A petition was filed to resentence Erik and Lyle Menendez, potentially allowing them to be eligible for parole

Question

This article claims that a District Attorney George Gascón has filed a petition to resentence Erik and Lyle Menendez, potentially allowing them eligibility for parole. The decision follows new evidence suggesting the brothers endured abuse from their father, Jose Menendez, corroborated by a letter Erik allegedly wrote to his cousin and allegations from a former member of the band Menudo.

Answer 1

The claim that Erik and Lyle Menendez are potentially eligible for parole is most likely true. Though it is a very vague claim. The Menendez brothers are potentially eligible for parole, based on the results of the new trial. According to NBS Los Angeles a resentencing hearing date has been set, and during this hearing the brothers could potentially go to trial again to be resentenced which would mean they are possibly eligible for parole.

Sources 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/10/25/menendez-brothers-resentencing-release-details/75836700007/

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/menendez-brothers-resentencing-hearing-date-set-los-angeles-county-george-gascon/3548230/

Comments

Your fact-check is concise and clear.  Thanks!

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Thank you for including articles that both confirmed that the claim that the brothers are petitioning for parole and showed the hearing date which is December 11th. Both of these sources are trusted news sources and include the same information, which makes it more reliable.

Answer 2

After some research, I found the article's claim of District Attorney George Gascón submitting a resentencing petition to be true. The article you linked didn't cite any evidence of District Attorney George Gascón's resentencing petition, so I looked at a few other articles until I found the original petition and a press release of Gascón's statement. 

In CNN's article "LA County district attorney sends letters requesting clemency for Menendez brothers", the author included a link to a PDF of the original petition, as well as District Attorney Gascón's statement on the matter posted to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office website:  https://da.lacounty.gov/media/news/district-attorney-gasc-n-supports-request-clemency-governor-gavin-newsom-erik-and-lyle

I found a few articles corroborating the claim of new evidence submitted by the Menendez brothers' attorneys. This article from CBS news https://www.cbsnews.com/news/menendez-brothers-await-decision-they-hope-will-free-them-48-hours/ includes and references two pieces of the new evidence. The first piece of evidence is a letter from Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano dated about eight months before the murder (December 1988), that could back up the Menendez brothers and Cano's prior claims of abuse. This letter was found in 2003 after Cano's death, and over a decade after the Menendez brothers' sentencing. The other evidence mentioned in this article was boy band member Roy Rossello's testimony of his own alleged rape by José Menendez while Rossello was a minor. The article cites an affidavit written by Rossello and cites Peacock's documentary "Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed" where Rossello describes the rape. Rossello came forward in 2023, over 30 years after the Menendez brothers' sentencing.