In a stunning example of California’s soft-on-crime approach, convicted killers Erik and Lyle Menendez are now eligible for parole after 35 years behind bars for brutally killing their parents.
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The brothers, who shotgunned their mother and father to death in their Beverly Hills mansion, have been rewarded with a second chance by a system increasingly sympathetic to violent criminals, regardless of their heinous crimes.
L.A. County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic resentenced the Menendez brothers to 50 years to life, making them eligible for a parole hearing in the coming months.
This shocking decision aligns with California’s lenient “youthful offender” law, which offers special consideration to criminals who were under 26 at the time of their offenses.
The Menendez case has been a liberal media favorite since the beginning, with Netflix recently releasing a documentary that drummed up renewed sympathy for the brothers.
This decision by Judge Jesic comes despite risk assessments indicating the brothers might be “moderately more likely” to engage in violence if released, a warning sign that appears to have been dismissed.
Meanwhile, District Attorney Nathan Hochman opposed the resentencing, arguing that the brothers had not shown proper insight or genuine atonement for their crimes.
Hochman insisted their rehabilitation claims “must be viewed with a critical eye,” pointing to the calculated nature of the murders, which prosecutors have long maintained were financially motivated rather than acts of self-defense.
Lyle and Erik Menendez, who have served 35 years of a life prison term for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents, were ruled eligible for parole by an LA judge at a re-sentencing hearing https://t.co/nk40QhIZKU pic.twitter.com/Awg3ndcdG9
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 14, 2025
Family members and advocates pleaded for the brothers’ release, forming a “Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition” to champion their cause.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos asserted that they should have received a manslaughter sentence instead, citing alleged sexual abuse by their father as motivation for the killings.
Former L.A. District Attorney George Gascón, part of the wave of progressive prosecutors who have prioritized criminal leniency over justice for victims, paved the path to this controversial decision.
Gascón opened the door to resentencing, citing “modern understandings of abuse and trauma” – a strategy that has been used repeatedly to justify reducing sentences for violent criminals across the state.
Governor Gavin Newsom, who has emptied California’s prisons, now has a pending clemency request for the brothers on his desk.
The state parole board must still decide on their release, which could take weeks or months. Still, if history is any indication of California’s direction, the brothers who cold-bloodedly executed their parents may soon walk free.
