’ We could tell at that meeting that he had no interest in that.”
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“They’re not interested in the victims,” said Geragos, referring to family members of the Menendez brothers. “They didn’t let the victims know that they were going to make this decision.”
“He is almost serially abusing them with his lies and his litany of lies,” he said.
In the immediate aftermath of the killings, the brothers claimed that their parents were victims of a mafia hit. When it became clear that they were responsible for the killings, they argued that they acted in self-defense after a lifetime of physical and sexual abuse by their parents.
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Their first trial, which spanned from 1993 to 1994, ended in a mistrial. They were retried and found guilty in 1996.
Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom, Hochman and Geragos for comment.
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
