August 8, 2025 – LOS ANGELES, CA – The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on Thursday filed its 132-page detailed response to a 2023 petition for writ of habeas corpus submitted on behalf of Lyle and Erik Menendez, demonstrating the manifest failure, both factually and legally, in the Menendez brothers’ effort to obtain a new trial.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman emphasized the strength of the original convictions and the lack of any legitimate basis for retrial.

“After completing a thorough and exhaustive review of the Menendez brothers’ habeas corpus petition and the alleged 'new' evidence presented, we have concluded that this petition does not come close to meeting the factual or legal standard to warrant a new trial,” District Attorney Hochman said. “The overwhelming evidence of the Menendez brothers’ premeditated, deliberate, willful and brutal murders of their parents the night of Aug. 20, 1989, leading to their convictions for first-degree murder with special circumstances, is not in any way challenged by evidence that is not ‘new’ or ‘material’ or ‘credible’ or ‘presented without substantial delay’ that would more likely than not have changed the outcome of this case. 

“The central defense of the Menendez brothers at trial has always been self-defense, not sexual abuse.  The jury rejected this self-defense defense in finding them guilty of the horrific murders they perpetrated; five different appellate state and federal courts have affirmed those convictions, and nothing in the so-called ‘new’ evidence challenges any of those determinations. Our opposition to this ‘Hail Mary’ effort to obtain a new trial over 30 years later makes clear that justice, the facts, and the law demand the convictions stand.”

According to the response: There are few murder cases in which the evidence of planning and premeditation is as stark as that presented in this case. Petitioners confessed on tape to murdering their parents, revealing the extent of their forethought and deliberation.

The habeas corpus proceedings, which are intended only to determine if the Menendez brothers are entitled to a new trial, are running parallel to the Menendez brothers’ parole suitability hearing scheduled for Aug. 21 and 22. While this hearing was originally scheduled in June as a clemency proceeding, it has since been converted and rescheduled to determine parole eligibility. Once that eligibility determination has been made, Gov. Gavin Newsom will then have 90 days to affirm, reverse or modify that determination. Governor Newsom can also exercise his clemency power to pardon or release the Menendez brothers at any time since he took the oath of office in 2019.

District Attorney Hochman stated: “The District Attorney’s Office remains steadfast in its commitment to ensuring that justice is upheld and that the rule of law is applied equally and consistently, regardless of publicity or the passage of time.”

See the 132-page response to a 2023 petition for writ of habeas corpus here.

Source: Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office