By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Lyle and Erik Menendez, serving life sentences for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents in their Beverly Hills, can be re-sentenced for their crime, a Los Angeles judge ruled on Tuesday, paving the way for the brothers’ possible release from prison.
The ruling capped a day-long hearing in which several relatives, a retired judge and a former fellow inmate testified in support of defense efforts to shorten the brothers’ sentence to time already served, or at least gaining their eligibility for parole.
The brothers themselves, now 57 and 54, appeared at the proceedings in Los Angeles County Superior Court via live video feed from prison in San Diego.
The brothers were found guilty in 1996 of first-degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive life in prison terms without the possibility of parole for shooting to death their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, on August 20, 1989, as the couple watched television in the family room of their home.
At trial the brothers admitted to committing the killings but insisted they did so out of fear that their parents were about to kill them following years of sexual abuse by their father, a wealthy entertainment industry executive, and emotional battering by their mother.
Former District Attorney George Gascon petitioned for a re-sentencing last autumn, citing new evidence purported to bolster the brothers’ claims that they were molested and a prison record showing they had achieved rehabilitation while incarcerated.
Gascon said the pair had paid their debt to society and should be eligible for parole under the state’s youthful offender statute since they were younger than 26 at the time of their offense. Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18.
But Gascon’s successor as DA, Nathan Hochman, opposed the re-sentencing after taking office earlier this year, arguing the brothers have yet to fully acknowledge and accept responsibility for the killings.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Michael Perry, Nia Williams, Matthew Lewis and Lincoln Feast.)
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