The incoming Los Angeles County District Attorney has questioned whether his predecessor’s decision to re-examine the high-profile Menendez brothers’ case may have been a “political ploy.”
Nathan Hochman defeated George Gascon on November 5, several weeks after the progressive LA DA announced his recommendation that the brothers be resentenced and eligible for parole immediately.
Erik and Lyle Menendez were sentenced to life in jail without parole after being found guilty of killing their parents at their Beverly Hills home in 1989, following two controversial trials.
Calls for their release have ramped up in recent months, following the release of several documentary and television series about the case – which has increased public interest in the case.
On October 24 Gascon announced that the case would be reevaluated.
"Part of the problem with the Gascón timing of his decision is there’s a cloud over that credibility. Is it a just decision, or was it just a political ploy?" Hochman told ABC News. "There will be no cloud over whatever decision I make.”
Gascon has denied his decision was politically motivated, telling the outlet, "I believe that they should be released and they should be released cleanly within the law."
"I based my decision on the review of 30 years of ... information about their behavior, as well as a very thorough understanding of what they were convicted of and the elements of the crime," Gascon said. "So my decision was appropriately based."
With a resentencing hearing for the brothers set for December 11, Hochman, who is set to take office on December 2, has said he plans to read through the new alleged evidence, including trial transcripts, confidential prison files and interviews with family, lawyers and law enforcement.
"What these files say is too important an issue to delegate to somebody else. I need to actually do the work myself," he told ABC, adding that he would work as “expeditiously as possible.”
"I’m not going to ask for delay, just for delay’s sake," he added. "We’ll ask for the minimal amount of time necessary to do this work, because we owe it to the Menendez brothers, we owe it to the victim’s family members, we owe it to the public to get this decision right."
He added: "If you decide this case based on just reviewing a Netflix documentary, you’re doing a disservice to the Menendez brothers, to the victims’ family members, to the public.”
Hochman’s victory over Gascon, earning him the spot of top prosecutor in the nation’s most populous county of 10 million people, reflected growing discontent in California with progressive district attorneys who have pushed criminal justice reform.
Gascon, a former San Francisco police chief, was elected in 2020 during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement following the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota as part of a wave of progressive prosecutors elected nationwide.
He brought several controversial changes to the district attorney’s office that were seen by critics as soft on crime, such as ending cash bail and not allowing prosecutors to charge juveniles as adults or ask for sentencing enhancements.
