L.A. County D.A. Will Ask Judge to Resentence Erik and Lyle Menendez for Immediate Parole | TMZ Live - video Dailymotion

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L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón just announced he will ask a judge to free Erik and Lyle Menendez ... the 2 brothers convicted of murdering their parents.

Transcript

00:00I have been a reporter for many decades, and today was one of the most dramatic moments I have ever seen.

00:07The Menendez brothers could become free men.

00:11There was a news conference today by the L.A. County D.A., George Gascon,

00:15and he said that he is opening that door to allow the Menendez brothers,

00:20who are serving a term of life without parole right now, to get out of prison.

00:26And it could happen sooner than later, like we're talking before Thanksgiving,

00:31that they are free men, because the L.A. County District Attorney, George Gascon,

00:36held his news conference today and announced his decision and explained

00:42why he feels that this is the right move to recommend resentencing.

00:48I have to tell you that after a very careful review of all the arguments that were made for

00:55people on both sides of this equation, I came to a place where I believe that under the law,

01:04resentencing is appropriate, and I am going to recommend that to a court tomorrow.

01:10So let me explain how this works. Tomorrow, George Gascon's office will file legal documents

01:18asking a judge to resentence the Menendez brothers. Now, as I said,

01:23they're both serving terms of life without the possibility of parole.

01:27I'm not going to get into the legal gobbledygook, but the bottom line is, based on the law,

01:32Gascon is going to say they are eligible for immediate parole if the judge agrees to resentence.

01:40That would mean that if the judge does that and says, yep, they will be entitled to immediate

01:45parole, it would then go to the parole board in California. They would hold a hearing and

01:52decide whether to release the Menendez brothers. But I will say, even though Gascon said this,

01:58we have heard this over the years, they have been model prisoners behind bars.

02:03Right, that they have actually, not only have they, behavior has been exemplary,

02:07they have also done a lot of things to help other inmates. And everyone has said that, that they

02:13are, you know, they have been rehabilitated. And George Gascon said that he does not feel

02:19there's any danger to society at large if they were to be released.

02:23So if they jump that hurdle with the judge tomorrow, and we'll get into it. We don't know who the judge is.

02:30Right. Someone's got to be assigned.

02:32And I will say, Gascon said there was even conflict within his own office, because that's the office

02:37that prosecuted the Menendez brothers. There are people in his office, deputy DAs, who believe

02:42that they were not sexually molested by Jose Menendez.

02:45That they should remain in prison.

02:46And they should for the rest of their lives. And some believe that they should be let out.

02:51So we don't know what the sensibility of the judge is, who is going to end up getting this case.

02:56And that's the person who matters more than anybody at this point.

02:59This is just the first domino that had to fall.

03:02Yes.

03:02But the judge would be the next domino. And we don't know, one, don't know who the judge is.

03:07And if the judge is going to agree that they should get parole.

03:10If the judge should be re-sentenced.

03:12If the judge says no, it's over.

03:13Everything stops.

03:14It's over.

03:16And that's a huge deal tomorrow.

03:19Yeah. And there's something going on in the background of all this,

03:21which is an upcoming election.

03:22George Gascon is not a very popular district attorney right now.

03:25There's an election in around two weeks.

03:27He's 24 points behind his opponent.

03:29A lot of people think this is being expedited in a nakedly political fashion

03:34to garner votes for that election, maybe close that gap up.

03:37And that had this unseemly sort of feel to the entire spectacle to me.

03:40He's talking about his divided office.

03:42Usually the prosecutors speak with one voice.

03:44This just has an icky feel to me.

03:46Well, and also, Derek, we should mention that there was a hearing set

03:50on this very issue for late next month.

03:53But the thing is, Gascon is up for re-election a week from Tuesday.

03:57So it's entirely possible if he had stuck with that original date,

04:01he could have been voted out of office at that point.

04:03And then it's not really on.

04:05Nothing may have happened.

04:06Right.

04:06So did he accelerate this because of the election?

04:11Well, you decide that.

04:13But there's one other thing he said openly,

04:15which honestly, if Jason's there, I've never heard this before.

04:19He said that one of the operative factors on accelerating things

04:24was the recent documentary on the Menendez brothers.

04:28The documentary.

04:29There's also the scripted series that has gotten a lot of attention.

04:33And you're right for him in this news conference.

04:36I've never heard this.

04:37That that had an influence on his decision.

04:39I have never heard this.

04:42Yeah, I've never heard it either.

04:43I've never heard it admitted.

04:44We know that it happens, right?

04:45We know that politicians and a district attorney is simply a politician.

04:48He's elected to the office.

04:50We know that politicians are affected by public perception.

04:54We know the public perception is sometimes affected by documentaries

04:57and other things in pop culture.

04:59What's odd here is that he admitted it so freely.

05:02And it really does play into, I think, something Derek was talking about a minute ago,

05:06this incredibly difficult re-election cycle that he's in.

05:10The reason he's so unpopular is because he's known as somebody

05:13who's been very soft on crime over the years.

05:16This sort of plays into that.

05:17But nevertheless, it may be his last ditch effort to claim some sort of victory

05:22that he can then carry into the campaign or the voter week from Tuesday.

05:27But it seems a very odd way of doing it.

05:29But nevertheless, I think it's bizarre that he expressly referenced the documentary.

05:34It sure is.

05:36Almost like you don't want to talk about the election part,

05:38so this is the best second way of doing it.

05:40Now, speaking of second ways, there was a second way that he could have done this.

05:44And the second way, rather than just saying we're going for resentencing,

05:48he could have gone to a judge and said,

05:50look, based on the sexual abuse, which he believes occurred,

05:56reduce the conviction from murder to voluntary manslaughter.

06:03That has been done before.

06:04And if they did it that way, the Menendez brothers would not be considered murderers.

06:10And if they were, if the judge did that,

06:13the maximum sentence for voluntary manslaughter is 11 years,

06:17and they'd be immediately free.

06:18You wouldn't even have to go to a parole board.

06:20You wouldn't have to do that.

06:21But something about that, and we talked about this yesterday,

06:23seemed unseemly to me because you had a jury that did convict them of murder.

06:29And now you're just going to hand it over.

06:31But that's happened before with cold cases, with new evidence.

06:33That happens with cold cases.

06:36I know you disagree.

06:36New evidence.

06:37I know.

06:38I know you disagree with that.

06:39Yeah.

06:40It really looked like he was trying to thread the needle here by saying,

06:42I don't excuse the conduct at all.

06:44I'm focusing on how much they've rehabilitated while in prison,

06:47and they should be resentenced for that because they're model citizens now.

06:49And he said, look, what they did was murder.

06:51And he said it should remain murder on the books.

06:53So I at least give him credit for that much.

06:54It was interesting that they had some of the relatives of

06:58Jose and Kitty Menendez in the front row.

07:02In fact, they even got name checked before the news conference began,

07:06which immediately tipped his hand because he said,

07:09I want to recognize and mentioned all the names of the family members there.

07:14Two other things.

07:15And I just want to get into this.

07:16Gascon said that he didn't make a final decision until an hour before the news conference.

07:22That's bizarre to me because he announced there was going to be a news conference yesterday.

07:26So how do you announce yesterday you're going to have a news conference when you

07:29don't know what you're going to say?

07:30Well, but he said he's going to make his decision.

07:32So that part I can see.

07:34Well, you do.

07:35You don't do that when you haven't made the decision.

07:38But you know you're going to make the decision.

07:39You've given yourself a deadline.

07:41And the deadline is tomorrow.

07:43And we're going to come to a final decision.

07:45This is as crazy as people saying they don't know who

07:47they're going to vote for in the election.

07:48I mean, come on.

07:49There are some people who say that.

07:51George Gascon knew a long time ago that he was going to make the exact decision that he did.

07:54Now, I give him credit that he actually apparently went to the people in his office,

07:58got their, got their, took their opinions.

08:01And eventually, and he's the head, so he makes the ultimate decision.

08:04And there were dissenters in his office.

08:05And he mentioned that not only can they dissent, but that they can appear in court

08:10to oppose the efforts to release the Menendez brothers.

08:13Which could eventually happen once they assign a judge.

08:16Which could happen once they assign a judge.

08:18Last thing we want to talk about.

08:19We broke a story on the website earlier today that if they get out,

08:24Eric Menendez, the younger Menendez, by the way, they're now in their 50s,

08:28Eric will move to Las Vegas and live with his wife.

08:32And I know that sounds like a pretty obvious, obvious thing.

08:34But they, yeah, they've been married for 25 years.

08:38They were dating for, I guess, well, it's weird to say dating,

08:42but they had a relationship.

08:43Never had a conjugal visit.

08:45Yeah.

08:46But his intention is to do exactly that.

08:50We don't know what Lyle's intention is.

08:52He too is married.

08:54But we just don't know what his plan is.

08:56There is another story we broke about what's going on in their,

08:59the prison where they are, which is in San Diego County.

09:02Clearly they are confident about the chances,

09:05their chances for getting out.

09:06And so are their fellow inmates.

09:08We found out that there are people and other inmates

09:11who are basically putting in dibs on their belongings.

09:14That they want souvenirs from the Menendez brothers.

09:18And clearly they recognize something that is very obvious.

09:21These guys are going to be celebrities.

09:26The brass ring for all media, for news, documentaries, reality show.

09:32They are the brass ring.

09:35Everybody wants to sit down with the Menendez brothers

09:39and just have them open up.

09:45I'm Nina from Dallas, Texas.

09:47I believe that he held them accountable and that it is political.

09:52But at the same time, I think they deserve this.

09:56I think that they will do great things

09:57and they'll show us what real advocacy is.

10:00If they're rehabilitated, then, you know,

10:03if what we've heard about their lives in prison,

10:06if they continue that on the outside,

10:08then George Gascon is vindicated, right?

10:12In this decision.

10:13Yeah, just real quick, just to recap.

10:16So the DA will file legal documents tomorrow

10:20asking a judge to re-sentence Eric and Lyle Menendez.

10:23There will probably be a hearing.

10:26Probably you'll hear from both sides in the hearing.

10:29The judge will decide and if the DA gets his way,

10:32it will then go over to the parole board.

10:34And if it goes to the parole board,

10:36my money is on them saying the Menendez brothers should be free.

10:38And once it gets to the parole board,

10:40then it doesn't matter if George Gascon wins or not.

10:42That's right.

10:43Once the judge decides, that's it.

L.A. County D.A. Will Ask Judge to Resentence Erik and Lyle Menendez for Immediate Parole | TMZ Live

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