Erik and Lyle Menendez, convicted in the 1989 killings of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez, have been granted an early parole suitability hearing tentatively scheduled for March 2027, according to a report by ABC News.
The move follows the brothers’ resentencing in May 2025, when a court reduced their punishment from life without the possibility of parole to 50 years to life, a change that made them eligible to seek release for the first time since their convictions decades ago.
The brothers’ family welcomed the development. “For almost 40 years, Erik and Lyle have worked to take responsibility for their actions, confront and heal from the unimaginable abuse and trauma they endured, grow as individuals, and dedicate themselves to serving others,” the family said.
Speaking to ABC News-owned station KABC, the family added: “We will always be profoundly grateful that they have been resentenced and that our family can now imagine a future in which they are once again part of our everyday lives.”
The path to this hearing has not been smooth. In August 2024, the brothers were denied parole after prison violations that included the possession of illegal cellphones. Erik Menendez was also reportedly linked at one point to a prison gang.
In seeking their release, the family has pointed to rehabilitative work the brothers have undertaken during more than three decades of incarceration, including establishing a prison hospice program and launching a facility beautification project.
A Case That Divided Two Juries
The brothers first stood trial in 1993, with separate juries hearing each case. Prosecutors argued the killings were motivated by financial gain, pointing to a spending spree the brothers went on afterward. The defense did not dispute that the brothers killed their parents but argued the act was committed in self-defense after years of emotional and sexual abuse by their father.
That first trial ended in January 1994 with both juries deadlocked, resulting in mistrials. The brothers were tried again in late 1995, this time before a single jury, which convicted both Erik and Lyle Menendez of first-degree murder in March 1996.
Nearly three decades later, the case has returned to the spotlight as the two men, now in their fifties, prepare to make their case for freedom before a California parole board.
