Despite receiving support from some Californians after a new Netflix series shed more light on their case, the Menendez brothers had no luck at their recent parole board hearing. Lyle and his brother Erik Menendez, who were convicted of murdering their parents in 1989, were both denied parole by the California parole board. However, there’s still a chance the brothers walk free. Lyle Menendez has been denied parole, a day after his brother Erik was also denied. (https://t.co/BE0c74JzD1) pic.twitter.com/LolgSMWs5V — Pop Base (@PopBase) August 23, 2025 CNN had these details to share on the parole board’s decision and what the possibilities are that they will be set free: A California parole board has denied parole for Lyle Menendez, who was convicted alongside his brother of murdering their parents in 1989. The parole board also denied Erik Menendez parole Thursday. The decisions are a crippling blow to both brothers after a yearslong fight for release. Despite the board’s ruling, Lyle Menendez still has hope of walking free. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has the rare power to reverse parole decisions, and the brothers are separately seeking clemency and a new trial. The decision was delivered Friday after a virtual hearing involving statements from the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, Lyle Menendez and supportive Menendez relatives – who are also considered victims of the brothers’ crime. Parole Commissioner Julie Garland said while delivering the decision that Lyle needs to be the person he shows he is while running inmate programs. “We find your remorse is genuine. In many ways, you look like you’ve been a model inmate,” she said. “You have been a model inmate in many ways who has demonstrated the potential for change. But despite all those outward positives, we see … you still struggle with anti-social personality traits like deception, minimization and rule breaking that lie beneath that positive surface.” While the commissioners denied his parole at this juncture, Garland told Menendez, “don’t ever not have hope,” as the denial is “not the end.” “It’s a way for you to spend some time to demonstrate, to practice what you preach about who you are, who you want to be,” she said. “Don’t be somebody different behind closed doors.” Lyle Menendez denied parole by California board, leaving both brothers in jail for killing wealthy parents https://t.co/iYzSq9Se8m pic.twitter.com/psBMELM6KE — New York Post (@nypost) August 23, 2025 I’ve never been able to get past the fact that Erik shot his mother, then, as she was crawling away for her life, went back outside, got more ammo from Lyle, then finished her off. Keep them in jail. https://t.co/iTJdz36H0U — Paul Mauro (@PaulDMauro) August 22, 2025 During his parole hearing Erik Menendez claimed his father sexually abused him, according to PBS:  Erik Menendez was denied parole by panel of California commissioners Thursday. During his hearing he offered his most detailed account in years of how he was raised and why he made the choices he did — both at the time of his parents’ killing and during his decades in prison. He and his brother Lyle were sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for fatally shooting Jose and Kitty Menendez in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. The state corrections department chose a single reporter to watch the videoconference and share details with the rest of the press. Here’s a look at Erik’s remarks. “I was not raised with a moral foundation,” he said. “I was raised to lie, to cheat, to steal, steal in the sense, an abstract way. When I was playing tennis my father would make sure that I cheated at certain times if he told me too. The idea that there is a right and wrong that I do not cross because it’s a moral bound was not instilled in me as a teenager.” Menendez has said for years he was sexually abused by his father. He told commissioners: “I fantasized about my father not being alive.” Prosecutors asked why Menendez chose to kill his father rather than leave the family home, as he was already 18. He said: “In my mind, leaving meant death. There was no consideration. I was totally convinced there was no place I could go.” He also spoke about the fear of his father: “It’s difficult to convey how terrifying my father was.”