Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón has moved up his timetable to make a decision on the fate of the Menendez brothers.

Gascón previously announced in October that his office was reviewing the 2023 habeas corpus petition filed by Erik and Lyle Menendez, which contains new evidence and seeks resentencing of the brothers who are currently serving life sentences without parole for the murders of their parents in 1989., José and Kitty Menendez. He had previously set the hearing date for November 29.

But speaking to CNN on Tuesday, Gascón, who is currently running for re-election, said he would make a decision on re-sentencing the brothers by the end of this week, citing growing public pressure in in favor of the release of the brothers.

“I expect to have a decision by the end of this week,” he told Jake Tapper, “that’s what I promised when we started getting a lot of inquiries. By the way, we have been studying this case for over a year. We had a habeas hearing at the end of November, but given the public attention to this case, I have tried to reach a conclusion. one decision sooner and I will.

The announcement follows a recent surge in interest in the decades-old case, largely thanks to the TikTok support movement surrounding Erik and Lyle and Ryan Murphy’s hit Netflix drama series, Monsters: the story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, as well as the subsequent Netflix documentary that interviewed the brothers together for the first time in decades following their conviction for first-degree murder in 1996. Monsters quickly reached the top of Netflix’s global TV charts and has amassed millions of viewers since its release in late September.

The habeas hearing could be the last opportunity for the Menendez brothers, as they can no longer appeal. Gascón said his office was divided over the outcome. “There are actually two different camps in my office,” he explains. “I have a group of people, including some who participated in the original trial, who are adamant that they should spend the rest of their lives in prison and that they were not assaulted. I have other people in my office who think, in fact, that they have probably been assaulted and deserve relief.

Newly discovered evidence that led to the habeas petition includes a found letter written by Erik, then 17, to his cousin Andres “Andy Cano” in 1988, eight months before the murders and never discussed until the mid-1990s . lawsuits, which corroborate the brothers’ self-defense claims that their father continually mistreated them; as well as an abuse complaint against José from new witness Roy Rosselló, a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo managed by José and his RCA Records. Rosselló featured the allegation in the April 2023 Peacock documentary series, Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed. Gascón previously shared an image of the handwritten letter on his social media, but has since deleted the post.

“This is a trial that happened twice. Initially, the jury couldn’t reach a decision, so it was suspended,” Gascón told Tapper. “Then in the second trial, a lot of evidence was presented in the first trial that had not been presented in the second trial, and they were found guilty. There is no doubt that they murdered their parents.

Gascón therefore said that what was being considered was the evidence that was never presented that could have changed the outcome, as well as the question, under California law, whether the brothers are prisoners rehabilitated people who can safely reintegrate into the community.

“Either of these vehicles has to be evaluated by a court and approved by a court, and I’m looking at both,” he said, adding that he thinks the “implicit bias” around male rape had also played a role at the time of the affair. trials and “may have impacted how the case was presented to the jury.”

Last week, Erik and Lyle’s extended family held a press conference calling for Gascón’s help in re-examining the case. The brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos, pointed to Murphy’s nine-part series for rallying the public behind the brothers. “When the Ryan Murphy show came out, it was such a caricature of them that the swing of the pendulum – the backlash – put the focus on it,” he said.