Judge sets Menendez brothers resentencing hearing for next week

After months of legal battles, Erik and Lyle Menendez, who were convicted of killing their parents in 1989, will finally get a resentencing hearing in Los Angeles court next week, giving the brothers a new chance at freedom.

LA county superior court judge Michael Jesic ruled on Friday that the resentencing hearing can take place, starting next Tuesday.

Friday’s hearing included a loss and an implicit win for Los Angeles’ new tough-on-crime prosecutor, Nathan Hochman. Defense attorneys ultimately withdrew their motion to remove Hochman’s prosecutors from the case, which the hearing was meant to discuss, but Jesic, the judge, also rejected Hochman’s efforts to withdraw the resentencing petition.

The brothers were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for fatally shooting their entertainment executive father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez. The brothers were 18 and 21 at the time of the killings. Defense attorneys argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, while prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.

The former LA county district attorney, George Gascón, had opened the door to possible freedom for the brothers in October by requesting their sentences be reduced to 50 years with the possibility of parole. His office said the case would have been handled differently today due to modern understandings of sexual abuse and trauma, and that the brothers had been rehabilitated during their 30 years in prison. Many of the Menendez brothers’ family members support their release.

But Hochman, the current district attorney, has reversed course and opposes the brothers’ resentencing. Hochman has said the brothers have not taken full responsibility for their crimes because they have not admitted to lies told during their trials. The Menendez family and lawyers have been heavily critical of the way Hochman has handled the case.

On Friday, Hochman tried to again ask the court to withdraw the resentencing petition saying new evidence supports that.

But Jesic disagreed and set 13 and 14 May for the resentencing hearings.

“I don’t see anything new,” he said.

On Friday, attorneys for the Menendez brothers also withdrew their attempt to have Hochman’s office removed from the case over allegations of conflicts of interest, ABC7 News and the Los Angeles Times reported.

Asked about the attempt to remove Hochman, an attorney for the Menendez brothers said on his way into the courthouse on Friday that “I’m not so sure I want that any more,” ABC7 News reported.

Attorney Mark Geragos said he planned to lodge his complaints against Hochman at a future date.

California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, had filed a motion this week siding with Hochman, saying the defense had not adequately demonstrated a conflict of interest.

Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and professor of criminal law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said these types of recusal requests are “almost never” granted.

“Defendants don’t usually get to pick their prosecutors,” she said. “Occasionally an individual prosecutor will be recused, but to recuse an entire office is very rare.”

Generally, this only happens if a prosecutor’s personal family member is involved or if the district attorney’s office received outside payment in a case, Levenson said.

Hochman’s office had filed a motion to oppose his removal from the case, dismissing the defense’s concerns as simply “not being happy” with prosecutors’ opinion on resentencing.

“Disagreeing with the opposing side’s position is not a conflict of interest, it is simply a disagreement,” it said.

The Menendez brothers are still waiting for the full results of a state parole board risk assessment ordered by the California governor’s office. The final hearing, scheduled for 13 June, will influence whether Newsom grants the brothers clemency.