\tLos Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman met Friday with the family of the Menendez brothers, as he weighs whether to pursue a resentencing that would allow them to walk free.<\/p>\n
\tThe family has pushed for Erik and Lyle Menendez to be released, nearly 35 years after they were taken into custody for the murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty. The family argues that the brothers killed their parents in \u201cimperfect\u201d self-defense, after years of Jose\u2019s sexual abuse. <\/p>\n
\tAt a press conference Friday afternoon, Hochman said he had a \u201cproductive\u201d meeting with the family, and said he has not made up his mind. <\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt was a very productive conversion over a number of hours,\u201d he said. \t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t \t\t\tPopular on Variety\t\t \t \t\t \t \tFormer District Attorney George Gasc\u00f3n filed a petition in October to have their sentences reduced, which would make them eligible for parole. A hearing on that request is set for Jan. 30-31.<\/p>\n
\tHochman, who defeated Gasc\u00f3n in November and was sworn in last month, was sharply critical of his predecessor during the campaign. He could withdraw Gasc\u00f3n\u2019s petition, though the judge could proceed with the resentencing regardless of Hochman\u2019s opinion.<\/p>\n
\tHochman said his office is reviewing thousands of pages of transcripts and court records, and expects to have a decision by the Jan. 30 hearing date.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt\u2019s taking a lot of time. It\u2019s one of those decisions you want to make sure you get right,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of free time in my life right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tMore than 20 members of the Menendez and Andersen families met with Hochman. In a statement before the meeting, the family said they were \u201chopeful for an open and fair discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cDespite the abuse they endured as children and the unfairness of their current sentence, Erik\u00a0and Lyle Menendez have spent the last three decades taking responsibility for their actions and\u00a0contributing positively to their community through leadership and rehabilitation,\u201d the family said in the statement.<\/p>\n
\tThe brothers\u2019 lawyer, Mark Geragos, was expected to hold a press conference Friday to discuss the meeting, but canceled it. The family did not attend Hochman\u2019s press conference.<\/p>\n
\tJose and Kitty Menendez were killed by shotgun blasts in their Beverly Hills home in 1989. The brothers were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole after being convicted of first degree murder in 1996. \t<\/p>\n
\tOne family member, Kitty\u2019s brother Milton Andersen, has opposed the resentencing. His attorney, Kathleen Cady, has been hired to serve in Hochman\u2019s administration, prompting the Menendez family lawyer to accuse Hochman of a conflict of interest. The lawyer, Bryan Freedman, has called for the case to be taken over by the state attorney general. <\/p>\n
\tHochman said that issue did not come up during the meeting on Friday, and said there is no conflict of interest.<\/p>\n
\tThe case has drawn renewed public attention thanks to the Netflix series \u201cMonsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,\u201d which was released in September. The family has also argued that new evidence supports their claims that they were abused, and that they are entitled to a new trial.<\/p>\n
\tGov. Gavin Newsom is also expected to consider a request for clemency, though he has indicated he will defer to Hochman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman met Friday with the family of the Menendez brothers, as he weighs whether to pursue a resentencing that would allow them to walk free. The family has pushed for Erik and Lyle Menendez to be released, nearly 35 years after they were taken into custody for the murders of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}