What’s next for the Menendez brothers?

The Los Angeles County District Attorney recommended The Menendez brothers’ sentences to life in prison without parole will be overturned. and the brothers will be resentenced and immediately eligible for parole.

But the brothers still have a long way to go before they can leave prison. where they have been for the last 35 years.

Lyle Menendez, then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, admitted to fatally shooting their father, entertainment executive Jose Menendez, and their mother, Kitty Menendez, at their Beverly Hills mansion. The brothers said they feared their parents were going to kill them to prevent people from finding out that Jose Menendez had sexually abused Erik Menendez for years.

Prosecutors argued at the time that there was no evidence of molestation. The brothers’ first trial ended in a hung jury, and prosecutors won a conviction in the second after much of the evidence of abuse was thrown out of court. The district attorney’s office also said at the time that the brothers were after their parents’ multimillion-dollar property.

READ MORE: Menendez Brothers: Journalist Robert Rand discusses the search for Eric’s letter

Now the district attorney and his family say the world has a better understanding of the role of trauma in sexual assault cases.

The brothers’ extended family asked for their release. Several family members said that in today’s world, which is more aware of the consequences of sexual violence, the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

What’s next for the Menendez brothers?

Prosecutors filed papers Thursday recommending that the brothers, now 54 and 56, receive new sentences of 50 years to life in prison. Because they were under 26 years old at the time of the crimes, they were immediately eligible for parole.

CONNECTED: Kim Kardashian says the Menendez brothers have been ‘given a second chance at life’ after decades in prison

“I believe they have paid their debt to society,” the district attorney said.

A hearing before a judge could take place within the next month or so. If the judge agrees to resentencing, the state parole board will conduct its own hearing to determine whether they should be released. If the board recommends parole, Newsom will have 150 days to review the case. The governor could greenlight parole or overturn the board’s decision and deny their release.

When will the Menendez brothers be able to get out of prison?

Mark Geragos, the brothers’ lawyer, said he hopes the brothers can be released by Thanksgiving. Laurie Levenson, a professor of criminal law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, called the deadline “terribly encouraging.”

Levenson warned that the judge was unlikely to be a “rubber stamp” due to infighting within the DA’s office.

“It actually puts the judge in a very difficult position,” Levenson said, noting that until recently she had not heard of any cases in which the head of the office disagreed with the other lawyers involved in the case. Ultimately, Gascón chose the “safest path” for his decision, leaving it to the discretion of the court and parole board, she said.

What’s the new evidence in the Menendez brothers case?

The DA’s office said the case was reviewed after “new evidence” came to light. FOX Los Angeles reports.. One of the pieces of evidence was a letter Eric allegedly wrote to his cousin Andy Cano. According to the brothers’ lawyers, Cano’s mother found the letter nine years ago. Cano testified at trial that Eric told him about abuse at the hands of his father when Eric was 13 years old. Cano died in 2003.

Roy Rosselló, a former member of the Latin pop group Menudo, also recently came forward, saying Jose Menendez drugged and raped him when he was a teenager in the 1980s.

Rosselló recounted his abuse in Peacock’s 2023 documentary series Menendez + Menudo: The Devoted Boys. His allegations are part of the evidence listed in a motion filed last year by the Menendez brothers’ attorney seeking a retrial of their case.

Kitty Menendez’s brother doesn’t support resentencing

Not all members of the Menendez family support resentencing. Lawyers for Milton Andersen, Kitty Menendez’s 90-year-old brother, filed a lawsuit asking the brothers’ original punishment to be upheld.

“They shot their mother Kitty with a reloader to ensure her death,” Andersen’s lawyers said Thursday. “The evidence remains absolutely clear: the jury’s verdict was fair and the punishment fits the heinous crime.”