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Erik Menendez should stay behind bars for now, a parole hearing panel decided 36 years after he and his brother Lyle Menendez killed their parents.
Officials in California rejected Erik’s bid for parole Thursday, determining after an all-day suitability hearing that the convicted killer should not be released from prison.
Erik, 54, will be able to seek parole again in three years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed to .
Erik’s parole decision, which was released Thursday night at around 6:45 p.m. PT after an all-day hearing, is not final. It ‘s subject to a lengthy review that includes the California Board of Parole and the governor, according to NBC Los Angeles. An audio recording of the hearing will be transcribed and become part of the review process.
What’s next for Erik Menendez?
The parole hearing decision is considered to be a proposed decision and is subject to review by the board’s chief counsel. The panel’s decision becomes final “unless the Board finds that the panel made an error of law, or that the panel’s decision was based on an error of fact, or that new information should be presented to the Board, any of which when corrected or considered by the Board has a substantial likelihood of resulting in a substantially different decision upon a rehearing,” according to the CDCR.
The board has up to 120 days after the hearing to conduct a review of the decision.
It’s expected that Lyle’s parole hearing will lead to the same result the one given to his brother. Asked if the parole board could give the brothers different decisions, legal analyst Royal Oakes told NBC Los Angeles that that would be “so unlikely.”
The expert stressed that if the brothers had different attorneys, they might argue that Erik was the younger brother under the spell of the older brother. “But the same lawyers are representing both of them,” Oakes said.
How parole became a possibility for the Menendez brothers
The brothers were convicted of the 1989 shotguy murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. They are incarcerated at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, Calif.
For more than 30 years, the brothers were both serving life sentences without the opportunity of parole after being convicted of first-degree murder in a second highly publicized trial that ended in March of 1996.
The path to the parole hearings was cleared earlier this year when a judge resentenced the brothers from life in prison without the possibility of parole, to 50 years to life in prison, reported NBC Los Angeles.
Judge Michael Jesic ruled in May of 2025 that the brothers’ sentences should be reduced to life sentences with the possibility of parole, citing the fact that Lyle and Erik were just 21 and 18 years old, respectively, at the time of the murders.
The possibility for parole for Erik and Lyle followed Jesic’s ruling, though the California Parole Board and governor will ultimately make the final determination.
The parole board takes many factors into consideration when making their determination, including time served and credits for good behavior.
Additionally, the parole board reviewed statements from victims’ family members, the district attorney, and other sources to determine if the “incarcerated person currently poses an unreasonable risk of danger to society if released from prison,” according to the parole board.
A number of members of the Menendez family have voiced support for the brothers’ release, in addition to members of the public and some celebrities, including Kim Kardashian.
Erik’s parole hearing decision followed a brief hospitalization this summer for a condition reported as kidney stones.
Erik’s wife, Tammi, whom he married while he was incarcerated, shared a message in support of her husband prior to his parole hearing.
“Wishing my amazing husband all the love and strength for his parole hearing tomorrow,” Tammi Menendez posted on X. “I believe in you and can’t wait for this new chapter together. You’ve got this!”
For now, Erik will stay in prison.
