Lyle and Erik Menendez Hearing Set for Next Week to Weigh Brothers’ Release

After a number of delays, blocks, and legal hurdles, The Menendez Brothers will finally have their resentencing hearing next week.

The resentencing hearing for Erik and Lyle Menendez to determine their eligibility for release after more than three decades behind bars will take place on May 13 and 14 according to Judge Michael V. Jesic of Los Angeles Superior Court. The brothers were initially set for a resentencing hearing back in December but it was moved multiple times.

Much of the resentencing pushes and opposition came from DA Nathan Hochman, who the Menendez family have pushed to recuse from their case, insisting in court documents, “The record shows a conflict that renders it unlikely Erik and Lyle can receive a fair resentencing hearing, recusal is proper.”

“No-one from the District Attorney’s victim services department has contacted even a single one of the family members whose views conflicted with the views of Ms. Cady’s former client,” the filing reads. (Kathleen Cady in this case is “the only family member to oppose resentencing.”)

The motion continued: “These family members shared their consistent view that nearly 35 years in prison was enough and Erik and Lyle should indeed be resentenced.”

In response to the filing, Hochman filed one in opposition stating that the brothers’ attempts to recuse his office from the resentencing process is “devoid of merit” and “desperate.”

“In the opposition, the District Attorney’s Office has argued that in a ‘drastic and desperate step,’ the defense has decided to ‘sidestep the central issue of resentencing’ and present an argument ‘devoid of merit’ to recuse the entire District Attorney’s Office,” Hochman said. “The entire defense argument over recusal boils down to the defense not being happy with the current District Attorney’s position on resentencing. While this desperate argument may work in a press interview, it fails in a court of law based on an adversarial system of justice.”

The Menendez brothers have been behind bars since 1990 following a highly publicized trial where they were charged with killing their parents the previous summer. At their trial, the brothers maintained that they were sexually abused for years by their father Jose Menendez and their mother Kitty knew about it. Both Erik and Lyle were initially given life sentences without the possibility of parole in 1996.

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