LOS ANGELES (NewsNation) — The defense attorney for Erik and Lyle Menendez withdrew a motion Friday to remove the Los Angeles County district attorney and the entire DA’s Office from the highly publicized case involving the possible resentencing of the brothers, who were convicted of murder nearly three decades ago.
A resentencing hearing will take place May 13 and 14 following the motion’s withdrawal.
“The family does not want to go through this charade anymore with the DA,” defense attorney Mark Geragos said before the hearing. “What’s obvious to anyone, I think, who has a couple of synapses that are still firing is this is a DA who made up his mind and did no hard work in terms of his position.”
Geragos spoke to the media outside the courthouse following Friday’s new developments.
“I pulled the recusal motion, for those who want to know, for a strategic legal reason,” Geregos said. He didn’t give detailed information on those strategies but pointed to the many avenues still available to the Menendez brothers for resentencing.
The Menendez brothers were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1996 for the shotgun murders of their parents, Kitty and Jose Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home.
The brothers were 18 and 21 at the time of the killings. Defense attorneys argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, while prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
Former LA County District Attorney George Gascón had opened the door to possible freedom for the brothers in October by requesting their sentences be reduced to 50 years with the possibility of parole. His office said the case would’ve been handled differently today due to modern understandings of sexual abuse and trauma and that the brothers had been rehabilitated during their 30 years in prison.
However, current District Attorney Nathan Hochman has reversed course and opposed the brothers’ resentencing. Hochman has said the brothers have not taken full responsibility for their crimes because they have not admitted to lies told during their trials. The Menendez family and lawyers have been heavily critical of the way Hochman has handled the case.
Hochman’s office filed a motion to oppose his removal from the case, dismissing the defense’s concerns as simply “not being happy” with prosecutors’ opinion on resentencing.
“Disagreeing with the opposing side’s position is not a conflict of interest, it is simply a disagreement,” it said.
While Hochman’s conduct is the focus of defense attorneys’ petition, they want the case entirely removed from the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, in which case the state attorney general’s office would usually step in.
However, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a motion this week siding with Hochman, saying the defense had not adequately demonstrated a conflict of interest.
The Associated Press and NewsNation affiliate KTLA in Los Angeles contributed to this report.