Menendez Brothers Get Good News

A notorious Beverly Hills murder case is edging back into the spotlight. California's parole board has approved an earlier parole suitability hearing for brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez, convicted in 1996 of fatally shooting their parents, Jose and Kitty, in 1989. The session is tentatively scheduled for March 2027, more than a year before their previously set August 2028 parole eligibility hearing date, a family spokesperson tells People. The family applauded the move, saying, "We are incredibly proud of the men they have become."

The brothers, originally sentenced to life without parole, were resentenced in 2025 to 50-years-to-life, making them immediately eligible for parole under California's youthful offender law, because they were under 26 at the time of the killings, KTLA reports. A parole bid that year was rejected, largely over their prior conduct in prison. Their attorneys in 2023 filed a habeas corpus petition citing new evidence, including sexual abuse allegations against Jose by former boy band member Roy Rosselló. Erik and Lyle say they killed their parents in fear for their own lives after years of sexual and physical abuse, CBS News reports.