Erik and Lyle Menendez eligible to face parole board early next year

Erik and Lyle Menendez will be before a parole board again in March, about 17 months earlier than expected. The brothers were originally sentenced in 1996 to life in prison for the 1989 fatal shootings of their father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion. A Los Angeles judge reduced their sentences to 50 years to life in May 2025, making them eligible for parole because they were under age 26 when they committed their crimes.

They were denied parole in August 2025, with the California parole board saying Lyle Menendez still displayed “anti-social personality traits like deception” and that Erik Menendez broke prison rules by repeatedly using a cellphone. The brothers were then eligible to apply for another hearing in August 2028. That has now been tentatively moved up to March by the parole board after the brothers’ requests for earlier hearings were granted on Friday.

The California department of corrections and rehabilitation allows eligible prisoners to seek earlier parole if there is “a change in circumstances or new information indicating the person may be suitable for parole”. The department did not immediately respond to requests for comment about why the brothers were granted an earlier hearing. The brothers’ attorney declined to comment through a family spokeswoman.

The case has long captivated true crime enthusiasts, with the brothers amassing public support in recent years after shows on Netflix renewed interest. Weeks after the board rejected their release last year, a Los Angeles judge denied their petition seeking a review of their convictions based on new evidence supporting their claims of sexual abuse by their father. The family said the brothers, who are in a San Diego prison, helped establish a hospice program and created a beautification program at the prison.

The brothers went on trial separately, and in 1994 each jury deadlocked. Prosecutors argued that they killed their parents for financial gain. The brothers’ attorneys did not dispute the pair killed their parents but argued that they acted out of self-defense after years of emotional and sexual abuse by their father.

Two years later, the brothers were retried together with much of the defense evidence about alleged sexual abuse excluded. Jurors convicted both brothers of first-degree murder.