As hope for a prison release for convicted double murderers Erik and Lyle Menendez slimmed on Monday (now that a high-profile and highly politicized resentencing bid has all but vanished), California Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to take the playbook he conceived for the brothers behind and apply it to potential clemency cases statewide.
On Monday, it was reported that Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman’s office will withdraw his predecessor’s request to reduce the Menendezes’ sentences, saying the brothers have failed to show that they have complete insight into their crimes. They have been imprisoned in California since their 1996 double-murder for the 1989 murder of their parents, in what they claim was the culmination of years of sexual abuse and other domestic horrors also self-defense; as others believe, and a jury of 12 men and women agreed, it was a brutal and unflinching crime whose motive was greed. A second jury trial saw them convicted and sent to jail for the rest of their lives.
The announcement of Hichman’s door-slamming decision on the case on Monday has now essentially ended one of the three legal avenues to freedom the brothers and their lawyers embarked on after strong new evidence emerged over the past few years that verified their initial defense of long-term abuse by their father. But last week, the brothers closely watched the legal path involving a reduced sentence, which seemed so viable, began to fall apart as Hochman finally, after months of silence on their cases, let his opinion on the prison rehabilitation of the double-murderer inmates be publicly known. And Hochman didn’t have many nice things to say, lying. But days later, a new hero seemed to emerge for the Free the Menendez crowd, who must be credited for drumming up support on TikTok, which, as the show’s creators said, caught one’s eye and led to the massive hit series.
On February 26, Newsom signaled what looks a lot like his support for the release of Erik and Lyle when he called for the California Parole Board to conduct a risk assessment investigation of the inmates. The risk assessment seeks to conclude whether the brothers — who for decades have been model prisoners who have focused on helping other inmates heal trauma— now pose an unreasonable risk to public safety if they are released.
Newsom told listeners on his podcast last week that his office conducts “dozens and dozens of these clemency reviews on a consistent basis” and warned that this move is no indicator that the brothers’ fate has been determined.
“This process simply provides more transparency, which I think is important in this case,” he said to his listeners. Now, it appears he feels that transparency is crucial for all potential clemency cases as he’s codifying the means he’s ordered in the closely-watched Menendez case to all of the clemency cases that come to the governor’s office. In practice, this means that the parole board investigations for potential will begin as the other gears start to turn and move inmates hoping for prison release — for Newsom, these are typically cases where parole is introduced and granted via a reduced sentence.
The proposed revision Newsom has decided to run up the flagpole tells us a few important things regarding the protracted Menendez case’s fu: That 90-day widow for the board’assessment will adhered to and therefore there will be no decisions made between now and June regarding the brothers’ future. Also, the public is soon going to throw more support behind freeing the Menendez, as any report on the two detailing their decades in prison will reflect their aforementioned work with other traumatized inmates, the massive mural project they organized, and near total lack of violent behaviour. What it doesn’t do is provide any real indication of whether he’ll grant clemency to them.
“That’s the X-factor.” Robert Rand, a journalist and author who wrote the definitive guide to the Menendez story, told The Hollywood Reporter. “We just don’t know what he’s going to do. I anticipate that the risk assessment evaluation will come back and say that they are not a danger to the people of the state of California. And so yeah, just a question. Newsom has got to come to the rescue here. And I believe he will.”
This streamlined investigative process would be followed by a board holding a hearing, submitting its recommendation and the report to the governor’s office for possible clemency — and to courts for potential resentencing. The idea is to provide transparency and understanding on how these decisions are made — and are, as indicated, with community safety considered
“Justice may be blind, but we shouldn’t be in the dark when determining if someone is rehabilitated, safe, and ready to leave prison,” Newsom said in a statement. “This new process will help further ensure victims and district attorneys are part of the commutation process and improve public safety by front-loading the risk assessment like we’re doing in the Menendez case.”
Gov. Newsom has granted 208 pardons and 141 commutations in his six years in office. He is term-limited and, therefore, will not be running for re-election. The California Parole Board freed just 1425 of 4,072 inmates seeking their freedom in 2023.
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