DA seeks Menendez brothers resentencing in wake of Ryan Murphy show, Netflix doc

Lyle and Erik Menendez might soon be freed after spending 34 years behind bars for murdering their parents.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced at a press conference Thursday that he will recommend a resentencing of the Menendez brothers that would make them eligible for immediate parole. “I believe that they have paid their debt to society,” Gascón said.

The bombshell news comes amid renewed interest in the Menendez brothers prompted by two Netflix projects: Ryan Murphy’s docudrama series Monsters: The Lyle and Eric Menendez Story, which premiered in September, and the streamer’s true-crime documentary The Menendez Brothers, which landed earlier this month.

Gascón said the brothers’ recent screen treatment had “brought a tremendous amount of public attention” to the case. “Frankly, our office got flooded with requests for information, and even though this case was already scheduled to be heard in late November, I decided to move this forward because quite frankly, we do not have enough resources to handle all the requests.”

Monsters stars Nicholas Alexander Chavez as Lyle Menendez; Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez; Javier Bardem as their father, José Menendez; and Chloë Sevigny as their mother, Kitty Menendez. The series marks the second entry in the Monster anthology, which began in 2022 with Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.

Representatives for Murphy, Chavez, and Koch didn’t immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s request for comment.

Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted in 1996 for the 1989 killings of their parents. The brothers were first tried in separate cases, which resulted in deadlocked juries. They were ultimately convicted in a joint case that controversially excluded testimony alleging that their father sexually abused them. The brothers are currently serving life sentences without the possibility of parole at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego.

Gascón explained that because the Menendez brothers were under 26 when the murders were committed, and they have already served almost 35 years in prison, they could be eligible for parole immediately. However, a judge must first decide whether to resentence the brothers, and if that happens, their case would also need to be reviewed by a parole board.

Some of the Menendezes’ family members held a press conference last week expressing their support for a resentencing. “If Lyle and Erik’s case was heard today, with the understanding we now have about abuse and PTSD, there is no doubt in my mind their sentencing would have been very different,” Anamaria Baralt, the niece of José Menendez, said at the press conference, per ABC.

Shortly after the release of Monsters, Erik Menendez criticized the series in a statement that his wife, Tammi, shared on social media. “It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent,” he wrote. “Murphy shapes his horrible narrative through vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and of me and disheartening slander.”

Murphy responded to Menendez’s criticism by defending the series. “The Menendez brothers should be sending me flowers,” he said. “They haven’t had so much attention in 30 years. And it’s gotten the attention of not only this country, but all over the world. There’s sort of an outpouring of interest in their lives and in the case. I know for a fact that many people have offered to help them because of the interest of my show and what we did.”

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