Gascon threw a Hail Mary when he recommended resentment to the Menendez brothers

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon threw out a “Hail Mary” Thursday as he announced he would recommend resentencing the Menendez brothers for the 1989 killings of their parents, amid a tough trial Crisis is fighting for his political life. Election campaign, said a legal expert.

Gascon said he would recommend a sentence of 50 years to life for each of the brothers – Erik and Joseph “Lyle” Menendez – which would make them immediately eligible for parole under state law because they were under 26 at the time of the murders.

“The guy who lost 30 points in his re-election campaign threw his Hail Mary today and is letting the Menendez brothers out,” defense attorney David Gelman told Fox News Digital. “You are eligible for parole and he will make sure that happens. It’s a terrible day for the criminal justice system.”

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The Menendez brothers could be released from prison after Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon said he would support resentencing for their parents' murders. (Fox News)

Gascon's campaign declined to comment on the matter. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Attorney General's Office.

The Menendez brothers were sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for the murders of Jose and Mary “Kitty” Menendez in their Beverly Hills mansion. The couple said they were sexually abused by their father, but prosecutors argued that money was the motive for the murders.

During the murders, the brothers ran out of shotgun shells and had to go outside to get more to finish off their mother, who investigators said had blood on the bottom of her shoes, indicating she died after the shooting began tried to escape.

Some critics questioned the timing of Gascon's announcement as he struggles to keep his job despite intense criticism of his progressive criminal justice policies.

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Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon (Myung Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

“Prosecutor George Gascon received the habeas corpus petition for Menendez in May 2023 and the motion for resentencing in February 2024. Yet he waited until a few days before the Nov. 5 election, trailing by 30 points in the polls and articles saying the failed policies of his policies had led to more murders of innocent people, to withdraw his resentencing recommendation ” Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor running against Gascon, said in a statement.

“By publishing now, Gascon has cast a shadow over the fairness and impartiality of his decision and left Angelenos questioning whether the decision was right and just or just another desperate political move by a prosecutor running a losing campaign and struggling to grab headlines “Angelenos and everyone involved deserve better,” he added.

An undated photo of the Menendez family is shown during a panel discussion at CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee, June 2. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)

Gascon previously announced that he would investigate the case after new evidence emerged that supported the sexual abuse allegations.

The new evidence includes allegations published last year that her father also abused Roy Rossello, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, in the 1980s, as well as a letter that surfaced in 2015 that Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin Andy Cano, years after his death.

Jose Menendez was an executive at RCA Records at the time of his death.

Letter at Center of Menendez Brothers' Quest for Freedom Questioned

Pictured is a letter purportedly written by Erik Menendez and sent to his cousin Andy Cano eight months before the murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez. (SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY)

“They have been in prison for almost 35 years,” Gascon said of the brothers on Thursday. “I believe they have paid their debt to society.”

He added that a resentencing must be approved by the court before it becomes official and that a parole board must still approve their eventual release. He continued to praise the brothers' good behavior during their decades behind bars.

Gascon said the question was never whether the brothers committed the murders, but to what extent they should be held accountable.

At the time of the murders, the case received significant media attention. Attention was revived after the publication of an eight-part series Netflix true crime drama, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and documentary “The Menendez Brothers,” also on the streaming platform.

Lyle (left) and Erik (right) are pictured in mugshots from 2023. After years of separation, they were moved to the same housing unit at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego in 2018, according to the New York Daily News. (California Department of Corrections)

Gelman noted the list of celebrities who gathered around the couple and demanded their freedom.

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“He (Gascon) thinks they should be released because Kim Kardashian, because Rosie O'Donnell, because Netflix makes these boys look like martyrs. They think it’s good for Hollywood.”

“If these two brothers get out, and they will, and commit another crime, will you know where the blood is?” he added. “It will be at the hands of George Gascon. That's a disgrace.”

Michael Ruiz of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.