Menendez brothers' freedom in hands of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom

Fox News

15-05-2025

The Menendez brothers are one step closer to seeing life outside prison walls after a bombshell decision to reduce their life sentences, leaving the next hurdle in the hands of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
On Tuesday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic slashed the original sentences for Erik and Lyle Menendez from life in prison to 50 years in prison with the possibility of parole.
Jesic's decision to resentence the Menendez brothers opens the door for a parole hearing to determine whether they should be released.
"The question for the board is a simple one — do Erik and Lyle Menendez, do they pose a current, what we call `unreasonable risk to public safety,'" Newsom previously said on his podcast, "This is Gavin Newsom."
In October, Mark Geragos, the brothers' lawyer, filed clemency documents with Newsom after former Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón asked a judge to reduce their sentences.
"I strongly support clemency for Erik and Lyle Menendez, who are currently serving sentences of life without possibility of parole," Gascón previously said. "They have respectively served 34 years and have continued their educations and worked to create new programs to support the rehabilitation of fellow inmates."
In response to their request for clemency, Newsom directed the state parole board to conduct a "comprehensive risk assessment investigation" of the Menendez brothers.
Newsom described the assessment as a "common procedure carried out by the state."
"There's no guarantee of outcome here," Newsom previously said. "My office conducts dozens and dozens of these clemency reviews on a consistent basis, but this process simply provides more transparency, which I think is important in this case, as well as provides us more due diligence before I make any determination for clemency."
Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom's office, which referred to a news conference Wednesday in which he spoke briefly about the parole process for the Menendez brothers and said the process is still unfolding.
"We started a process, as you know, which was intended to help inform the judge in the resentencing of the risk assessment. We thought that would be prudent to do before any resentencing. That process has unfolded over the course of the last number of months, and forensic psychologists did an assessment of the risk of each individual brother," Newsom said.
Certain details of those risk assessments, which have not been made public, were presented during part of Tuesday's resentencing hearing. The analysis from those reports typically includes what led a person to commit the crime, behavior in prison and the likelihood of recidivism.
Both brothers admitted to killing their parents, Mary "Kitty" and Jose Menendez, in a gruesome 1989 shotgun massacre inside their Beverly Hills home. Until Tuesday's resentencing hearing, they had maintained that their actions were self-defense from a lifetime of physical and sexual abuse by their parents.
Newsom's office explained that the legal standard in California for release on parole is whether an inmate poses an unreasonable risk to public safety, which has to be determined before the governor can make a decision on commutations.
"This process doesn't mean there's any guaranteed outcome, but it shows we're doing our due diligence, ensuring transparency, keeping public safety at the forefront, making sure the process is fair for everyone involved and getting closer to a conclusion," Newsom's office said.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told Fox News Digital it is "looking into the judge's decision and next steps in the parole process."
"When a court resentences a defendant, it issues the new judgment to CDCR. The department then processes the judgment as quickly as possible while complying with legal mandates," the department said.
The department added that "if an incarcerated person's sentence is changed to allow the possibility of parole, CDCR would determine applicable parole-eligible dates."
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Clemency from Newsom is also still a possibility.
"So, the question for the parole board is, will they reserve that as a more traditional parole process, or will they choose to have a separate pathway to an independent parole analysis?" Newsom asked.
"And that's a conversation that we're having to make that determination. So, it's conceivable to the point that on June 13 there could be a recommendation to me. I'm the ultimate arbiter and will have to review the parole board's recommendations and report. It's also conceivable that this will happen months and months later. So, that's a process that we're making that's been determined in real time."
Newsom's June 13 parole board hearings are planned to go on as scheduled, and the board will have the opportunity to free the brothers.
No matter what happens with their clemency request, Newsom would still have the final say over whether they should go free.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Neama Rahmani told Fox News Digital Tuesday that Erik and Lyle Menendez "will likely be freed in a matter of months," adding he does not expect "the parole board or Gov. Newsom" to block their release.
Even if the parole board approves their release, the governor has veto power and could issue a pardon on his own.
Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to [e-mail]