What to know about the Menendes Brothers case and when they can be released

In 1989, the Lyle brothers and Eric Menendes killed their parents, shooting them many times at close range at their Beverly Hills mansion.

They were found guilty of the first -degree murder of murder and conspiracy in 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of conditional release.

The public interest in the case is increasing after the new drama of Netflix, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menndez Story, has been released in 2024. Their story continues to divide the opinion.

At a hearing in May 2025, a judge made them eligible for conditional release. However, in August, both brothers were refused release.

Eric, who is already 54, appeared in front of a panel at the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation on August 21. He was told that he was still a risk to public safety and was not a prisoner model.

A day later, 57-year-old Lyle, long considered the dominant brother, was denied conditional release by another council.

He cites the brutal nature of the killings and the lack of Lyle self -control.

“We find your remorse is real,” Julie Garland’s Conditional Release Commissioner told him. “But despite all these external positives, we see … you still struggle with antisocial personality traits such as fraud, minimization and violation of the rules that are under this positive surface.”

They can try again for conditional release in three years – although this can be reduced to 18 months with good behavior.

California governor Gavin Newo examines a separate request to offer the pardon brothers – probably in the form of pardon.

NEWSOM that is in in the middle of a political transformation and can put his eyes on a white homeThere is a power to adopt or reject any conventional release council recommendation.

In 2024, the previous Los Angeles District Attorney, George Gaskon, requested the brothers’ sentence without the possibility of a conditional release of 50 years of life.

During a hearing at the Supreme Court of Los Angeles County, the brothers apologized for their actions. Their resentment offer was supported by family members and a former prisoner.

Prosecutors said the brothers continued to “apologize” for their behavior instead of taking full responsibility and not rehabilitated.

But the judge agreed to resent the brothers, stating that “they have done enough in the last 35 years, that they should get that chance.”

The decision has made them the right to be released under the California Youth Criminal Act, which allows those who have committed crimes before the age of 26 to seek a reduced sentence.

The siblings were 18 and 21 years old at the time.

Lyle and Eric Menendes killed their parents, Jose and Kiti Menendes, on August 20, 1989 at their home in Beverly Hills.

Their father, a 45-year-old Hollywood CEO, was shot dead six times with a rifle that the brothers purchased days before the attack.

Their mother died after suffering 10 blasts on a rifle in several parts of her body.

Initially, the brothers told the police that they had found their parents dead when they arrived at home.

They were arrested after the girlfriend of a psychologist, who treated Eric Menendes, went to the police to say that he had physically threatened the doctor.

The brothers claim to have committed the killings in self -defense after years of alleged physical, emotional and sexual abuse, although no violence has never been proven in court.

They said they were afraid that their father would kill them after threatening to expose him.

However, prosecutors claim that young men have killed their successful parents to inherit their multimillful mansion.

The brothers were removed in 1990, and in 1993 they were tried for the killings, first individually, with one jury for each brother.

However, both jurors were closed in 1994, which led to abuse, and the couple was later tried together again in 1995.

During his joint process, the judge excluded obvious evidence of abuse of their defense case. The glued sessions with a doctor who discussed the murders were resolved admissible in court by the judge.

The jurors found them guilty and the couple were convicted of first -degree murder and a 1996 murder conspiracy.

The brothers, who were separated during their detention after a detective investigating the killings, said they could talk to escape if they were housed together, gathered again in prison in 2018.

The case was expelled back into the spotlight after Netflix released a dramatic series for the brothers in September 2024.

Monsters: The story of Lyle and Eric Menendes filmed at the top of the streaming diagram of the platform and reported that it had more than 12 million views on the first weekend after leaving alone.

The program explores what the brothers and sisters may have killed their parents and present the killings from different perspectives.

Its creators said the series was based on extensive research.

It includes the brothers ‘allegations of abuse, as well as shows things from a parents’ perspective.

The show presented the new generation case and attracted the attention from celebrities – including Kim Kardashian and Rosie O’Donnell – who called on the brothers to be released.

The series was a tracking of the controversial series of first monsters for the US serial killer Jeffrey Damer.

After his release, Eric Menendes shared a statement published by X by his wife.

He said the show was “repulsive slander” and he “believed that we had moved beyond the lies and destructive portraits of Lyle’s character.”

“I am sad to know that the dishonest depiction of Netflix of the tragedies around our crime have made the painful truths in a few steps back – back to time to the era, when the prosecutor’s office built a story of a belief system that men were not sexually abused and that men were experiencing more than women.

Family members also spoke and said the brothers were “victims of this grotesque shockrama” and the show “shuddered with violations.”

Ryan Murphy, who created the show, told a variety that the comments are “predictable in the best case”.

He added that the answer to the family was “interesting because I would like to refer to the specifics of what they think is shocking or not shocking. It’s not like doing any of these things. Everything is presented before.”