Nathan J. Hochman, the just lately elected district legal professional of Los Angeles County, provided the strongest indication but of his pondering on the case of Lyle and Erik Menendez, declaring at a information convention on Friday that the sexual abuse the brothers declare they suffered by the hands of their father “doesn’t represent self-defense.”
Attorneys for the brothers have pursued a number of authorized avenues to free them from jail greater than 30 years after they killed their mother and father at dwelling in Beverly Hills, Calif. Probably the most high-profile amongst them is an effort began by Mr. Hochman’s predecessor to have the brothers resentenced. Mr. Hochman didn’t say on Friday whether or not he would proceed these efforts.
However he did weigh in on a second avenue. The brothers have sought to have their convictions overturned on the idea of recent proof, utilizing what is called a habeas petition. Mr. Hochman known as the information convention on Friday to announce that he would oppose these efforts, and that he had filed a casual response arguing that the brand new proof was unpersuasive, tardy and, in some instances, inadmissible.
It was in detailing his varied objections to the petition that Mr. Hochman made clear a few of his views on the decades-old case.
“Sexual abuse is abhorrent, and we’ll prosecute sexual abuse in any kind it comes,” he stated. “However sexual abuse on this scenario, whereas it might have been a motivation for Erik and Lyle to do what they did, doesn’t represent self-defense.”
When requested if he believed the brothers had been sexually abused, Mr. Hochman stated the corroborating proof was “extraordinarily missing.”
The brothers, who’ve been serving sentences of life with out parole, have lengthy argued that they had been sexually abused by their father, Jose Menendez, and that their mom, Kitty Menendez, knew about it. Their attorneys have stated the brothers killed their mother and father as a result of they feared for his or her lives.
Had the proof and testimony concerning the abuse been admitted in the course of the second trial, the brothers’ staff has argued, they’d have been seen as mitigating components, and the brothers would have been discovered responsible of manslaughter reasonably than first-degree homicide.
Kin working towards the discharge of the Menendez brothers rebuked Mr. Hochman after his information convention and stated that he was “silencing survivors in every single place.”
“He didn’t take heed to us,” the Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition stated in a press release. “We’re profoundly disillusioned by his remarks, during which he successfully tore up new proof and discredited the trauma they skilled. To recommend that the years of abuse couldn’t have led to the tragedy in 1989 will not be solely outrageous, but additionally harmful.”
The group stated that it now needed to hope {that a} resentencing request in Los Angeles Superior Court docket would free the Menendez brothers.
The resentencing path was initiated final 12 months by George Gascón, the previous district legal professional, who stated that he believed the brothers had “paid their debt to society.” He requested that their sentences be 50 years to life with the understanding that they’d be eligible for parole instantly beneath state regulation as a result of that they had dedicated their crimes after they had been youthful than 26.
In a movement that Mr. Gascón filed with the courtroom in October, he stated a resentencing was within the “curiosity of justice.” However Mr. Gascón, a liberal Democrat, was ousted by voters in November and changed by Mr. Hochman, a former Republican who ran as an impartial and vowed to be harder on crime.
The election was not a referendum on the Menendez case. Mr. Gascón was weak effectively earlier than he determined to ask that the brothers be resentenced, and voters throughout California shifted to the right on crime final 12 months.
After the election, Mr. Hochman stated that he wished time to evaluate the info of the case earlier than deciding methods to proceed. A Los Angeles decide delayed the unique listening to from December to January to present the brand new prosecutor that point; the courtroom date was subsequently postponed to March as a result of the area was struggling to recuperate from the Los Angeles wildfires.
On the information convention on Friday, Mr. Hochman reiterated that he had not decided on the resentencing problem however that he would have extra to announce within the coming weeks.
Separate from the resentencing efforts and the habeas petition, the brothers have additionally taken a clemency petition to Gov. Gavin Newsom. If the brothers are unsuccessful in courtroom, their destiny might depend on Mr. Newsom or his successors.
“The governor respects the function of the district legal professional in making certain justice is served and acknowledges that voters have entrusted District Legal professional Hochman to hold out this duty,” Izzy Gardon, a spokesman for Mr. Newsom, stated in a press release. “The governor will defer to the D.A.’s evaluate and evaluation of the Menendez case prior to creating any clemency choices.”
The murders, in 1989, shortly turned a nationwide obsession. And the brothers’ preliminary trial within the early Nineties was one of many first to be televised to a nationwide viewers.
Jose Menendez was a high-ranking music government; his spouse, Kitty, was a former magnificence queen; and the boys had been tennis-playing beneficiaries of the household’s wealth. By their very own admission, Lyle and Erik marched into the lounge of their Beverly Hills mansion and murdered their mother and father in grotesque style, pumping each their mom and father with a number of rounds from shotguns.
All alongside, prosecutors portrayed the brothers as unrepentant killers who murdered to get their palms on the household’s property, valued on the time at $14.5 million (about $35 million in 2025 {dollars}). A spending spree by the brothers within the months between the murders and their arrest, during which they purchased a Porsche automobile, a Rolex watch and a restaurant in Princeton, N.J., was introduced as proof to assist that concept.
Of their first trial, the sexual abuse the Menendez brothers stated they suffered by the hands of their father turned key testimony of their protection. Attorneys for the brothers stated that they had confronted their mother and father concerning the abuse and that the brothers had been nervous their mother and father would kill them to forestall the household’s secrets and techniques from turning into public.
The brothers had separate juries of their first trial, and a decide ultimately declared a mistrial after both juries failed to reach unanimous verdicts. Jurors later stated in interviews that a few of them believed the brothers’ assertions concerning the abuse and others didn’t.
When the brothers had been tried a second time, there have been no TV cameras current, and a decide excluded a lot of the proof involving sexual abuse (which turned recognized to some because the “abuse excuse”). Each brothers had been convicted in 1996 and sentenced to life in jail with out the potential for parole.
Erik Menendez was 18 and Lyle was 21 on the time of the murders. They’re now 54 and 57.
New proof has come to mild lately that attorneys for the brothers have wielded as a part of their habeas petition.
A letter written by Erik Menendez months earlier than the murders, during which he described the sexual abuse to a cousin, was introduced ahead by Robert Rand, a journalist who has lined the case for years and has written a e-book about it.
As well as, a 2023 documentary collection on the Peacock streaming service — “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed,” based mostly on reporting by Rand and the journalist Nery Ynclan — reported allegations that Jose had sexually abused Roy Rosselló, a member of the boy band Menudo.
The Menendez brothers have additionally attracted monumental assist on social media, the place younger individuals who weren’t born on the time of the murders have demanded their launch.
And in current months, Netflix launched a docudrama concerning the brothers and a documentary during which the brothers mentioned the case at size in jail interviews, placing additional consideration on the case.
Kate Selig contributed reporting.
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