Erik and Lyle Menendez. Photo:
California Dept. of Corrections via AP
Lyle and Erik Menendez, currently serving life without parole for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents, could potentially be released from prison if a judge decides to resentence them. What would their lives look like if they are freed after decades behind bars?
The brothers spoke, from prison, to TMZ for an upcoming special, TMZ Presents: The Menendez Brothers: The Prison Interview, premiering at 9 p.m. on Monday, April 7 on Fox.
“We have pretty much a shared purpose,” Lyle told TMZ in a phone interview featured in the TV special. “In terms of the victims community, we have for decades been involved with and a lot of our joy, a lot of our grief has come from that community.”
Lyle spoke about the work he and his brother have done is prison, including speaking about trauma in order to help healing. He hopes to do more of that if released.
“We have a phrase we call ‘speaking shame,'” Lyle said. “It’s helping people find their voice in their trauma. And we think that there’s a hunger for that in the country and we would love to be a part of that and heal in that way.”
Incarcerated since the 1990s, Lyle has studied sociology behind bars and previously received his bachelor’s degree from UC Irvine in 2024.
He has also worked on a redesign on the prison yard, in hopes of making it less “harsh and oppressive” he told CrimeCon over the phone in 2024.
Lyle told TMZ that after testifying about the abuse he and his brother said they suffered at the hands of their father José, he received a lot of support and hopes to keep up his work helping survivors of trauma.
Erik also expressed similar sentiments to TMZ, saying that if he’s released, he wants to be an advocate for people who have survived childhood trauma.
“There are people that the system is failing and I want to help the people that the system is failing,” Erik said. “Lyle and I aren’t talking about leaving prison, should we be able to get out, and not looking back. Our lives will be spent working with the prison and doing the work we’re doing in here out there.”
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Lyle and Erik were convicted of murder in 1996 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. They have maintained that they murdered their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion because their father had sexually abused them both for years and claimed that their mother, Kitty, enabled the abuse.
The brothers are set to have a resentencing hearing in April, during which a judge could reduce their sentence, making them immediately eligible for parole.
“My brother and I are cautiously hopeful,” Lyle told TMZ.
California Gov. Newsom has also requested that the state’s Board of Parole Hearings investigate whether the brothers would pose a risk if released.
