California’s Board of Parole Hearings rejected Erik Menendez’s bid for release on 21 August, concluding after a nearly 10-hour session that the 54-year-old inmate “continues to pose an unreasonable risk to public safety.” Menendez, who appeared by video from the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, will not be eligible to reapply for parole for three years. Commissioners cited a pattern of prison misconduct—including possession of illegal cellphones, gang associations and alcohol use—along with earlier burglaries and the fatal shooting of his mother, Kitty Menendez, as factors outweighing evidence of rehabilitation. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman argued against release, while several family members urged leniency. The hearing was Erik Menendez’s first opportunity for parole since a May 2025 resentencing reduced the brothers’ original life-without-parole terms to 50 years to life under California youth-offender rules. Attention now shifts to older brother Lyle Menendez, 57, whose separate suitability hearing is scheduled for 22 August. Should a future board recommend release for either brother, Governor Gavin Newsom would have up to 30 days to affirm or reject the decision. Both men were convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home in 1989.