Erik and Lyle Menendez score major victory after judge rules resentencing bid can proceed

Erik and Lyle Menendez’s resentencing hearings can continue, a Los Angeles judge ruled Friday –bringing the brothers a step closer to freedom after 30 years behind bars.Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic shot down the new district attorney’s bid to withdraw the resentencing request in a major victory for the pair, who were convicted of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home in 1989.“Everything you argued today is absolutely fair game for the resentencing hearing next Thursday,” Jesic said.At the hearing, District Attorney Nathan Hochman blasted his predecessor George Gascón’s formal petition to resentence the brothers, who were handed life in prison without the possibility of parole at ages 18 and 21 — calling the request an “insane” political ploy that ignored basic facts.The brothers’ attorney Mark Garagos, however, ripped the DA’s statement as nothing but a “dog and pony show” and condemned the prosecution for showing grizzly crime-scene photos without warning the family members watching from the gallery.“The DA has assiduously shown that he has no consideration for the victims,” Garagos said.In the end, Jesic sided with Garagos, ruling that Hochman’s office had no legally valid reason to yank Gascón’s petition.The court is scheduled to make its final decision on resentencing after hearings on April 17 and 18.At those hearings, the brothers and their attorneys will try to convince the court that they have been rehabilitated more than three decades after murdering their wealthy parents in their Malibu mansion, emphasizing the brothers’ claim that the killings were in self-defense against their own parents after years of sexual abuse.Last October, the former DA asked a judge to change the brothers’ sentence to 50 years to life, which would make them immediately eligible for release under California law because they committed the crime when they were younger than 26.Hoc...