Could Governor’s 'Risk Assessment' Request Mean Freedom for Menendez Brothers?

California Governor Gavin Newsom has asked the parole board to conduct a comprehensive risk assessment investigation into whether Lyle and Erik Menendez, who have been serving life sentences for the shotgun murders of their parents Jose and Kitty, are risks to the public if they go free.

“The Governor has ordered the Parole Board to conduct a Comprehensive Risk Assessment of both Erik and Lyle Menendez,” attorneys Mark Geragos and Cliff Gardner wrote in a Wednesday, Feb. 26, statement obtained by PEOPLE.

“Along with scores of Jose and Kitty Menendez’s family members who have fought for years to see Erik and Lyle have a chance to finally come home, we are grateful for the Governor’s decision,” says the statement. “The family realizes that the Governor’s action does not mean he will commute the sentences. Instead, this initial step reflects the Governor’s considered decision to at least obtain the information required to make a fair decision as to whether Erik and Lyle, after 35 years in prison, have done the hard work necessary to have a chance at a life outside prison.  Jose and Kitty’s family members, as well as Erik and Lyle, can ask for nothing more.”

Newsom spoke about the plan on his personal podcast.

“The question for the board is a rather simple one,” Newsom said. “Do Eric and Lyle Menendez pose a current, what we call, unreasonable risk to public safety?”

Newsom said the risk assessment investigation will be conducted by “experts in public safety as well as forensic psychologists.”

“There’s no guarantee of outcome here,” Newsom added. “My office conducts dozens and dozens of these clemency reviews on a consistent basis. But this process simply provides more transparency, which I think is important in this case, as well as provides us more due diligence before I make any determination for clemency.”

In October 2024, Erik and Lyle’s legal team asked the Governor for clemency. Former Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón also supported their request. On Nov. 18, Newsom said he would hold off deciding about possible clemency until after the incoming Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman reviewed the case.

The Menendez brothers are still awaiting a decision by Hochman about a resentencing motion filed last October by Gascón, who lost the 2024 election to Hochman.

The resentencing hearing is scheduled to begin March 20.

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The Menendez brothers were dealt a severe blow on Feb. 21 when Hochman announced he would oppose a habeas corpus petition filed by the brothers in 2023. The brothers have long claimed they murdered their parents because they feared for their lives after years of alleged sexual abuse by their father, Jose.

The petition focused on sexual abuse allegations by Roy Rosselló, a Menudo boy band member, against Jose, whom he claims raped him in the 1980s. It also pointed to a letter Erik purportedly wrote to his now-deceased cousin Andy Cano describing his father’s alleged sexual abuse prior to the killings.

Hochman cast doubt on the letter’s legitimacy and argued that the Menendez brothers hadn’t known of Rosselló’s claims in 1989. “It would fail the admissibility standard,” he said at a press conference. “They first found out about this over 30 years later after the killings.”

Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18 when they killed their parents using 12-gauge shotguns in their Beverly Hills, Calif., home on Aug. 20, 1989.

Prosecutors at the time argued during their trial that the two brothers killed their parents because of greed and cited their lavish spending spree after the slayings.

In 1996, the siblings were convicted of the first-degree murders and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.