(NewsNation) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that Lyle and Erik Menendez will appear before the state’s parole board June 13 for risk assessments that could impact their bid for freedom.
“Both Lyle and Erik Menendez independently will have their final hearing. A report will be submitted to me on the 13th of June for consideration,” Newsom said on his iHeart Radio podcast. “We will submit that report to the judge for the resentencing and that will weigh into our independent analysis of whether or not to move forward with the clemency application.”
The announcement comes just one day after Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman withdrew his office’s support for resentencing the brothers, who were convicted of killing their parents in their Beverly Hills home in 1989.
Hochman said Monday he would not consider supporting their resentencing unless they admitted to what he called “16 unacknowledged lies,” including their claims of self-defense and allegations that their father drugged and raped a friend.
Alexandra Kazarian, a member of the Menendez defense team and senior trial attorney at Geragos and Geragos, criticized Hochman’s stance.
“Nathan Hochman has made it very clear that he is interested in keeping the conviction in place,” Kazarian said Tuesday on NewsNation’s “Banfield.” “He and the people that he is representing, who are the district attorneys who were involved in the first trial, are very, very interested in retribution and punishment.”
She added: “It’s wonderful that the governor has stepped in to do that because the DA’s office obviously has no interest in looking at the rehabilitation.”
Mark Geragos, the brothers’ lead attorney, responded to Hochman’s demands, saying, “Every single one of those things that Hochman mentioned was either abandoned or was cross-examined in the first trial. This gentleman, this DA, retraumatizes the family repeatedly.”
A Menendez family member has sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office asking that Hochman be removed from the case, describing him as “hostile, dismissive and patronizing to the family” during January meetings.
The brothers, who were convicted of killing their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home, have maintained they acted in self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father.
They are scheduled to appear before a judge March 20 for a resentencing hearing that remains on the calendar despite Hochman’s opposition.
The Menendez brothers have been serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for more than 30 years.