Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said he would reconsider resentencing Erik and Lyle Menendez, who were convicted of murdering their parents in 1989, if they admit their “lies,” according to a report.
Joseph Menendez, who goes by his middle name Lyle, and his brother, Erik, shot their parents, Jose and Mary “Kitty” Menendez, in their Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, mansion decades ago. They were both ordered to serve life in prison in 1996 but have been seeking reduced sentences.
Hochman told ABC News that he would consider resentencing “if they sincerely and unequivocally admit, for the first time in over 30 years, the full range of their criminal activity and all the lies that they have told about it.”
Hochman’s comments come days after he told reporters on March 10 that he was seeking to withdraw former District Attorney George Gascon’s motion for a resentencing hearing. Supporters of the Menendez brothers with the Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition rallied outside of Hochman’s office on Thursday to advocate for their release.
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In a motion filed that day, the district attorney said the Menendez brothers “have repeatedly lied about the case, their parents, and their interactions with witnesses.”
Hochman told ABC he has a list of 20 lies the Menendez brothers have told over the last 30 years since their parents’ murders, only four of which they have acknowledged.
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“The essence of that checklist is that they’d have to finally admit after 30 years, they killed their parents willfully, deliberately and in premeditated fashion, not because they believed that their parents were going to kill them that night,” Hochman said.
The Menendez brothers’ cousin who has been advocating for their freedom, Anamaria Baralt, said during a Thursday press conference in front of the DA’s office that “Eric and Lyle take full accountability for their actions”
“I want to make one thing very clear: we are not going anywhere.”
“The district attorney might not care about them, but he will hear us today,” she continued.
A resentencing hearing was scheduled for March 20 and 21 but has since been delayed to April 11.
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The brothers’ attorneys have argued they should have been convicted of manslaughter rather than murder, in which case they already would have been released from prison.
Erik and Lyle, as well as their family members, have been arguing for years that their father abused them, but Hochman told ABC News that abuse was never their defense during their murder trial.
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“There was no additional corroboration of anyone in 12 years — whether it was another adult, a friend, a coach, a teacher — who reported on any recipient information that the sexual abuse occurred during those 12 years. But was there evidence presented at trial? Yes. Was it the defense that the Menendezes used to first-degree murder? Absolutely not,” Hochman told the outlet. “That is what we have focused on.”
Gascon initiated the push for sentence reductions but lost re-election to Nathan Hochman in November. Hochman then met with both sides of the family.
A documentary about the brothers titled “The Menendez Brothers” premiered in October, bringing some renewed attention to the case and detailing the brothers’ allegations that their father sexually assaulted them, through new audio interviews.
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
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