Menendez brothers are set to appear in court in January

At a status hearing for Erik and Lyle Menendez in Los Angeles on Monday, the resentencing trial which could grant freedom for the pair was pushed back from the original date of Dec. 11 to Jan. 30, 2025.
According to CNN, the trial is being pushed back to allow the incoming Los Angeles district attorney, Nathan Hochman, to review the case and to allow Judge Michael Jesic time to review documents related to the case.
Both brothers were scheduled to appear virtually for the hearing from the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, but technical issues prevented this.
Erik and Lyle Menendez have been in prison since being sentenced to life without parole in 1995 for the murder of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez, per The Associated Press.
According to The BBC, the murder took place in 1989 and the brothers were first arrested in 1990. In 1993, their first trials ended in mistrial and they were convicted of first-degree murder during their second trials in 1995.
Both brothers admitted to killing their parents but argued it was an act of self-defense after years of physical, emotional and sexual abuse, per the BBC.
In May 2023, the brothers’ lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition “asking a judge to consider new evidence of their father’s sexual abuse,” per the AP.
The new evidence that will be considered in the resentencing is a 1988 letter Erik wrote to his uncle Andy Cano describing the sexual abuse he endured from his father, and the fact that Roy Rossello recently came forward saying he was drugged and raped by Jose Menendez in the ’80s when he was a teenager.
“Had these two pieces of evidence been available during the brothers’ trial, prosecutors would not have been able to argue that there was no corroboration of sexual abuse, or that their father Jose Menendez was not the ‘kind of man that would’ abuse children, the petition argues,” according to the AP.
Renewed attention was brought to the Menendez brothers’ case this year after Netflix released the drama “Monsters: Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” as well as the docuseries “The Menendez Brothers.”
Another way the pair could be freed is clemency, which would have to be granted by California Gov. Gavin Newson who said he won’t make a decision until Hochman reviews the case, per the AP.