By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Lyle and Erik Menendez, who have served 35 years in prison for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents in their Beverly Hills home, were ruled eligible for parole by a Los Angeles judge at a re-sentencing hearing on Tuesday.
The Menendez brothers, held in custody since 1990 and originally sentenced in July 1996 to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, were each handed a new sentence of 50 years to life by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic.
The brothers, now 57 and 54, who appeared for the re-sentencing proceeding via live video feed from prison in San Diego, will remain incarcerated for the time being.
Under California law, they become immediately eligible for parole, but the state parole board must still consider the case and decide when and whether they actually deserve to be released.
"They (the brothers) had tears and they were smiling," Menendez attorney Cliff Gardner told Los Angeles television station KNBC-TV, relaying what he saw from the video link in court immediately after the ruling.
The outcome capped a day-long hearing in which several relatives, a retired judge, and a former fellow inmate testified in support of defense efforts to shorten the brothers' sentence to time already served, or at least gain parole eligibility.
The brothers were found guilty in 1996 of first-degree murder for shooting to death their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, on August 20, 1989, as the couple watched television in the family room of their home.
At trial, the brothers admitted to committing the killings but insisted they did so out of fear that their parents were about to kill them following years of sexual abuse by their father, a wealthy entertainment industry executive, and emotional battering by their mother.
Former District Attorney George Gascon petitioned for a re-sentencing last autumn, citing new evidence purported to bolster the brothers' claims that they were molested and a prison record showing they had achieved rehabilitation while incarcerated.
Gascon said the pair had paid their debt to society and should be eligible for parole under the state's youthful offender statute since they were younger than 26 at the time of their offense. Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18.
But Gascon's successor as DA, Nathan Hochman, opposed the re-sentencing after taking office earlier this year, arguing the brothers have yet to fully acknowledge and accept responsibility for the killings.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Michael Perry, Nia Williams, Matthew Lewis and Lincoln Feast.)
