The Menendez Brothers’ Clemency Order is on hold until a new District Attorney takes office

December 3rd can’t come fast enough got the Menendez Brothers.

The first week after Thanksgiving sees the new Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman take office. As the former US assistant attorney general made clear in his successful campaign against one-time incumbent George Gascón and since his landslide victory on November 5, one of the first things the new DA will treat as a self-proclaimed “high priority” is moving his predecessor began on October 24 to a potential outrage by the long-imprisoned siblings.

“When I take office on December 3rd, I look forward to doing the hard work of thoroughly reviewing the facts and the law in the Menendez case, including reviewing the confidential prison records, the transcripts of the two trials and the voluminous exhibits, as well as talk to the prosecutors, the defense attorneys and the victim’s family members,” Hochman said today.

With a Dec. 11 hearing currently on the calendar, Hochman hasn’t given up on where he stands in the high-profile case. After the late October one-two punch of pardon requests from the Menendezs to Gavin Newsom and “strong support” letters from then-poll challenged Gascón, the California governor has paused — at least for now.

“The governor respects the district attorney’s role in ensuring that justice is served and recognizes that voters have entrusted District Attorney-elect Hochman to carry out that responsibility,” Newsom’s office said Monday in a statement that dashed the hopes of the Menendez brothers, a legion of their family members and other followers, including Gascón.

“The governor will submit to the DA-elect’s review and analysis of the Menendez case before making any clemency decisions,” Newsom’s office added.

Which is to say, Newsom won’t be doing Gascón any Menendez favors, since the former San Francisco DA is leaving his LA job a few days after Turkey Day.

If Hochman decides the Dec. 11 hearing will go ahead as planned, LA Superior Court Judge William Ryan could move the brothers’ sentences to manslaughter instead of first-degree murder, and they could soon walk out of prison if a parole board agrees. Then again, if both Hochman and Newsom did nothing to prevent or encourage the case, Judge Ryan could also order a brand new trial for the Menendez brothers

A media sensation back in Bill Clinton’s first term in office, the brothers’ case has returned to the headlines in no small part because of new evidence of sexual abuse by the boy’s music manager, revealed in Peacock’s 2023 documentaries. Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed and more recently Ryan Murphy’s nine-part true crime Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Storywhich launched on Netflix on September 19. Those shows were followed by a Menendez documentary on the Ted Sarando and Greg Peters-run streamer and advocacy for the brothers from the likes of Kim Kardashian and a number of the killers’ family members.

Nearly three decades after the brothers were sentenced to life without parole in their second trial in 1996 for the brutal shotgun murder of their parents in 1989, the incoming DA also has not declared whether or not he will seek a break on any further steps toward potentially seeing 54-year-old Erik Menendez and 56-year-old Lyle Menendez freed from the state prison near San Diego that currently holds them.

Gascón is unlikely to play much more of a role in the case in his final days. Right now, the only milestone in the case under his remaining supervision is a Nov. 25 status hearing at Van Nuys Courthouse West. A hearing that right now has very much a “hurry up and wait” feel about it.