LOS ANGELES (AP) — After serving practically 30 years in jail for killing their mother and father, the Menendez brothers will plead their case in entrance of a panel of California state parole board commissioners beginning Thursday.
Erik and Lyle Menendez have been sentenced in 1996 to life in jail for fatally capturing their father, Jose Menendez, and mom, Kitty Menendez, of their Beverly Hills mansion in August 1989. They have been 18 and 21 on the time.
For years after their convictions, the brothers filed petitions for appeals of their circumstances that have been denied. However the brothers turned eligible for parole after a Los Angeles choose in Could diminished their sentences from life in jail with out the potential of parole to 50 years to life, marking the closest they’ve been to freedom since their convictions.
Even when the board grants their parole, it might nonetheless be months earlier than the brothers stroll free — if in any respect. If the board grants every brother’s parole, the chief authorized counsel has 120 days to overview the case. Then, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has 30 days to affirm or deny the parole.
Right here’s a take a look at their case over the past three a long time:
___
Nineteen Nineties and aughts
March 1990: Lyle Menendez, then 21, is arrested. A number of days later, Erik Menendez, 18, turns himself in. They’re charged with first-degree homicide.
July 1993: The Menendez brothers go on trial, every with a separate jury. Prosecutors argued that they killed their mother and father for monetary achieve. The brothers’ attorneys don’t dispute the pair killed their mother and father, however argued that they acted out of self-defense after years of emotional and sexual abuse by their father.
January 1994: Each juries impasse.
October 1995: The brothers’ retrial begins, this time with a single jury. A lot of the protection proof about alleged sexual abuse is excluded throughout the second trial.
March 1996: Jurors convict each brothers of first-degree homicide.
July 1996: The brothers are sentenced to life in jail with out the potential of parole.
February 1998: A California appeals court docket upholds the brothers’ conviction, and three months later, the state Supreme Court docket agrees.
October 1998: The brothers file habeas corpus petitions with the California Supreme Court docket. After they’re denied the subsequent yr, they file petitions in federal district court docket, that are additionally denied.
September 2005: The U.S. ninth Circuit Court docket of Appeals denies their habeas corpus attraction.
2023
Could 3: Attorneys for the Menendez brothers ask the court docket to rethink the convictions and life sentences in gentle of latest proof from a former member of the boy band Menudo, who stated he was raped by Jose Menendez when he was 14. As well as, they submit a letter that Erik wrote to his cousin earlier than the killings about his father’s abuse.
2024
Sept. 19: Netflix releases the crime drama “ Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, ” a nine-episode collection concerning the killings.
Oct. 4: Los Angeles County District Lawyer George Gascón says his workplace is reviewing new proof within the case.
Oct. 16: A number of generations of members of the family of the Menendez brothers maintain a information convention pleading for his or her launch from jail. The kin say the jurors who sentenced them to life with out parole in 1996 have been a part of a society that was not prepared to listen to that boys could possibly be raped.
Oct. 24: Prosecutors say they’ll petition the court docket to resentence the brothers, and that it might result in their launch.
Nov. 18: California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he wouldn’t determine on granting the brothers clemency till after the newly elected district legal professional has an opportunity to overview the case.
Nov. 25: A Los Angeles County Superior Court docket choose holds a listening to concerning the request for resentencing however says he wants extra time to decide, delaying the resentencing hearings.
Dec. 3: Nathan Hochman is sworn into workplace as the brand new district legal professional of LA County.
2025
Feb. 21: Hochman says his workplace will oppose a brand new trial for the Menendez brothers. He forged doubt on the proof of sexual abuse. The next week, Newsom orders the state parole board to conduct a “comprehensive risk assessment” to find out whether or not the brothers have been rehabilitated and if they might pose a hazard to the general public if launched.
March 10: Hochman says his workplace received’t assist resentencing the brothers as a result of they’ve repeatedly lied about why they killed their mother and father.
April 11: A choose denies prosecutors’ request to withdraw their resentencing petition. The next week, resentencing hearings scheduled are delayed as a consequence of disputes amongst prosecutors and the brothers’ legal professionals, who say they’ll ask to take away Hochman’s workplace from the case.
Could 9: Hochman’s workplace stays on the case because the choose once more denies prosecutors’ request to withdraw their resentencing petition.
Could 13: Los Angeles County Superior Court docket Decide Michael Jesic reduces the brothers’ sentences from life with out parole to 50 years to life. They’re instantly eligible for parole as a result of they dedicated the crime beneath the age of 26. The state parole board should nonetheless determine whether or not to launch them from jail.
Aug. 21 and 22: Erik and Lyle Menendez are scheduled to have their hearings with the California state parole board. They’ll happen nearly.
