Judge guidelines Menendez brothers’ listening to will go forward regardless of district lawyer’s opposition | EUROtoday

A California decide dominated Friday that the resentencing hearings for Erik and Lyle Menendez, who had been convicted of murdering their dad and mom over three many years in the past, will go forward as deliberate.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic mentioned following arguments that the listening to will proceed subsequent Thursday.

Deputy LA District Attorney Habib Balian had argued earlier that the brothers hadn’t taken accountability for his or her crime, and may stay in jail as a result of they “haven’t changed” since their conviction.

He additionally claimed that former District Attorney George Gascón’s transfer to request lowered sentencing had been politically motivated at a time he was struggling to be elected. Gascón, a progressive, had advocated for the brothers to obtain a sentence that will make them eligible for fast parole.

Gascón’s successor, District Attorney Nathan Hochman, reversed course on the brothers, and submitted a movement final month to withdraw the resentencing request.

The brothers’ lawyer, Mark Geragos, harshly criticized the prosecution Friday for displaying ugly crime scene photographs in what he mentioned was an try to restage the unique trial.

Referring to the prosecution’s arguments, Jesic famous in his ruling that “everything you argued today is absolutely fair game for the resentencing hearing.”

The brothers had been sentenced to life in jail with out the opportunity of parole at ages 18 and 21 after being convicted of murdering their dad and mom, Jose and Kitty Menendez, of their Beverly Hills house in 1989.

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In 2014, California handed a regulation permitting inmates who had dedicated offenses earlier than they turned 26 and had spent 25 years behind bars to ask for youth offender parole.

While the protection argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, prosecutors mentioned the brothers killed their dad and mom for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.

On the evening of the murders, Jose and Kitty Menendez had been watching a film of their theater den when their sons entered and shot them.

The brothers had been convicted in 1996 and have spent 30 years behind bars, and had been most not too long ago being held on the Richard J Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County.

Friday’s listening to grew to become heated because the prosecution spent practically two hours arguing the brothers hadn’t been rehabilitated, in accordance with information experiences. No cameras had been allowed contained in the courtroom.

Geragos accused the prosecution of grandstanding and attempting to relitigate the case, claiming “they don’t want to finish today,” Newsweek reported.

Geragos additionally accused the prosecution of retraumatizing relations by flashing photographs of the bloody crime scene.

Balian insisted the “query is did they study crucial lesson of all: Did they study the severity and depravity of their conduct?” he asked the court. “You should take duty. If you do not have perception … you would possibly repeat the previous.”

Most of the brothers’ relations assist their launch. One relative, Milton Andersen, Kitty Menendez’s brother, didn’t, however he handed away final month.

A handful of celebrities attended the listening to, together with Actor Cooper Koch, who performed Erik Menendez within the 2024 collection Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

There has been a lot debate surrounding whether or not the brothers would possibly pose a threat to public security.

Governor Gavin Newsom has requested a state parole board to conduct a threat evaluation. The outcomes are anticipated by June 13.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.