George Gascón, district attorney for Los Angeles County, will seek a reduced sentence in the case of two brothers imprisoned after murdering their parents in 1989.
Gascón announced his decision to seek resentencing in the case of Erik and Joseph Menendez on Thursday. If a judge grants Gascón’s request to resentence the Menendez brothers, the pair could be made eligible for parole.
“After very careful review of all the arguments … I came to a place where I believe that, under the law, resentencing is appropriate, and I am going to recommend that to a court tomorrow,” Gascón said on Thursday afternoon, according to Fox News.
Gascón plans to ask the court to resentence the Menendez brothers to 50 years to life with the possibility of parole, a term longer than the sentence they have currently served. The brothers would be immediately eligible for parole under state law, however, because they committed their crime when they were not yet 26 years old.
“I believe that they have paid their debt to society,” Gascón said, according to The New York Times.
The Menendez brothers ambushed their parents in the living room of their Beverly Hills home in 1989, fatally shooting them with shotguns. The brothers were put on trial for murder, but the case ended in a mistrial. The brothers were tried a second time and convicted in 1996 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The brothers, now in their 50s, were 21 and 18 years old at the time of the murders. They have served 34 years behind bars.
In his announcement Thursday, Gascón cited a recent Netflix documentary on the Menendez brothers’ case in his decision to seek resentencing. The documentary, he said, “brought a tremendous amount of public attention” to the case.
Gascón is currently in a tough reelection battle against Republican-turned-independent Nathan Hochman, who previously served as the president of the L.A. City Ethics Commission and as an assistant U.S. attorney general. Earlier this month, Gascón trailed Hochman by 30 points in a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll.
During their trial, the Menendez brothers claimed they had been sexually abused by their father. They allegedly killed their parents fearing that their father intended to kill the brothers to keep them silent about the molestation.
Gascón said that, after reviewing the evidence, he now believes the brothers’ claims of molestation.
The brothers’ uncle, Milton Andersen, opposes the resentencing and requested on Wednesday that the court reject any effort to release the brothers.
“It’s Milton Andersen’s continued belief that the claims of molestation were made up, and they were false, and he believes that the correct verdict was issued by the jury and the correct sentence was also committed,” Andersen’s attorney told Fox News.
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George Gascón, district attorney for Los Angeles County, will seek a reduced sentence in the case of two brothers imprisoned after murdering their parents in 1989.
Gascón announced his decision to seek resentencing in the case of Erik and Joseph Menendez on Thursday. If a judge grants Gascón’s request to resentence the Menendez brothers, the pair could be made eligible for parole.
“After very careful review of all the arguments … I came to a place where I believe that, under the law, resentencing is appropriate, and I am going to recommend that to a court tomorrow,” Gascón said on Thursday afternoon, according to Fox News.
Gascón plans to ask the court to resentence the Menendez brothers to 50 years to life with the possibility of parole, a term longer than the sentence they have currently served. The brothers would be immediately eligible for parole under state law, however, because they committed their crime when they were not yet 26 years old.
“I believe that they have paid their debt to society,” Gascón said, according to The New York Times.
The Menendez brothers ambushed their parents in the living room of their Beverly Hills home in 1989, fatally shooting them with shotguns. The brothers were put on trial for murder, but the case ended in a mistrial. The brothers were tried a second time and convicted in 1996 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The brothers, now in their 50s, were 21 and 18 years old at the time of the murders. They have served 34 years behind bars.
In his announcement Thursday, Gascón cited a recent Netflix documentary on the Menendez brothers’ case in his decision to seek resentencing. The documentary, he said, “brought a tremendous amount of public attention” to the case.
Gascón is currently in a tough reelection battle against Republican-turned-independent Nathan Hochman, who previously served as the president of the L.A. City Ethics Commission and as an assistant U.S. attorney general. Earlier this month, Gascón trailed Hochman by 30 points in a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll.
During their trial, the Menendez brothers claimed they had been sexually abused by their father. They allegedly killed their parents fearing that their father intended to kill the brothers to keep them silent about the molestation.
Gascón said that, after reviewing the evidence, he now believes the brothers’ claims of molestation.
The brothers’ uncle, Milton Andersen, opposes the resentencing and requested on Wednesday that the court reject any effort to release the brothers.
“It’s Milton Andersen’s continued belief that the claims of molestation were made up, and they were false, and he believes that the correct verdict was issued by the jury and the correct sentence was also committed,” Andersen’s attorney told Fox News.
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