The Menendez brothers had a real shot at freedom, but Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman is opposed to a new trial.
For a while, it seemed as though Erik and Lyle Menendez could actually be released from prison, but they may have missed their opportunity as Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman is opposed to a new trial for the brothers.
Former D.A. George Gascón was seeking a reduced sentence for the brothers. This would have lowered their sentence from life without the possibility of parole to 50 years to life. If approved, the Menendez brothers would have immediately been eligible for parole. Unfortunately, Gascón didn’t win reelection, and Hochman isn’t likely to be an alley in the brother’s quest for freedom. In a recent press conference, he called out Erik and Lyle for “a continuum of lies and deceit and fabricating stories.“
“We conclude in our informal response that the court should deny the current habeas corpus petition,” Hochman said. “We do not believe they qualify to get a new trial.“
The Menendez brothers have been seeking a trial to present new evidence. One of those new pieces is a letter allegedly written by Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano eight months before the murders, but Hochman doesn’t think it’s credible. “So, to say that this letter was not discovered until after the trial, as it has been alleged in the defense papers, we believe is just wrong,” he said. “We argue in many different ways, it is not credible evidence. It calls into question whether or not this is in fact a 1988 letter written by Erik Menendez to Andy Cano about this sexual abuse.“
However, Hochman cautioned that a final decision hasn’t been made yet. “We have not made a decision on the resentencing,” he explained. “We are still in the process of not just analyzing trial evidence, but analyzing the rehabilitation and the other evidence that’s required in a resentencing motion.“
The Menendez family was quick to respond, criticizing Hochman’s comments in a letter. “District Attorney Nathan Hochman took us right back to 1996 today. He opened the wounds we have spent decades trying to heal. He didn’t listen to us,” reads the letter. “We are profoundly disappointed by his remarks, in which he effectively tore up new evidence and discredited the trauma they experienced. To suggest that the years of abuse couldn’t have led to the tragedy in 1989 is not only outrageous, but also dangerous. Abuse does not exist in a vacuum. It leaves lasting scars, rewires the brain, and traps victims in cycles of fear and trauma. To say it played no role in Erik and Lyle’s action is to ignore decades of psychological research and basic human understanding.“
