LOS ANGELES (Court TV) — The California Board of Parole has granted the Menendez brothers another chance for release, scheduling an early parole suitability hearing for 2027.
FILE – Lyle, left, and Erik Menendez leave a courtroom in Santa Monica, Calif., Aug. 6, 1990, after a judge ruled that conversations between the brothers and their psychologist after their parents were slain were not privileged and could be used as evidence. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)
Lyle Menendez, 58, and Erik Menendez, 55, were originally sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murdering their parents. The brothers fatally shot their father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion on Aug. 20, 1989. Lyle and Erik Menendez originally claimed they were not home at the time of the killings; they later admitted to shooting their parents but maintained they had acted in self-defense after years of alleged sexual abuse at the hands of their father. Prosecutors argued the brothers killed the victims because they wanted a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
While Lyle and Erik Menendez were initially not eligible for release, they were resentenced in May 2025 after a change in California law for youthful offenders.
Two commissioners on the parole board denied Lyle Menendez parole in August 2025, noting he displayed “anti-social personality traits like deception, minimization and rule-breaking that lie beneath that positive surface,” and citing his behavior behind bars. The board denied Erik Menendez’s bid for parole days earlier, also in August 2025, for similar reasons after the board determined that his misbehavior in prison made him a risk to the public if released. Both brothers, the board found, illegally possessed cellphones while behind bars; the commissioners questioned how the pair could be trusted in society if they couldn’t follow prison regulations.
Court TV’s Trial Archives: CA v. Menendez (1993)
After their parole was denied in 2025, both brothers were initially told they would have to wait three years to apply again; the California Board of Parole granted a request to advance the date and tentatively scheduled the hearing for March 2027.
“For almost 40 years, Erik and Lyle have worked to take responsibility for their actions,” the Menendez family said in a statement to Court TV. “Erik and Lyle were once sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. 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 daily lives.”
