Menendez brothers may be released by Thanksgiving as DA George Gascón pushes for resentencing

DA announced his intent to petition for the Menendez Brothers' resentencing, allowing their release by Thanksgiving.

There’s a possibility that Lyle and Erik Menendez could be released from prison in time for the holiday season. On Thursday, October 24, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced his intent to formally petition the court to resentence the Menendez Brothers for the 1989 killings of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez.

Lyle, now 56, and Erik, 53, are the subjects of the Netflix miniseries Monsters: The Lyle and Eric Menendez Story, which premiered in September.

After Gascón’s statement, district attorney Mark Geragos, with the support of the Menendez family, expressed gratitude for this decision during an October 24 press conference. Geragos predicted the brothers' life sentences without parole would be significantly reduced, allowing them to be released by Thanksgiving.

“The family is uniform behind me in their resolve that these boys need to come home,” Geragos said around the 30-second mark of the video below. “And today is a monumental, monumental victory on that path.”

The family then joined Geragos in saying, “Bring them home.”

“I believe before Thanksgiving, they will be home,” Geragos added around the 2:50-minute mark. “I still believe that.”

Lyle and Erik, who were 18 and 21 at the time of the murders, claimed they suffered sexual abuse by their father, a claim supported by family members. Joan Anderson VanderMolen, 92, who spoke at a press conference on October 19, also supports their case.

“The truth is, Lyle and Eric were veiled by the very people who should have protected them, by their parents, by the system, by society at large,” Vandermolen said at the time. “When they stood trial, the whole world wasn’t ready to believe that the boys could be raped, or that young men could be victims of sexual violence. Today, we know better. We know that abuse has long lasting effects, and victims of trauma sometimes act in ways that are very difficult to understand.”

Eight months before the murders of Jose and Kitty, Erik had written a letter to his cousin, Andy Cando, detailing the abuse he endured from his father.