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Menendez brothers press conference: Decision on resentencing expected today

LOS ANGELES – Erik and Lyle Menendez could be one step closer to freedom.

The brothers' fate will be revealed Thursday when Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon announces whether he is recommending the two be resentenced or given a new trial.

FOX 11 will broadcast the press conference live at 1:30 p.m. You can watch the press conference live on Channel 11, on foxla.com, on our YouTube channel or on the FOX LOCAL streaming app.

If prosecutors recommend resentencing, they need court approval.

If the judge accepts the recommendation of resentencing after time is served, it is possible that the Menendez brothers will be released from prison by Nov. 26, their originally scheduled court date.

Their defense attorney, Mark Geragos, said if all goes well, Erik and Lyle would be home by Thanksgiving.

This came after an investigation spurred by new evidence presented to the district attorney's office – recently unearthed allegations that her father also abused Roy Rossello, a former member of the boy band Menudo, in the 1980s, and a letter , which Erik Menendez had written to his cousin Andy Cano, which surfaced in 2015, years after his death.

The Menendez brothers' resentencing decision comes today

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón has scheduled a news conference for 1:30 p.m. to announce his decision in the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez, who are serving life sentences for killing their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989 have.

The brothers are serving life sentences without parole for the 1989 murders of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez in Beverly Hills.

Erik and Lyle were 21 and 18 years old at the time the murders. The brothers never denied committing the murders and said they feared their parents would kill them to prevent people from finding out that Jose Menendedz had sexually abused Erik for years.

The Menendez brothers were tried twice for their parents' murders, with the first trial ending in a hung jury.

Prosecutors at the time claimed there was no evidence of harassment and many details in her story of sexual abuse were not admitted at the second trial. Prosecutors also said at the time that the brothers were after their parents' multi-million dollar estate.

In 1995, the brothers were retried, but this time the judge did not allow cameras in the courtroom and limited the defense's evidence of the abuse allegations. In the second trial, the brothers were found guilty of first-degree murder of both parents and conspiracy to commit murder. Both brothers were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. They have repeatedly unsuccessfully appealed their convictions.

Due to the family's wealth, the gruesome nature of the murders, and the defense's strategy during the trial, the case attracted significant media attention. The courtroom became a battlefield of narratives, pitting allegations of cold-blooded murder over inheritance allegations against self-defense claims rooted in a history of abuse.

Erik and Lyle Menendez. (FOX 11)

Interest in the case has recently increased again with the release of the Netflix series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and an upcoming documentary in which the brothers will tell their side of the story.

Last week, nearly two dozen of the brothers' relatives held a joint news conference advocating for the release of Erik and Lyle, saying they deserved to be free after decades behind bars. Several family members said that in today's world, where the impact of sexual abuse is more acutely felt, the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

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