The hearing date for the possible resentencing of convicted murderers Lyle and Erik Menendez has been scheduled.
According to a TMZ report, the hearing is set for Dec. 11, at which time a judge could decide to free them then and there. However, the judge will have discretion to make a decision at a later date.
The Dec. 11 date was decided on during a meeting Wednesday between prosecutors, the defense and Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael V. Jesic, who was assigned to the case this week.
Mark Geragos, the brothers’ attorney, reportedly plans to ask for their conviction be reduced to manslaughter. If successful, they would be released from prison immediately since they’ve already served the maximum time for manslaughter.
Geragos also plans to ask California Gov. Gavin Newsom to grant the brothers clemency. If their sentences were commuted, they would also be freed immediately.
L.A. County D.A. George Gascón said last week he was recommending their sentence be lessened in order to make the brothers eligible for parole.
Earlier this month, the prosecutor said his office was reviewing new evidence in the case and that he’d concluded they would not pose a threat to society if they were released.
Under that scenario, it would be up to the state’s parole board to decide whether or not the brothers are released.
“I believe they have paid their debt,” Gascón said last Thursday.
He said it was not in dispute that the brothers killed their parents, but that the latest evidence could change the public perception of the case.
Erik, 53, and Lyle 56, were convicted in 1996 after a second trial for the shootings of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, at their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. They were 18 and 21 years old at the time of the murders.
Their first trial in the slayings ended with a hung jury. The brothers have long claimed they feared their parents would kill them to cover up Jose’s alleged years of sexual abuse. Evidence and testimony of that abuse was not allowed during their second trial.
The case, which was one of the most notorious of the 1990s, has seen renewed interest following the release of “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” on Netflix last month.