The Menendez resentencing hearing is getting punted all over the place

Another week, another delay in Erik and Lyle Menendez's efforts to get their murder sentences re-evaluated by California courts.

By William Hughes  |  April 18, 2025 | 12:36am
Photo: Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty Images
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The Menendez resentencing hearing is getting punted all over the place

Unlike TV—for instance, the Netflix series Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story, still available for streaming!—reality is often kind of crap when it comes to resolutions. See, for instance, the ongoing efforts to see the Menendez brothers get either a new trial, or at least a resentencing hearing, which picked up some steam last year after a series of documentaries (and Ryan Murphy’s dramatization) focused renewed interest on the case. But then, wouldn’t you know it, the D.A. who was amenable to the concept lost his election, and the hard-liner who beat him has been doing everything in his power to kick the can on potential clemency down the road. (And if he can embarrass California governor Gavin Newsom in the process, so much the better).

Which is how you get days in court like the one that went down earlier today, when (per Deadline) a judge initially ruled that the brothers’ resentencing hearing for their parents’ murders would go forward, despite D.A. Nathan Hochman’s attempts to stall it—only to go ahead and end up changing his mind. Rather than any kind of resolution (or at least the start of resolution; the hearings are expected to stretch for some time as a court tries to decide if Erik and Lyle’s life without parole sentences should be changed, in light of evidence that might support their claims that they killed their parents due to their father’s sexual abuse), we instead got some new clips of Hochman trading barbs with defense attorney Mark Geragos. The former says he’s completely open to the idea of resentencing… some day, after the Mendezes have exited their “bunker of lies” about their parents’ murder. Geragos and colleague Bryan Freedman, meanwhile, accused Hochman of holding a personal grudge against their clients, declaring they no longer have any faith in him to impartially handle this case. It’s juicy stuff, certainly, but also a little familiar; not the stuff of a true finale.

Which will not arrive until at least next month, ostensibly so all involved can look over a partially completed risk-assessment report recently ordered from the state parole board by Newsom. Hochman (who ran for this most recent election as an Independent, after running for California Attorney General as a Republican in 2022), has made more than one press statement reminding the public that Democrat Newsom could always just pardon the very famous convicted murderers if he’s so inclined; Newsom has not taken him up on that offer, obviously, but he did order initial steps on the risk assessment, which could be required if a resentencing makes them suddenly eligible for parole. The next hearing in the case is now set for May 9, but honestly, there’s no guarantee that it’ll make it to the topic of resentencing at all; Hochman, clearly, is happy to stall this as much as he can, and so far the never-swift wheels of justice seem to be making it pretty easy to do.

 
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