The new district attorney of Los Angeles County said he would ask a court to withdraw a resentencing petition put forward by his predecessor in the case of Lyle and Erik Menendez, two brothers who brutally murdered their parents more than 35 years ago.
But a similar effort initiated by a court is expected to go forward, and the chief prosecutor said that his office was prepared for a hearing on that effort, meaning that the process will continue.
Thus, the announcement by the district attorney, Nathan J. Hochman, at a news conference in downtown Los Angeles is largely symbolic — a high-profile statement of values by a top prosecutor who was elected in November on promises to take a tougher approach on crime.
It reversed an effort begun last year by Mr. Hochman’s predecessor, George Gascón, a politically progressive county prosecutor who formally asked a judge to resentence the brothers in a way that would make them eligible for parole.
The matter is far from resolved. Besides the court-initiated review of resentencing, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California is separately considering a clemency petition in the case; he took action last month to move that process forward.
Mr. Hochman spent much of his news conference retelling the gruesome details of the killings carried out by the brothers, and how they covered it up. The brothers, he said, had lied over and over again through the years.
“In looking at then, whether or not the Menendezes have exhibited the full insight and complete responsibility for their crimes, they have not,” Mr. Hochman said.
In 1989, Jose and Kitty Menendez were watching television and eating ice cream in the living room of their mansion in Beverly Hills, Calif., when they were killed by their sons with shotgun blasts.
The saga of the Menendez brothers has long captured public imagination, and two television series about their story appeared on Netflix last year, bringing renewed attention to the case and intensifying legal efforts to free the brothers.
At the same time, in the age of social media, the case has attracted the interest of young people who were not even alive at the time of the crime, and who have mobilized online to push for the brothers’ release.
There are now three active legal paths to a re-examination of the case that could lead to Lyle and Erik regaining their freedom.
One is a resentencing track, which was the focus of Monday’s news conference. The court began these proceedings itself, and, separately, Mr. Gascón filed a petition last year to push for resentencing. Mr. Gascón’s petition argued that the brothers deserved a chance at parole because of their exemplary conduct in prison. Mr. Gascón said the brothers had “paid their debt to society,” and asked a court to resentence the brothers to prison terms of 50 years to life, instead of life without parole. That change would automatically make the brothers immediately eligible for parole, because they were under 26 years old when the crime occurred (Lyle was 21, and Erik was 18).
On Monday, Mr. Hochman said the court-initiated proceedings would go forward. (A Los Angeles Superior Court judge had scheduled a hearing on resentencing for March 20 and 21.) But Mr. Hochman said his office would ask the court to withdraw Mr. Gascón’s motion for resentencing.
The second path is the clemency petition on the desk of Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, who has indicated that he is supportive of re-examining the case. He recently ordered the state’s parole board to conduct a risk assessment to determine whether the brothers would be a public safety threat if they were released.
On Monday, Mr. Newsom’s office made tweaks to the state parole process. The changes would allow the parole board to make recommendations to the governor on commutations, as was already being done in the Menendez case.
“Justice may be blind, but we shouldn’t be in the dark when determining if someone is rehabilitated, safe, and ready to leave prison,” Mr. 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.”
The third path is a habeas corpus petition seeking a new trial, on the grounds that newly unearthed evidence of sexual abuse by Jose Menendez, the father of Lyle and Erik, would have altered the outcome of their trial if it had been available then. This is considered the least likely path, and Mr. Hochman announced in February that he was opposed to a new trial, saying that the claims of sexual abuse would not have changed the first trial’s outcome.
The brothers are currently serving their life sentences at a state prison near San Diego, and correctional officers and others have filled the brothers’ prison files with commendations for their work in prison. The brothers have started self-help and meditation groups, worked with wheelchair-bound inmates, earned college degrees and painted murals as part of a “green space” project.
The brothers’ extended family have rallied to their cause, saying Lyle and Erik endured enormous trauma at the hands of their father, have been rehabilitated and deserve a chance to rebuild their lives outside of prison. One of the few family members who publicly opposed the brothers’ bid for freedom, Milton Andersen, an uncle, died recently.
Earlier this year, a group of more than 20 family members made the case to Mr. Hochman that the Menendez brothers deserved to be released. But the relationship between the family and the prosecutor has since soured.
In a letter submitted to the United States Attorney’s Office last week, Tamara Lucero Goodell, a cousin of the brothers, argued that her rights had been violated by Mr. Hochman during those meetings. According to her letter, the prosecutor had “verbally and emotionally” re-traumatized the family by shaming them with a “dismissive and patronizing tone.”
On a T.M.Z. podcast co-hosted by their lawyer, the brothers said last month that if they were freed, they could continue in the outside world some of the work they have undertaken behind bars. They said some of their relatives have grown anxious waiting for hearings and decisions on their fate, but Lyle Menendez said he and his brother remained “cautiously hopeful.”
“For Erik and I, you know, we’ve been incarcerated 35 years,” he said, “and we’ve sort of developed a peace and a patience that, you know, might not make much sense to someone who’s free.”
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