California’s Board of Parole Hearings rejected bids for release by Erik and Lyle Menendez on consecutive days, leaving the brothers in prison more than 35 years after they fatally shot their parents, José and Kitty Menendez, in the family’s Beverly Hills home. The decisions followed separate, marathon hearings—about ten hours for Erik on Thursday and more than eleven hours for Lyle on Friday—held by different two-member panels at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. Commissioners concluded that both men still pose an “unreasonable risk” to public safety, citing a pattern of prison rule violations that includes repeated contraband-cellphone use, gang associations and other misconduct. For Lyle, the panel also pointed to what it called lingering antisocial traits and the “callous” nature of the killings; Erik’s denial emphasised his more extensive disciplinary record. Each brother may ask for an administrative review in a year and could receive another full hearing in as little as 18 months, but their regular eligibility date is three years away. The brothers, now 57 and 54, were convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 and initially sentenced to life without parole. A Los Angeles judge resentenced them in May to indeterminate terms of 50 years to life under California’s youthful-offender statute, making them immediately eligible to seek parole for the first time. They maintain the killings were carried out in self-defence after years of sexual abuse; prosecutors have long argued the motive was a multimillion-dollar inheritance. The parole denials do not end the Menendez brothers’ legal options. A habeas corpus petition seeking a new trial remains before the courts, and Governor Gavin Newsom can still grant clemency or commute their sentences. Until then, both men will remain at the San Diego prison where they have been held since 1990.