Erik and Lyle Menendez, who have served roughly 35 years of a life-without-parole prison sentence for the 1989 shotgun slayings of their parents in Beverly Hills, were re-sentenced today to 50 years to life, immediately making them eligible for parole.
The decision by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic does not automatically mean the pair will be released from prison. They will have to appear before a parole board, which will recommend whether they should be available for parole. The recommendation would then go to Gov. Gavin Newsom,
who could reject their release.
Earlier today, relatives of the Menendez brothers testified on why they believed they should be released from prison, with their attorney Mark Geragos fighting for a reduced sentence of voluntary manslaughter.
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“What we are pushing for, under the statute, is a recall of the sentence, a resentence that is meaningful modification,” he said.
The Menendez brothers’ case resurfaced following the release of the Netflix series created by Ryan Murphy, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. Kim Kardashian, who has a working relationship with Murphy, was one of several high-profile personalities who made a call to have their life sentences reduced.
After spending time with the brothers, the reality TV personality and criminal justice advocate penned an essay for NBC News where she made the case for them.
“We are all products of our experiences. They shape who we were, who we are, and who we will be. Physiologically and psychologically, time changes us, and I doubt anyone would claim to be the same person they were at 18. I know I’m not!” Kardashian writes in a personal essay.
She continued, “You think you know the story of Lyle and Erik Menendez. I certainly thought I did: In 1989, the brothers, aged 21 and 18, respectively, viciously shot and killed their parents in their Beverly Hills home. In 1996, after two trials, they were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. As is often the case, this story is much more complex than it appears on the surface. Both brothers said they had been sexually, physically and emotionally abused for years by their parents.”
Kardashian noted that after the first trial was televised, the Menendez brothers were “ridiculed in skits on Saturday Night Live” and “the media turned the brothers into monsters and sensationalized eye candy,” which made them have “no chance of a fair trial.”
CNS contributed to this report.