The fate of the Menendez brothers is one step closer to a decision as the possibility of being freed from prison could soon become a reality.
A judge will consider Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman’s request to withdraw his predecessor George Gascon’s motion to resentence Erik and Lyle Menendez on Friday, days before their resentencing hearing is set to take place.
Friday’s hearing is set for 10 a.m. local time, when the brothers are expected to appear remotely.
Hochman announced on Wednesday that his office has filed a reply on the resentencing matter, saying he does not agree with the resentencing, but is prepared to move forward. The brothers’ attorneys have argued they should have been convicted of manslaughter rather than murder, in which case they would already have been released from prison.
Hochman’s office said that after “a thorough and exhaustive review of over tens of thousands of pages of trial transcripts, thousands of pages of prison records, and hundreds of hours of videotaped trial testimony,” his office is prepared to move forward with the hearing on the Court’s initiation of resentencing proceedings for the Menendez brothers, but are requesting that the prior District Attorney’s motion for resentencing be withdrawn.
Joseph Menendez, who goes by his middle name Lyle, and younger brother Erik Menendez have been in California prisons since 1996, serving sentences of life without the possibility of parole for their parents’ 1989 slayings.
Before losing his bid for reelection in November, former district attorney George Gascon asked the court to resentence the brothers to life with parole instead of the current sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
Hochman has opposed resentencing, but said his office is ready to proceed with the resentencing hearing, which he said could still happen even if the judge agrees to withdraw the Gascon motion.
California criminal defense attorney Brian Claypool, who is not involved in the case, told Fox News Digital that no matter what comes out of Friday’s hearing, the Menendez brothers’ fate will be up to a judge.
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“At the end of the day, I think the judge is going to grant Hochman’s request to remove Gascon motion to support resentencing, but what we really need to have is a ruling by the trial judge,” Claypool explained. “So in other words, it doesn’t matter really what the LA County DA says, whether it’s Hochman’s position or the prior DA Gascon’s decision. It’s ultimately up to this judge to make a decision on resentencing, irrespective of what Hochmon is requesting to be done.”
Two of the brothers’ older relatives had already provided testimony at a November hearing as a precaution and the only relative against the brother’s release, their uncle Milton Anderson, died last month at age 90.
Subject to the court’s ruling, a resentencing hearing is tentatively scheduled for April 17 and 18. If that goes forward, prosecutors are expecting the defense to call several Menendez family members who support resentencing.
The hearing was postponed due to the impact of recent wildfires on the parties’ extensive preparations.
Claypool, who is based in Los Angeles County, believes that resentencing hearing is “a political tug-of-war” between Hochman and Gov. Gavin Newsom, more than anything else.
“The reason I say that is because Gavin Newsom has already requested weeks ago that the California Parole Board conduct what’s called a risk assessment on the Menendez brothers. Why is that important? Because that portends that Newsom is likely to grant clemency if this judge doesn’t grant resentencing. And in many respects, I believe that Newsom did that on purpose to put some implied pressure on this judge to grant resentencing,” Claypool said.
Hochman’s office has said that despite the “defense arguing that this decision is political, such an argument is devoid of merit.”
“The basis for this withdrawal request is that the prior DA’s motion did not examine or consider whether the Menendez brothers have exhibited full insight and taken complete responsibility for their crimes by continuing for the past over 30 years to lie about their claims of self-defense, that is, their fear that their mother and father were going to kill them the night of Aug. 20, 1989, justifying the brutal murders of their parents with shotgun blasts through the back of their father’s head, a point-blank blast through their mother’s face, and shots to their kneecaps to stage it as a Mafia killing,” Hochman said.
“As a full examination of the record reveals, the Menendez brothers have never come clean over the past three decades 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.”
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Hochman’s office also told Fox News Digital that this has nothing to do with politics and that there is “no political tug-of-war between the DA and the Governor.”
“Politics was one of the chief driving forces behind the timing of the prior District Attorney’s decision to file a resentencing motion in the Menendez case, coming 12 days before the election instead of eight months earlier when he first received the resentencing request,” Hochman said.
“The facts and the law — not politics — are now what drives DA Hochman’s request to withdraw that motion as laid out in detail in the over 85-page response filed on March 10, 2025. There is no political tug-of-war between the DA and the Governor. The DA has done his job involving a thorough and detailed review of the facts and the law, and the DA assumes the Governor will honor his similar obligations.”
Hochman has said that it is up to the court to factor in whether the “lack of acceptance of responsibility for their murderous actions” is enough to decide whether the Menendez brothers pose an unreasonable risk of danger to the community.
“Though this pathway to resentencing has been offered to the Menendez brothers, they have chosen to stubbornly remain hunkered down in their over 30-year-old bunker of lies, deceit, and denials,” Hochman said.
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Claypool said he believes that Hochman knows deep down that they will lose this battle due to the “public sentiment flowing in favor of the Menendez brothers getting a second chance.”
“Hochman has to come out and vigorously oppose this because that is his mantra. That is his campaign message, but I think deep down he knows that it’s not about winning or losing right now, for Hochman, it’s about where does he stand politically on this issue,” Claypool shared.
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The Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition, a family-led initiative advocating for the release of Erik and Lyle Menendez, issued a statement prior to Friday’s hearing saying they are “confident that legal standards, not politics, will prevail as the judge considers DA Hochman’s reversal request.”
“Erik and Lyle have apologized, taken responsibility, and expressed sincere remorse, again and again, with no underlining motive other than to grow, mature, and rehabilitate,” said Tamara Goodell, cousin of Erik and Lyle Menendez. “They recognize the wide-scale impact their actions have had on us, their family. Since then, we have seen their relentless commitment to emotional growth, earning degrees and uplifting those around them. That is the definition of rehabilitation in my eyes.”
Hochman previously told ABC News that he would consider resentencing “if they sincerely and unequivocally admit, for the first time in over 30 years, the full range of their criminal activity and all the lies that they have told about it.”
The district attorney wrote in his motion that he believes the Menendez brothers “have repeatedly lied about the case, their parents, and their interactions with witnesses.”
The brothers claim they shot their father, former RCA Records executive Jose Menendez, in self-defense, arguing they thought he was going to kill them after they warned him they planned to expose him as a child sex abuser. They also killed their mother, Mary “Kitty” Menendez, who was sitting next to Jose eating ice cream in their Beverly Hills living room when they opened fire.
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Their first trial ended in a mistrial, when jurors couldn’t agree on their fate. After a second trial in the mid-1990s, in which some of their evidence about the alleged sexual abuse was excluded, jurors agreed with prosecutors that their motive was greed.
If the judge decides to resentence the Menendez brothers, it will then be up to the state parole board to consider their release.
They are already scheduled to appear before the board on June 13 as part of a comprehensive risk assessment report ordered by Newsom, who is considering the brothers’ clemency request – a separate potential path to freedom.
“Be careful what you wish for, because I think, in the end, the way this plays out is the Menendez brothers are likely to be granted parole either through resentencing or clemency from Newsom,” Claypool said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom’s office and the Menendez brothers’ attorneys for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz and Ashley Papa contributed to this report.
