LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman on Monday announced that his office will oppose the release of Erik and Lyle Menendez from state prison, where they are serving life without the possibility of parole for the shotgun murders of their parents more than three decades ago.

“Our position is that they shouldn’t get out of jail,” the county’s top prosecutor said at a news conference about 1 1/2 weeks before a potential resentencing hearing could begin for the two in a Van Nuys courtroom.

Erik Menendez, now 54, and Lyle Menendez, 57, were convicted of the Aug. 20, 1989, killings of their parents, Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez, in Beverly Hills.

Hochman told reporters that prosecutors are prepared to proceed with a hearing Thursday and Friday in Van Nuys on the court’s initiation of resentencing proceedings for the two brothers but asked the court to allow the District Attorney’s Office to withdraw a motion filed under previous District Attorney George Gascón’s administration because “in no way, shape or form did they deal with what we believe to be one of the key issues ... (which is) the exhibition of full insight and complete responsibility for one’s crimes.”

Hochman said prosecutors have offered a path to the Menendez brothers in which they would have to “accept complete responsibility” for their criminal actions and acknowledge that their claim that the murders were committed in self-defense was “phony.”

“But for now, while the Menendez brothers persist in telling these lies for the last over 30 years about their self-defense defense and persist in insisting that they did not suborn any perjury or attempt to suborn perjury, then they do not meet the standards for resentencing,” Hochman said. “They do not meet the standards for rehabilitation. They have not exhibited the full insights and accepted complete responsibility for their actions and as a result ... they pose an unreasonable risk of danger to the community, and the resentencing should not therefore be granted.”

In a statement released soon after the district attorney’s announcement, The Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition responded, “District Attorney Hochman made it clear today he is holding Erik, Lyle and our family hostage. He appears fixated on their trauma-driven response to the killings in 1989 with blinders on to the fact they were repeatedly abused, feared for their lives and have atoned for their actions. How many times do we have to hear the same attempts to bury who they are today and rip us back to that painful time?”

The family-led initiative said in the statement that the brothers have apologized to them and have “demonstrated their atonement through actions that have helped improve countless lives,” but added that Hochman “broke his promise to listen to us, keep politics out of this review, and look at the full picture of this case.”

The group said it remains hopeful that the court, the Board of Parole Hearings and Gov. Gavin Newsom “will transcend the political games that governed DA Hochman’s recommendation around resentencing.”

The district attorney announced last month that his office would oppose the brothers’ request for a new trial, one of three possible tracks for the brothers to be freed from prison.

Resentencing is another track, and clemency from the governor is the third.

Newsom announced last month that he had directed a state parole board to conduct a “risk assessment investigation” of Erik and Lyle Menendez.

“The question for the board is a simple one: Do Erik and Lyle Menendez — do they pose a current what we call ‘unreasonable risk to public safety?’ ” the governor asked in videotaped remarks first reported by TMZ. “The risk assessment will be conducted as they are typically conducted — by experts in public safety as well as forensic psychologists.”

Newsom said the findings will be shared with the Los Angeles County Superior Court judge presiding over the case, as well as with the district attorney and defense attorneys.

“There’s no guarantee of outcome here,” Newsom said. “My office conducts dozens and dozens of these clemency reviews on a consistent basis, but this process simply provides more transparency, which I think is important in this case, as well as provides us more due diligence before I make any determination for clemency.”

The governor’s move was lauded by Menendez family members.

“This is a pretty exciting time for us as the family of Erik and Lyle Menendez,” their cousin, Anamaria Baralt, told reporters soon afterward, calling it “a positive step toward Erik and Lyle’s release.”

“We are incredibly grateful that Governor Newsom is paying attention to this case,” she said. “For us, it is a huge sigh of relief that someone in a seat of power is paying attention to what we have seen up close since Erik and Lyle have been incarcerated. We have seen their rehabilitation. Erik and Lyle have changed countless lives since their conviction in 1996. Inmates have seen it, corrections officers have seen it and now we need the entire criminal justice system to see it.”

She said it has been “three painful decades” for the family.

Another of the brothers’ cousins, Tamara Goodell, noted that they are “not kids any more” and said that relatives wished Hochman would have spoken about the groups that the brothers have led behind bars when he announced that he would oppose their request for a new trial.

The governor could rule on the brothers’ request for clemency or commutation of their sentences at any time.

The governor described the probe as a common procedure carried out by the state, but he had previously indicated he would defer any decision on the Menendez brothers’ case to local courts and prosecutors.

In a 2023 court petition, attorneys for the brothers pointed to two new pieces of evidence they contend corroborate the brothers’ allegations of long-term sexual abuse at the hands of their father: a letter allegedly written by Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano in early 1989 or late 1988, roughly eight months before the August 1989 killings, and recent allegations by Roy Rosselló, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, that he too was sexually abused by Jose Menendez as a teenager.

Interest in the case surged following the release of a recent Netflix documentary and dramatic series.

During their two highly publicized trials, the brothers did not dispute that they killed their parents, but claimed self-defense. Prosecutors countered that the killings were financially motivated, pointing to lavish spending sprees by the brothers afterward.