--- title: The Family of the Menendez Brothers Are Calling for Their Release | TIME description: Family members of Erik and Lyle Menendez, the two brothers serving a life sentence for fatally shooting their parents—Jose and Kitty Menendez—in their Beverly Hills home in 1989, called for the pair’s release and resentencing at a Wednesday news conference in Los Angeles. canonical: https://time.com/video/aMRlNIZG/ og:title: The Family of the Menendez Brothers Are Calling for Their Release og:description: Family members of Erik and Lyle Menendez, the two brothers serving a life sentence for fatally shooting their parents—Jose and Kitty Menendez—in their Beverly Hills home in 1989, called for the pair’s release and resentencing at a Wednesday news conference in Los Angeles. og:url: https://time.com/video/aMRlNIZG/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aMRlNIZG/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Family of the Menendez Brothers Are Calling for Their Release twitter:description: Family members of Erik and Lyle Menendez, the two brothers serving a life sentence for fatally shooting their parents—Jose and Kitty Menendez—in their Beverly Hills home in 1989, called for the pair’s release and resentencing at a Wednesday news conference in Los Angeles. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aMRlNIZG/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * U.S. # The Family of the Menendez Brothers Are Calling for Their Release > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: The Family of the Menendez Brothers Are Calling for Their Release [Watch (HLS stream): The Family of the Menendez Brothers Are Calling for Their Release](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aMRlNIZG.m3u8) (4:18)  _Published 2024-10-25. Family members of Erik and Lyle Menendez, the two brothers serving a life sentence for fatally shooting their parents—Jose and Kitty Menendez—in their Beverly Hills home in 1989, called for the pair’s release and resentencing at a Wednesday news conference in Los Angeles._ --- Oct 25, 2024 5:20 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Resentencing Brings Menendez Brothers One Step Closer to Freedom](/video/cN4F3b8g/) ### Resentencing Brings Menendez Brothers One Step Closer to Freedom [Los Angeles DA Says He Won’t Support Resentencing the Menendez Brothers](/video/y7G2RRis/) ### Los Angeles DA Says He Won’t Support Resentencing the Menendez Brothers [New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez - "I Will Be Vindicated"](/video/imULZP77/) ### New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez - "I Will Be Vindicated" --- ## Transcript I have to tell you unequivocally that we don't have a universal agreement. There are people in the office that strongly believe that the Menendez brothers should stay in prison the rest of their life, and they do not believe that they were molested. And there are people in the office that strongly believe that they should be released immediately and that they were in fact molested. I have to tell you that after a very careful review of all the arguments that were made for people on both sides of this equation, I came to a place where I believe that under the law re sentencing is appropriate. And I am going to recommend that to a court tomorrow. We are going to recommend to the Court that the life without the possibility of parole be removed and that they will be sentenced for murder, which because there are two murders involved, that will be 50 years to life. However, because of their age, under the law, since they were under 26 years of age, at the time that the crimes occurred, they will be eligible for parole immediately. When you look at the case of the Menendez Brothers, you see two very young people. One was 19 and the other one was 21 when they committed this horrible acts, and I want to underline they were horrible acts. There is no excuse for murder. I will never imply that what we're doing here is to excuse that behavior. Because even if you get abuse, the right path is to call the police, seek help. But I understand also how sometimes people get desperate. We often see women, for instance, they have been battered for years, and sometimes they will murder their abuser out of desperation. And I do believe that the brothers were subjected to a tremendous amount of dysfunction in the home and molestation. Even though they didn't think that they would ever be left free, they engaged in a different journey, a journey of redemption and a journey of rehabilitation. They have been in prison for nearly 35 years. I believe that they have paid their debt to society. And the system provides a vehicle for their case to be reviewed by a parole board. And if the parole concurs with my assessment, and it will be their decision. They will be released accordingly. This step gives us all hope that the truth will finally be heard and that Lyle and Eric can begin to heal from the trauma of their past. Thank you so much for your time. We're just very, very hopeful, very hopeful that we get them released. I still I said it the other day when we were all at the criminal courts building, nothing would make me more happy than to celebrate Thanksgiving with them, with Joan and have them out. I believe that they have gotten work. I believe that they are 100% on board with what we're doing. I don't know why they wouldn't. They've waited like I say, they lost the last appellate argument roughly 2005. We have already put together a re entry plan. If we do the hearing, and it's not by stipulation, that will be what we will provide to the Court. We would not be revealing any of that right now for security reasons, but we have a robust re entry plan that we have already previewed with the district attorney, which went into their calculation as to recommending resents. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Family of the Menendez Brothers Are Calling for Their Release","description":"Family members of Erik and Lyle Menendez, the two brothers serving a life sentence for fatally shooting their parents—Jose and Kitty Menendez—in their Beverly Hills home in 1989, called for the pair’s release and resentencing at a Wednesday news conference in Los Angeles. 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