The L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman just said he wants to withdraw the prior D.A.'s motion to have the Menendez Brothers resentenced, saying what they did in killing their parents was unforgivable and they have not copped to the various lies they told to cover their tracks.
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PeopleTranscript
00:00The second track that the Menendez case is on is the clemency track.
00:07This is a petition that the Menendez brothers filed directly with Governor Gavin Newsom.
00:13He could have acted on this petition either now, he could have acted on any moment since
00:18he has been in power since 2019, he can act on it today if he so chooses.
00:25He has unilateral constitutional power to commute the Menendez's sentences if he chooses
00:32and release them today.
00:34There is no hearing he needs to have, there is no deadline, and he can also do nothing.
00:40The third track is resentencing, and we are here today to discuss that third track.
00:47Resentencing is a law that was passed by the state legislature in California, a somewhat
00:52unique law to California, that basically gives the judge under certain circumstances
00:57the power to re-sentence someone who has been previously sentenced.
01:02In this example, potentially, the judge could re-sentence the Menendez brothers from life
01:07without the possibility of parole to life with the possibility of parole.
01:13What the position we are taking today is that we will go forward, we are prepared to go
01:18forward with the court's initiated resentencing proceedings and look forward to a resentencing
01:24hearing on that motion.
01:26However, we are asking the court to withdraw the previous district attorney's motion for
01:32resentencing because we believe there are legitimate reasons and the interest of justice
01:38justifies that withdrawal.
01:40In looking at then whether or not the Menendez's have exhibited the full insight and complete
01:48responsibility for their crimes, they have not.
01:53Because we outlined this in 20 different lies that they have told, which is an attachment
02:00to our submission.
02:01They have told 20 different lies, they have actually admitted to 4 of them, but 16 lies
02:11remain unacknowledged.
02:13They persist in these lies to this very day.
02:17So like with Sirhan Sirhea not being able to exhibit full insight into his actions,
02:22so too have the Menendez brothers failed to exhibit full insight into their actions.
02:28Let me give you 4 examples where they have actually admitted to the lie.
02:32Eric and Lyle lied on the 911 call about just discovering their parents' bodies.
02:38Again, when they were found out and the tapes came in, they admitted to that lie and I mean
02:44the lie of the 911 call.
02:47The second lie that they have admitted to is that they lied to the police family and
02:51friends and the media about their involvement in the murders.
02:55Again, when their confession came out on tape, they had to admit to that in the first and
03:01the second trial.
03:02They admitted that they lied to the police family and friends suggesting the mafia was
03:07involved in the murders.
03:09And Eric admitted that he lied when he told his expert psychiatrist, Dr. Vickery, that
03:16his parents would kill him because his father's homosexual lover warned him that he was in
03:21danger 2 days before the murders.
03:24This is something that Eric Menendez told Dr. Vickery and then months and months later
03:30finally recanted and told Dr. Vickery that that was a lie.
03:35But there are 16 lies that remain to this day that have been affirmed as recently as
03:44last year where they affirm the self-defense and they've never admitted to the suborning
03:50of perjury of others or the attempted suborning perjury.
03:54These lies include when Eric and Lyle claimed that their parents were going to kill them
04:00and that they had to act in self-defense by murdering them first.
04:05That the Brian S. Lamina letter, that they basically tried to suborn perjury from Brian
04:11S. Lamina telling him to testify that he borrowed one of his handguns the night before the murder.
04:19Another lie that they told to support their self-defense story is that on that Friday
04:24when they go down to San Diego, they said they actually didn't start in San Diego.
04:29They said they started at the Big Five Sporting Goods store in Santa Monica to try and buy
04:35handguns.
04:36Turns out as the evidence came in at trial, the Big Five Sporting Goods store in Santa
04:41Monica hadn't sold handguns for three years at that point.
04:45So it was impossible for them to have actually gone and tried to purchase a handgun instead
04:51of a shotgun that particular day.
04:54They never admitted that they provided that fake ID and fictitious address to buy their
05:00shotguns in San Diego in order to conceal their connections to the shotguns and the
05:05ammunition.
05:07They lied when they said they didn't plan that alibi before the murders.
05:12They lied when they said they did not ask Perry Berman to come back to their house in
05:17order to be a witness on the discovery of the mutilated bodies.
05:22They lied when they said that they did not stage the murders to look like a mafia gangland
05:26hit.
05:27They lied when Lyle said they tried to subordinate that perjury from Jamie Pisarczyk about his
05:34father drugging and violently raping her.
05:37They never admitted that they lied when they testified that their mother was so dangerous
05:42and unpredictable that she tried to poison the whole family.
05:46And they never admitted the suborning of perjury from Tracy Baker when they actually got one
05:52of Lyle's girlfriends to testify to the fake mother's poisoning the family story at trial.
06:01They further lied when they testified that they thought their parents were going to kill
06:05them during their Saturday afternoon fishing trip.
06:09They lied when they testified that when they burst into the den with their shotguns that
06:14it was too dark to see and their parents were standing up or moving towards them.
06:18We have looked through the facts and the law and that's what's governing our opinion.
06:23It's not a motion, it's the facts and the law.
06:26They have failed to meet these requirements to show that they are no longer an unreasonable
06:31risk of danger to the community and that is why our position is that resentencing, if
06:37it occurs, they shouldn't actually be resentenced.