After decades behind bars, Erik and Lyle Menendez get an earlier shot at parole

Erik and Lyle Menendez are eligible to go before a parole board again next March, about 17 months earlier than expected.

The brothers were originally sentenced in 1996 to life in prison for the 1989 fatal shootings of their father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion. A Los Angeles judge reduced their sentences to 50 years to life in May 2025, making them eligible for parole because they were under age 26 when they committed their crimes.

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They were denied parole in August 2025, with the California Board of Parole saying Lyle Menendez still displayed "anti-social personality traits like deception" and that Erik Menendez broke prison rules by repeatedly using a cellphone.

The brothers were then eligible to apply for another hearing in August 2028. That's now been tentatively moved up to March by the parole board after the brothers' petitions for earlier hearings were granted on Friday.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation allows eligible prisoners to seek earlier parole if there is "a change in circumstances or new information indicating the person may be suitable for parole."

The department did not provide details about why the brothers were granted an earlier hearing. Spokesperson Kyle Buis said the Board of Parole Hearings conducted "standard administrative reviews" and "determined that the Menendez brothers' next parole hearings will proceed."

The brothers' attorney declined to comment through a family spokesperson.

Michael Beckman, a California attorney who has focused on parole law since 1985, said parole denials are eligible to be reviewed after a year to determine whether the next parole hearing can be moved up.

He said that, in theory, getting an advance hearing could signal inmates have a likely chance of getting granted parole.

"But it doesn't work that way. It really depends upon who the commissioners are, what exactly they did to merit getting an advance, what problems they had coming in," said Beckman, who represented Bruce Davis, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson who was convicted in two 1969 slayings.

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Davis has been recommended for parole seven times, but the decisions were reversed by three consecutive governors and Davis remains in prison.

"The Menendez are a very high-profile case so that tends to make things harder," he said.

The case has long captivated true crime enthusiasts, with the brothers amassing public support in recent years after shows on Netflix renewed interest.

Weeks after the board rejected their release last year, a Los Angeles judge denied their petition seeking a review of their convictions based on new evidence supporting their claims of sexual abuse by their father.

"For almost 40 years, Erik and Lyle have worked to take responsibility for their actions, confront and heal from the unimaginable abuse and trauma they endured, grow as individuals, and dedicate themselves to serving others," their family said in a statement Monday.

The family said the brothers, who are in a San Diego prison, helped establish a hospice program and created a beautification program at the prison.

"They have sought to build an environment that reminds people serving life sentences that their lives still have meaning and that, regardless of their circumstances, they can choose each day to grow, heal, accept accountability," the family said.

The brothers went on trial separately, and in 1994 each jury deadlocked. Prosecutors argued that they killed their parents for financial gain. The brothers' attorneys did not dispute the pair killed their parents but argued that they acted out of self-defense after years of emotional and sexual abuse by their father.

Two years later, the brothers were retried together with much of the defense evidence about alleged sexual abuse excluded. Jurors convicted both brothers of first-degree murder.