Where the Menendez Brothers' Legal Paths to Freedom Stand

Yahoo

08-02-2025

With fresh attention on Erik and Lyle Menendez's hopes for release from a California prison after serving 35 years — assisted by Netflix's sensational reimagining of their 1989 crimes and their repercussions — the brothers' multiple avenues toward imminent freedom have expanded beyond an initial glimmer of hope provided by newfound evidence to discussions of gubernatorial clemency and an upcoming resentencing hearing spawned by L.A.'s ousted district attorney and delayed by his successor, whose overstated role in the decision of their release will ultimately be decided by the courts.
In November, about six weeks after Ryan Murphy's salacious Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story planted itself atop the rankings of Netflix's top 10 series, L.A.'s incoming district attorney, Nathan Hochman, appeared to have become a major player in the inmate brothers' 35-year legal saga. George Gascon, a deeply embattled progressive, was ousted by voters after surviving multiple recall attempts and public shaming for his 'soft on crime' policies from angry voters. In November, he ceded the city's top law enforcement role to the former federal prosecutor after voters, angry with his progressive policies, booted him from office. On the steps of L.A.'s courthouse after taking the oath of office, Hochman was already discussing an immediate focus on the Menendez case with the press before making his move on their potential resentencing — the process Gascon had begun, in a move widely viewed as a last-ditch effort to woo voters, when he had recommended the life in prison times two with no possibility of parole be rethought, in a letter a local judge.
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This week, two prosecutors in the L.A. District Attorney's office who'd worked now in Hochman's purview after years under Gascon in the resentencing unit he established in 2021, filed separate legal complaints against the office. Both Nancy Theberge and Brock Lunsford claim that the office demoted them and that they faced retaliation from the incoming leadership for supporting the resentencing of Erik and Lyle Menendez. Lunsford's internal complaint — a formality both prosecutors filed, which precedes a lawsuit — claims that he was 'stripped of all supervisory responsibilities' when Hochman took over, which he considered a dead-end role. She claims that sentiments in the D.A.'s office were far from sympathetic to the brothers and she paid for recommending them for resentencing with her job.
If Hochman's opinions on the case are solidified to the point of removing Theberge and Lunsford, you wouldn't know from listening to him. He has discussed the Menendez brothers' case in several media interviews since stepping into the D.A. role and still, after meeting with multiple family members pushing for their release and asking that their charges be reduced to manslaughter, the new D.A. has said nothing definitive or given his opinion on their cases, other than that his review or all of the facts will be thorough before making any decision. This has effectively kicked the case down the road to the March hearing — the latest move of the hearing, to March 20 and 21, came as multiple wildfires ravaged L.A. and Hochman's attention rightfully turned toward an aggressive pursuit of looters and grifters ceasing on the chaotic moments for personal gain.
'Hochman can delay or slow down the re-sentencing process, but he can't stop it. He can't undo what Gascon started,' Robert Rand, who covered the brothers' trials extensively in the 90s and wrote the definitive book on their crime and legal journey, told The Hollywood Reporter this week.
This legal process, handed from one D.A. to another, will bring both Eric and Lyle Menendez back into a California courtroom to face a judge seated side-by-side for the first time since they were sentenced to life without parole in 1996, Rand told THR. The brothers will appear together in person at the Los Angeles County Superior Court in Van Nuys, California. The appearance will mark the first time they've set foot in a courtroom in 35 years as they've fought their legal battles.
'One of the new lawyers on their appellate attorney team thinks that they should be there in person and not just by Zoom,' Rand said, citing a conversation he had in January with Lyle Menendez. 'The attorney thinks that a judge should see them in person in current times and not the social media images from 30 years ago.'
However, it's tenuous that the March 20 Superior Court appearance will result in what the Menendez brother's attorneys are seeking — a resentencing of 50 years to life, which would make the brothers immediately eligible for release on parole. In fact, the court date may mark the end of the road in the resentencing journey Gascon and their attorneys walked them down. Appellate Attorney Cliff Gardner told THR by phone this week that the resenting hearing will largely deal with who the men are that would be released back into society.
'Rehabilitation is a large factor of reentry,' Gardner explained. 'Reentry plans, whether there will be a danger in the future, how they've done in custody on the various scales that measure whether someone is a danger. They're probably as low as you can be in terms of their likelihood of reoffending. But there's all sorts of criteria that go into it.'
At this hearing, none of the new, compelling evidence that emerged in the past several years supporting the notion that, throughout their adolescence, Erik and Lyle Menendez were physically and sexually abused by their father, Jose Menendez, will be in direct discussion. No topic has, as of now, been barred from being discussed at the hearing, Gardner said. The resentencing hearing for the brothers, who are noted to have been model prisoners while incarcerated, devoting their time to education and aiding those with abuse-related trauma, will bring discussions of just that topic to the courtroom. Gardner said this week that all subpoenas have not yet been sent out for the March 20 court date but Rand indicated that multiple relatives who support the brothers' release are expected to attend and speak on their behalf. But advocacy for the brothers in the courtroom should be related to their records since entering state prison in the mid-1990s and should answer the question of whether or not they have been rehabilitated.
'It has nothing to do with the crime,' Rand explained. 'It's only their record in state prison, and that's why this has become the appellate attorneys' number one path.'
If the resentencing hearing does not conclude with the brothers seeing their prison terms reduced, their legal team will have a second opportunity with the habeas corpus hearing. While this path brings in the fresh evidence that helped turn millions toward rooting for their freedom — a letter discovered in a late cousin's desk in which Erik described the daily abuse and that was written eight months prior to the killing of his parents; the former Menudo member who claims he suffered abuse at the hands of Jose Menendez — it's not necessarily a slam dunk for their appeals team.
'I'm not a betting man,' Gardner told THR. 'I think there's a good chance of resentencing, if you look at all the evidence of rehabilitation, and the evidence that was kept out of the trial that suggests what the crime should have been, I think it poses a good chance. And the habeas, of course, has all sorts of hurdles. If you ask me what I think has a better chance, I just can't answer that.'
As for Erik and Lyle, the inmates remain cautiously optimistic about both avenues, according to Rand, who has visited both men in prison since the discovery of the letter from their cousin and the documentary he worked on shined a light on Jose Menendez's alleged abuse outside of his family's home. 'They're hopeful that something happens with the resentencing,' Rand told THR. 'However, they're fully prepared to dive into habeas, if that's what could get them out.'
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