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Menendez brothers appear in LA court for resentencing hearing / Photo: © AFP/File
Menendez brothers appear in LA court for resentencing hearing
Erik and Lyle Menendez appeared before a Los Angeles court Friday in the latest chapter of their bid to get out of jail, decades after slaughtering their own parents.
The brothers -- who are among America's most infamous murderers -- are hoping the court will agree to resentence them for the 1989 shotgun slayings that left their luxury Beverly Hills mansion soaked in blood.
During blockbuster trials in the 1990s, prosecutors said the men killed Jose and Kitty Menendez to get their hands on a $14 million fortune, initially blaming their deaths on a Mafia hit.
Supporters say the men acted in self-defense, terrified of their parents' rage after years of sexual and emotional abuse by a tyrannical father and a complicit mother.
But despite a lengthy campaign and a seemingly sympathetic public -- nourished by a hit Netflix series -- Erik Menendez, 54, and Lyle Menendez, 57, face an uphill battle.
The new chief prosecutor of Los Angeles County wants to withdraw his predecessor's earlier support for a resentencing hearing that could see the brothers walk free.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman said this week the pair should remain behind bars because they had never accepted their guilt and continued to rely on untruths.
"The prior DA’s motion did not examine or consider whether the Menendez brothers have exhibited full insight and taken complete responsibility for their crimes by continuing for the past over 30 years to lie about their claims of self-defense," he said.
"A full examination of the record reveals the Menendez brothers have never come clean over the past three decades and admitted that they lied about their self-defense, as well as suborned perjury and attempted to suborn perjury by their friends."
The brothers, wearing blue prison garb, appeared by video link on Friday, and were apparently taking notes as their attorney sparred with lawyers from the DA's office.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic could decide Friday whether to go ahead with a resentencing hearing that has been scheduled for next week.
The men's lawyers hope that will change their current life-without-parole to a minimum term with parole that would allow them to go free, given the length of time they have been in prison.
The resentencing effort is one of three separate routes being pursued by attorneys for the brothers, who are also seeking a retrial and are appealing to California Governor Gavin Newsom for clemency.
Hochman also opposes a new trial.
The brothers' original trials were huge events, and the case saw a surge of renewed interest last year with the release of the Netflix hit "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story."
Newsom is bound by no specific timeline and could release the men at any point, or refuse their appeal for clemency.
He has said he has not watched dramatizations of the Menendez case or documentaries on it "because I don't want to be influenced by them."
"I just want to be influenced by the facts."
S. Alves--JDB
