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Menendez brothers' resentencing can go ahead: LA judge rules / Photo: © AFP/File
Menendez brothers' resentencing can go ahead: LA judge rules
Erik and Lyle Menendez can continue with their effort to get out of jail early, a Los Angeles judge ruled Friday, decades after they slaughtered their parents.
The brothers -- who are among America's most infamous murderers -- are hoping to be resentenced for the 1989 shotgun slayings, reducing their current life-without-parole term to one that would allow them to walk free.
"Justice won over politics," the men's attorney Mark Geragos told reporters after the hearing.
"They waited a long time to get some justice, and today was actually probably the biggest day since they've been in custody."
During blockbuster trials in the 1990s, prosecutors said the men killed Jose and Kitty Menendez to get their hands on a $14 million fortune.
They initially blamed the deaths on a Mafia hit, the first of five disparate explanations they offered.
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.
A lengthy campaign, including support from their extended family and a seemingly sympathetic public -- nourished by a hit Netflix series -- have now given Erik Menendez, 54, and Lyle Menendez, 57, a shot at getting out of prison.
That appeared to have been significantly boosted last year when the chief prosecutor in Los Angeles said he believed the men were reformed, and deserved to be resentenced.
But when George Gascon was booted from the District Attorney's office in an election loss, his replacement, the hardline Nathan Hochman, revisited the case.
He has insisted the men have not atoned for their crimes, and continue to lie about brutal murders in which they repeatedly shot their parents, including in the knees.
On Friday his office told the court that it wanted to withdraw the motion for resentencing.
Showing a gruesome photo of the bloody crime scene, Assistant Head Deputy Habib Balian said the brothers should stay behind bars.
"Are they the same people they were when they committed this brutal crime?" Balian asked. "Have they changed?"
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 rejected the DA's bid to withdraw its motion. A resentencing hearing is scheduled for next week.
Outside the court, Anamaria Baralt, a cousin of the brothers and part of the Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition, welcomed the judge's decision.
"The court made clear that this process isn't about politics. It's about truth. It's about justice, and it's about giving people the chance to show who they are now, not just who they were in their worst moment," she said.
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."
A.S. Leite--JDB
