California Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered the state parole board to conduct a “comprehensive risk assessment investigation” on Erik and Lyle Menendez, to determine whether they pose “an unreasonable risk to the public” if released from prison. 

On Wednesday, Newsom made the announcement during a segment on his podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom.” 

“The question for the board is a simple one – do Erik and Lyle Menendez, do they pose a current, what we call `unreasonable risk to public safety,”‘ Newsom said.

“The risk assessment will be conducted as they typically are conducted — by experts in public safety as well as forensic psychologists.”

Erik Menendez (C) and his brother Lyle (L) are pictured, on August 12, 1991 in Beverly Hills. They are accused of killing their parents, Jose and Mary Louise Menendez of Beverly Hills, Calif. AFP PHOTO MIKE NELSON (Photo by MIKE NELSON / AFP) (Photo by MIKE NELSON/AFP via Getty Images) (MIKE NELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

“Abuse does not exist in a vacuum. It leaves lasting scars, rewires the brain, and traps victims in cycles of fear and trauma. To say it played no role in Erik and Lyle’s action is to ignore decades of psychological research and basic human understanding.” 

The statement added that it was “absurd” for Hochman to say that the evidence should have been submitted at the trial. 

Hochman also noted that Newsom has the clemency petition on his desk and “he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and we will be dealing in the next couple of weeks with the resentencing issue.”  

If Hochman’s office continues down the resentencing road, Newsom still has the final say. If the brothers’ sentences are reduced to something that would make them eligible for parole, the governor has veto power over parole board decisions. He could also issue clemency or a pardon on his own.

The resentencing hearing was pushed back nearly two months due to California’s devastating wildfires.

Lyle and Erik Menendez were found guilty in 1996 of the 1989 killing of their parents at their ritzy Beverly Hills home and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The brothers claim they shot their father, former RCA Records executive Jose Menendez, in self-defense, arguing they thought he was going to kill them after they warned him they planned to expose him as a child sex abuser. 

They also killed their mother, Mary “Kitty” Menendez, who was sitting next to Jose eating ice cream in their living room when they opened fire.

Their first trial ended in a mistrial, when jurors couldn’t agree on their fate. After a second trial in the mid-1990s, in which some of their evidence about the alleged sexual abuse was excluded, jurors agreed with prosecutors that their motive was greed.

Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz, Michael Dorgan, and Brie Stimson contributed to this report.