LOS ANGELES (AP) — A new sentencing hearing for Lyle and Erik Menendez, the brothers convicted of killing their parents, has been postponed due to the recent wildfires in Southern California. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced on Friday that the hearing originally scheduled for January 30 and 31 will now take place on March 20 and 21. The delay is a result of the wildfires disrupting the necessary preparations for the hearing, which had already been rescheduled from November.
Hochman recently met with the brothers’ relatives as part of his review of their petition for release. Lyle and Erik Menendez were found guilty in 1989 of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, and were subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The brothers, now in their 50s, have requested a reconsideration of their sentence following the emergence of new evidence detailing their father’s history of sexual abuse.
The case of the Menendez brothers has garnered renewed public interest in recent years, fueled in part by a Netflix drama series and documentary. In October 2024, then-District Attorney George Gascon recommended that the brothers be resentenced to 50 years to life, a decision that would make them eligible for parole immediately. Hochman, who was in the midst of a political campaign against Gascon at the time, criticized the recommendation as a “desperate political move.”
The Menendez brothers’ ongoing legal saga continues to captivate the public and legal observers alike, as they await the outcome of their bid for a modified sentence. The postponement of their sentencing hearing underscores the complex and high-profile nature of their case, which remains a subject of intense scrutiny and debate within the legal community.
