Newsom Declines Menendez Brothers Clemency Request

California Governor Gavin Newsom has decided to postpone a decision on clemency for the two brothers sentenced to life without parole for murdering their parents in 1989. Michael Ruiz of Fox News reports that Erik and Lyle Menendez had asked Newsom to grant their request ahead of a December 11 resentencing hearing in LA Superior Court requested by District Attorney George Gascón. Gascón took up the brothers’ petition for resentencing last month as a publicity stunt he thought would help his reelection campaign. He was mistaken. Challenger Nathan Hochman defeated Gascón by a 2 to 1 vote on November 5. In a statement to the press Newsom said that he will “defer to the DA-elect’s review and analysis of the Menendez case prior to making any clemency decisions.”

Hochman, who assumes office on December 3, could withdraw the resentencing request or postpone the hearing based upon his review of the case. The brothers claim that their father sexually abused Erik and that they killed him and their mother in self defense. The “new” evidence is an undated letter supposedly written by Eric to a deceased cousin reporting the abuse, and the word of a former member of the singing group Menudo who claims that Eric’s father, a recording executive, raped him.

The two brothers snuck up behind their parents while they were watching television and shot them multiple times with shotguns.

Regardless of what the new district attorney decides, Governor Newsom will have the last word on whether or not the brothers receive clemency and are set free.