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The legal cases for Erik and Lyle Menendez will be handled separately, new Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman said on Monday.
“This is an important decision, although that decision is not going to get a more rigorous review of the facts and law than any other decision,” Hochman told NBC News.
The update is the latest in a winding road of headlines regarding the fate of the two brothers, who are currently serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for killing their parents in 1989 in California prison. The brothers admitted to the murder, but have been model inmates for nearly three decades since then. Recently, Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story from Ryan Murphy as well as the Peacock docuseries, Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed have led to an uptick in public interest regarding their story, which has included several appeals and now, a petition for a habeas corpus hearing.
Previous L.A. district attorney George Gascón had bolstered the process to free the brothers, but many have expressed curiosity whether the incoming D.A. will handle the situation differently.
Hochman, a Beverly Hills native, in some ways won his election against Gascón by positioning himself as the tougher-on-crime candidate, saying he will take a “hard middle approach” to crime in the city.
“Starting today, I will get access to confidential prison files that number in the 1000s of pages [and] trial transcripts from two months-long trials,” he told TMZ when he first gained access to the Menendez file. “I’ll get a chance now to meet with the prosecutors, law enforcement officers, the defense counsel [and] victim family members and then we’re going to look at what the different motions are that are currently pending.”
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