Erik and Lyle Menendez – brothers who spent 34 years behind bars for killing their parents in 1989 at their Beverly Hills mansion, a box designed for television that attracted worldwide attention — received hopeful news late last month when Los Angeles County Prosecutor George Gascón said he would ask the judge to reconsider the life sentences. to enable them to apply for parole.

Less than two weeks later, Gascón was defeated in his re-election bid. The new prosecutor, Nathan Hochman, said that if the case is not resolved before he takes office Dec. 2, he will review it and decide whether to recommend to a judge that the brothers be re-sentenced, as Gascón requested. For.

The brothers are currently serving life sentences without the possibility of parole. The prosecutor’s office, under Gascón, recently requested that their sentences be changed to life with the possibility of parole.

Hochman said he would like to review confidential case files and trial transcripts — thousands of pages — and speak with prosecutors, law enforcement, defense attorneys and family members victims before issuing its own recommendation.

If necessary, Hochman said he could ask the judge to delay the resentencing hearing scheduled for Dec. 11 — nine days after he takes office.

“I owe it to the Menendez brothers, the victims’ family members and the public to ensure that whatever decision I reach, it is made after careful consideration,” Hochman said.

Mark Geragos, the attorney for Erik and Lyle Menendez, said Friday, Nov. 15, that his clients were aware of the upcoming changes in the DA’s office and were “cautiously optimistic” about their fate.

“Everyone who looked at the files came to the same conclusion,” Geragos said in an interview. “I imagine that as a reasonable man, (Hochman) would come to the same conclusion as all reasonable people: that they should be excluded.”

The Menéndez brothers made national headlines for the murder of their parentsJosé and Kitty Menendez, in 1989 when they were 21 and 18 years old. Their lawyers claimed they were victims of emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of their father, an RCA Records executive, and that they acted in self-defense.

Both men’s initial trials ended in deadlocked juries. At the second trial, jurors convicted the brothers of first-degree murder.

The brothers, now 56 and 53, are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole in a San Diego County correctional facility.

In October, prosecutor Gascón announced that he would ask a judge reduce the brothers’ sentences to life with the possibility of parole. Since the murders were committed when the brothers were under the age of 26, they could be immediately released from prison.

THE the National Parole Board will still have to decide whether to approve their release. If granted, Gov. Gavin Newsom could accept or reject the board’s decision.

Gascón said he decided to reexamine the case because of new evidence — a letter Erik Menendez allegedly wrote to a cousin years ago that his lawyers say corroborates allegations that their father been sexually abusive, as well as claims from a former member of the Latin pop. Menudo group who recently came forward and said they were raped by José Menendez in the 1980s when he was a teenager.

In addition to a possible resentencing, the defense team is using other legal remedies.

On November 25, a judge will hear a motion to overturn the convictions and for a new trial since the Menendez brothers were not allowed to include evidence in their second trial that their lawyers said showed that Jose Menendez had sexually abused his sons.

Additionally, the defense team asked the governor to grant clemency to the brothers.

Geragos said one of the brothers’ aunts, Joan VanderMolen, turns 93 later this month and “she would love to have them out for her birthday.”

When asked whether Newsom was considering clemency, the governor’s office indicated neither. His office said the pending clemency requests were confidential and they could not discuss the case. Newsom is not required to act by a certain date – if he chooses to act.

Public interest in the case has been renewed thanks to documentaries about the brothers that have been released this year.

More than a dozen family members support the release of the brothers from prison. Several of them said that in today’s society, more aware of the consequences of sexual abuse, Erik and Lyle Menendez would not have been convicted of first-degree murder. The brothers are said to pose no threat to society.

But at least one relative – Milton Andersen, Kitty Menendez’s brother – disagrees with a lighter sentence that could free the brothers. He said through his lawyer that he did not believe his nephews were molested. He believes their actions were motivated by “pure greed, because they had just learned they were going to be removed from the will,” Andersen’s lawyer said recently.