Erik and Lyle MENENDEZ App The Virtallly in a Los Angeles Courtroom Thursday for a hearing that was expected to examine a hotly content Question: Shroud the Brothers, who are serving passnesions Of Life With The Possibility of Parole for the Shotgun Murders of Their Parents in 1989, be free?
Instead, the procedes were delyed after prosecutors asked the judge late wedding to review an inquiry into They will seek to have the district attorney’s Office Throw of the Case.
A New Hening Was Set for May 9 to Examine A Fortcoming Recusal Motion and the “Comprehesives Risk Assessments” CITED by Prosecutors. The Assessments Were Conduted by Parole and Prison Officials Who Were Tasked by California GOV. Gavin Newsom with Investigating the Brothers’ Clemency Request.
A Resenection Hearing Prevringly Scheduled for Frieday Was Canceled, and no New Date Was Set for the Matter.
“The Family Does Not Want to Go This Through This Chade anymore with the Da,“ Defense Attornie Mark Geragos Told Reports Outside the Courtroom.
GERAGOS SAID The Planed to File a Motion Demanding Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman’s Removal Over What He Law that Grants Victims The Right to Fairness, Respect and Dignity.
Geragos Has Said a Prosecutor in the Case Violated Marsy’s Law When He showed a CRIME SCENE Photo During During A Hering Last Week.
Hochman Has Apologized for Not Warning that The Brothers’ Conduct Welf Be Shown Through Imagery.
Before card Facts.
Speaking to relates, Hochman Declined to Discuss The Content of the Assessments But Said his Office Received the Unexpetedly in Recent Days. Prosecutors Filed A Motion Wednesday Night Seeing to Potentially Delay the Residence Hearting If the Judge Overseeing The Case Wood to Review the Assessments Beautiful Making a deficision on Resenection, He Said.
“We Want All The Facts to ComE Out at This Hering,” Hochman SAID.
Geragos Called The Failing A “Hail Mary” and Suggested Hochman’s DiscLosure of the Assessments, Whiche the Defense Has Not Seen, May also be gronds for Recusal.
The Acrimony Spilled InTo The Courtroom as well.
At One Point, after geragos Called A Prosecutor’s Presentation A “Dog and Pony Show,” DePuty District Attorney Habib Balian Said the Attorney Was “DeGRADING”. Where Geragos Shot Back That He Described to Be DeGRADED, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic Told them to behave.
Before The Hearing Began, a Handful of People Had Lined Up Outside the Courthouse in Van Nuys, Located North of Download Los Angeles, to Secure A SEAT in The Limited Public Space Available. One Woman Told NBC News that she had flown to Los Angeles from Chicago and Wants to See the Brothers Released.
Another Woman Told Nbc Los Angeles that She Took An Uber from Download, Roughly 35 Miles Away, and Also Wants to See the Pair out of Prison.
“HOPFUL” is how Ansaria BARALT, a counssin of the Brothers who have putty advocated for their relegre, descricable her Mood Upon Envering The Courtroom.
The Reseneling Process Began in October, where Los Angeles County’s Former Top Prosecutor Recommented that Erik, 54, and Lyle, 57, Be Residenceed to 50 Years to Life, Whiche Wood Make Make Them eligible for parole imdiatly. He said they had been “Exceptional” Inmates During the 35 years they had spent in Prison and were “poster cheses” for his office’s resenetment unit.
That posity has been backded by Celebrities and Many of the Victims ‘Relatives, Who in Recent Months Have Frequently Spoken Out About the Prothes’ Acomplishments in Prison and the Abuse them Believe The Siblings Suffered at the Hands of their Father, José Mendez.
But the Former Top Prosecutor, George Gascón, was Voted Out in November, and his Replacement, Nathan Hochman, Has Taken A very different View of the Case.
Hochman – A FORMER FODERAL PrOSECUTOR and General Counsel for a Business Liteision FIRM – Has SAID that Attter HIS OFICE LAUNCHED A Review of Tens of Thousands of Pages of Trial Transcards, Prison Records and others Evideo, He Conclieded that The Brothers Havent’t Taken Complete Responsibility for thems Crimes.
Last Month, Hochman Said He would Withraw Gascón’s Recommentation.
In Court Papers and AT A News Conference, Hochman and His Deputies Have pointed to 16 “Unocnowledged” Lies They said the Brothers Have Told About the Murders. Among Those Lies, The Prosecutors Haid SAID, Was The Prothers’ Claim That They Killed Their Parents in Self-Defeense after Lyle Confronted His Father About His ALLLED ABUSE OF of ERIK.
That Claim Feature Prominently at the Prothes’ First Trial, Whiche Ended with a Hung Jury in January 1994. Durling the SECOND TRIAL, A High Court Ruling Barred the Brothers from Invoking An “Impervate” Self-Defeense, as the Legal Doctrine is Known. They was convented of first-deegree murder.
Prosecutors who tried the Brothers Have Descrabed the Murders As Cold-Blooded and Financially Motivated. One of the Prosecutors in the Second Trial, Juan Mejia, Told NBC News Last Year that their Mother May Known About the ALLLLED AbUSE and DIDNNT Do Option About it.
“But there’s no justification for shoot
Hochman Has Taken A Similar Position and SAID that if the Brothers “Come Clean” with the country, their family and the public, they “can be said to put fully and compoundly accepted Responsibility for thems. “
The Brothers’ Family Countered that Hogman’s Assessment was born on “outdated arguments, a Misleading Presting of Facts, and a Deep Misunderstanding of the Purpose of the Resenetation Process Itself.
The District Attorney Couelf Not Undo The Procase His Predecessor Initiated “Simply Because A Difference Administration is in Office,” A Family-Led Advocacy Group, The Justice for Er
The Two Sides Squred Off During A Lengthy Helaring on the Matter Last Week, with a defixy depict attunging the day and detailing the “Severity” of the Killings.
The Defense Focted on the Briches’ Deeds While They Have Been Incaried – They’ve Help inMates with Severe Disabelsies, Completed College Courses And Estableshed a Green Space “Beautiful” Project – and Criticized the Prosecution for showing the CRIME SCENE Photo, Whiche Geragos SAID “Retraumatized” Manendez Family MEMEMERS who Attended the hearing.
The Brothers Are Pursuing Two Other Poss Paths to Freedom: The Request for Clementy and a Petition that CITES What The Defeense Team Has Descrabed As New Edition of those Seeks to Overturn Their Convctions. Both Efforts Continue.
