(NewsNation) — The Los Angeles district attorney said he is against resentencing the Menendez brothers, saying they “fall short” of showing “full insight” into their crimes and “completely accepting responsibility for their actions.”
District Attorney Nathan Hochman made the announcement Monday.
He will be asking the court to withdraw a resentencing motion by a previous district attorney and will present arguments against it in a court-initiated hearing on the matter.
“They [the brothers] do not meet the standards for rehabilitation,” he said.
Hochman then went into a detailed timeline of the murders, showing that the brothers maintained the self-defense narrative, knowing it was concocted, after the killings.
“The jury was never asked to render a verdict on sexual abuse. It was all about self-defense,” he said.
Hochman said there are “16 lies that remain to this day” that the brothers have maintained about self-defense.
However, Hochman said he will consider resentencing in the future if the brothers “unequivocally, sincerely and fully accept complete responsibility for all their criminal actions” and acknowledge they fabricated the self-defense narrative.
Erik and Lyle Menendez, who have been in prison for nearly three decades after the 1989 killing of their parents, had also been pushing for a new trial. Hochman cast doubt over the evidence they cited and opposed their petition, calling the brothers’ sexual abuse claims “untrustworthy.”
The brothers’ case was reopened in October of last year, when then-District Attorney George Gascón announced that his office would reexamine the case in light of the new evidence, which included a letter alleging sexual abuse purportedly written by Erik Menendez just months before he and his brother, Lyle, fatally shot their parents in Beverly Hills.
Following an initial mistrial, the Menendez brothers were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1996 without possibility of parole. The brothers were 21 and 18 at the time.
The family of the brother’s blasted Hochman’s decision as a “political game.”
“Let’s be clear: Erik and Lyle are not the same young boys they were more than 30 years ago,” the Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition, a family-led initiative, said in a statement. “They have apologized for the horrific actions they took. They have apologized to us. And, they have demonstrated their atonement through actions that have helped improve countless lives. Yet, DA Hochman is effectively asking for them to publicly apologize to a checklist of actions they took in a state of shock and fear.”
They said they also remain hopeful that California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the parole board or the courts will see their side and shorten the sentences.
The Menendez brothers, now in their 50s, have spent nearly 30 years in prison. According to family member Tamara Goodell, they have “created careers for themselves” while incarcerated, starting numerous peer support groups and initiatives.
The case has gained new traction after Netflix began streaming the true-crime drama “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
