Lyle and Erik Menendez’s Upcoming Day in Court Delayed as Newsom Steps Into Battle For Freedom

The hotly anticipated hearing that was set for later this month to assess a potential resentencing for Lyle and Erik Menendez has been postponed after Gov. Gavin Newsom last week ordered the California Parole Board to conduct a risk assessment investigation into the convicted killers.

On March 20 and 21, the Menendez were expected to appear in Southern California court for the first time since the mid-1990s, when the nation watched on television as they were convicted in a joint jury trial, after both of their trials as individuals saw deadlocked juries, for gunning down their parents in the family’s Beverly Hills home. They are now seeking freedom 35 years after the conviction.

That court date, already moved by the new District attorney when wildfires tore across L.A. earlier this year, has now been kicked further down the road after Newsom ordered the risk assessment, which will look closely at the brothers’ crimes and whether they present a threat to the community if released.

Newsom’s move could be interpreted as a signal that the governor is on the brothers’ side after L.A.’s new district attorney, Nathan Hochman, has said that the brothers should not have another trial — and trashed their abuse defense at a recent press conference. 

On Wednesday, Lyle Menendez reacted to the news to his supporters and family in a Facebook post.

“The resentencing hearing set for this month will not occur,” Lyle Menendez wrote in a post directed at his and his brother’s millions of supporters, from prison at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego on Tuesday. “Everyone involved recognizes the importance of waiting for the results of the risk assessment as initiated by Gov. Newsom. Hang tight, be patient, and keep the faith.”

Newsom holds the ultimate trump card in their case, with the ability to grant clemency to the brothers whose case became a political football and was passed from one district attorney to another, becoming at-risk of becoming a victim of ongoing culture wars. In the fall, massive interest in the Menendez case and freeing the brothers erupted following the runaway success of Ryan Murphy‘s Netflix limited seroes Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story. The series was born out of a movement that grew on TikTok after a 2023 Peacock documentary unearthed new evidence suggesting the brothers were telling the truth in that their father sexually assaulted them throughout their youth.

D.A. Hochman’s predecessor, George Gascón, got the ball rolling on a resentencing hearing for the incarcerated brothers amid his reelection bid. But the progressive was painted as a candidate who was using the Menendez case to win votes. He was ousted for the more tough-on-crime boss in Hochman, who has not officially given an opinion on their legal case but did seem to indicate his thoughts on some of the winding details of their story.

Hochman recently declared that the brothers should not have a new trial when he filed an informal response urging the Los Angeles County Superior Court to reject a habeas corpus petition they’d filed in 2023, essentially shutting down that avenue for the brothers. At a follow-up press conference, Hochman discussed the decision and cast doubt on the evidence of abuse, saying that it’s not relevant in a murder case. Family members balked at this dressing down of the abuse defense and released a statement slamming Hochman as repeating the same injustice 35 years later. 

Newsom seems to have had a close eye on all of this as it unfolded and, last week, stepped in with that surprise order to the California Parole Board regarding the brothers. The term-limited governor, whose partner took the stand as a Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct accuser during the former mogul’s L.A. rape and sexual misconduct trial in 2023, may have developed a sympathetic ear for the victims of alleged abuse. Last week, Newsom said the report would go to the Parole Board in 90 days.