Will the Menendez brothers be released? Parent-killers Erik and Kyle Menendez are given parole board date
A date has been set for when two convicted killer brothers will go before a parole board - after years of campaigns demanding their release.
Lyle and Erik Menendez were jailed in 1996 for killing their parents seven years earlier. The case, which was already a cause celebre, became very high-profile last year after a Netflix drama starring Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny as the parents, Jose and Kitty. The young men - Lyle, the elder was 21 at the time - were accused of shooting their parents in order to inherit their sizeable fortune.
The brothers had already alleged during the court case that they were abused both sexually and emotionally by their headstrong father during the court case, and these allegations - and the perceived injustice that they were still in jail - fuelled a social media movement to see them released.
There are three ways the pair - who are both serving life sentences - could be released.
Now the California governor Gavin Newsom has revealed that the brothers will appear before a parole board on June 13, reports American celebrity website TMZ. After this appearance, the board will finalise its report on whether the brothers would pose a risk if they were to be released, and Newsom will then consider the report when he decides whether to grant clemency in their case. This is the first possible avenue to freedom.
Another way to be released is if they were to be re-sentenced for the crime.
However, the new Los Angeles District Attorney District Attorney Nathan Hochman says he is opposed to a resentencing, a departure from the view of his predecessor George Gascón. Gascon wanted to reduce the sentence to “50 years to life” which would have made the pair eligible for parole. But Hochman says the crime was too well planned to warrant this.
The third possible way they could be freed would be through a new trial - but Hochman has already said he will oppose this.