Menendez brothers move closer to freedom with 2027 parole hearing date

Erik and Lyle Menendez have been granted a parole suitability hearing tentatively set for March 2027, more than a year ahead of their previous eligibility date.

Menendez brothers granted early parole hearing, scheduled for March 2027

Erik and Lyle Menendez have been granted an early parole suitability hearing, tentatively scheduled for March 2027, according to a statement from a family spokesperson — more than a year ahead of the August 2028 date they had previously been eligible for, Global News Crime reports.

The brothers have been incarcerated since their 1995 convictions for the first-degree murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, killed in their Beverly Hills, California, home in 1989. They were sentenced to life without parole in 1996.

Their path to parole eligibility shifted in May 2025, when a Los Angeles judge reduced their sentences to 50 years to life. Under California law, that reduction made them immediately eligible for parole consideration because they were under the age of 26 at the time of the killings.

"We are incredibly proud of the men they have become and deeply grateful to the Parole Board for recognizing their efforts and allowing them to advance their parole hearing," the family said in a statement. "Today's decision is especially meaningful and brings us immeasurable joy as we move one step closer to a future with them that once seemed impossible."

The family's statement also cited the brothers' conduct while incarcerated. "For almost 40 years, Erik and Lyle have worked to take responsibility for their actions, confront and heal from the unimaginable abuse and trauma they endured, grow as individuals, and dedicate themselves to serving others," the statement read. Their efforts, it noted, include helping establish a hospice program and creating a prison initiative called Green Space, described as a program aimed at reminding people serving life sentences that their lives retain meaning.

The upcoming hearing follows separate parole denials for both brothers in August 2025. At Erik's hearing, a panel of two parole commissioners found him unsuitable for release, citing his behaviour in prison — including affiliation with a prison gang and possession of a cellphone in violation of rules — as well as burglaries he committed prior to the murders. Commissioner Robert Barton said those actions indicated a continuing risk to public safety. "One can pose a risk to public safety in many ways, with several types of criminal behaviour, including the ones you were guilty of in prison," Barton told Erik at the time. Barton added that Erik would be eligible to reappear before the parole board in three years and urged him to change his conduct.

During the August 2025 hearing, Erik offered what his legal team described as his most detailed public account in years of his upbringing and the choices he made. "I was not raised with a moral foundation," he said. "I was raised to lie, to cheat, to steal, steal in the sense, an abstract way. When I was playing tennis my father would make sure that I cheated at certain times if he told me to. The idea that there is a right and wrong that I do not cross because it's a moral bound was not instilled in me as a teenager."

Following the denial, Erik's spokesperson called the result "disappointing and not what we hoped for," while expressing continued confidence in his development. "His remorse, growth, and the positive impact he's had on others speak for themselves," the spokesperson said.

Lyle's August 2025 hearing produced a similar outcome. Commissioners noted that he still displayed "anti-social personality traits like deception, minimization and rule-breaking that lie beneath that positive surface," in the words of commissioner Julie Garland. Garland also acknowledged, however, that the panel found his remorse genuine and characterized him as a "model inmate in many ways who has demonstrated the potential for change." She told Lyle directly: "Don't ever not have hope."

The advancement of the hearing date to March 2027 represents a significant development for the brothers, whose case drew renewed public attention in recent years following a Netflix series revisiting the events of 1989 and the subsequent legal proceedings.

— With files from The Associated Press

Source: Global News Crime