Attorney for Menendez brothers reacts to Newsom's comments on clemency, incoming DA Hochman
The attorney for Eric and Lyle Menendez is reacting after Gov. Gavin Newsom said he won't decide on clemency for them until the new Los Angeles County district attorney reviews the case.
Newsom said any decision he makes on clemency for the Menendez brothers will be based on what newly-elected District Attorney Nathan Hochman determines after reviewing their murder cases and trials.
Current District Attorney George Gascón - who lost to Hochman in the election earlier this month - announced that he would seek a resentencing hearing for the brothers, based on new evidence in the case and their behavior in prison while serving sentences of life without parole.
But Hochman, who ran on a tough-on-crime ticket, defeated Gascón and is set to take office next month. He has promised to review the brothers' case before they have their resentencing hearing on Dec. 11.
"I think it's the right thing to do to hear from the new D.A. before I make any decisions, and so I'll be deferring to his review, his analysis and recommendation," Newsom said on his "Politickin' Podcast Monday. "I think is important under the circumstance, out of respect not just to him, the new incoming D.A., but those that elected him rather overwhelmingly in Los Angeles."
Hochman has promised to revisit the brothers' case by reviewing thousands of pages of confidential prison files, trial transcripts, as well as interview prosecutors, defense attorneys and law enforcement.
"Only then, after all that extensive review, can a D.A. have an appropriate opinion on whether a resentencing is just or unjust and what that resentencing should be," Hochman said. "If you decide this case based on just viewing a Netflix documentary, you're doing a disservice to the Menendez brothers, to the victims, family members, to the public."
The Menendez brothers have already served 34 years in prison for the shotgun killings of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez in their Beverly Hills mansion.
Attorney Mark Geragos, who represents the Menendez brothers, doesn't think Newsom is going to leave the fate of the brothers to the D.A. But if he does, Geragos believes the latest developments in the case and their behavior in prison should be enough to sway even Hochman into supporting their release.
"I think if Mr. Hochman gives it a dispassionate view, which I'm hopeful and confident he will, he'll come to the same conclusion that everybody else has," Geragos told Eyewitness News.
