Menendez brothers to face parole board to ask for freedom

Immediate decision is expected this week. Here's how the process will go.

- JAMES QUEALLY AND RICHARD WINTON

Given they are accused of the same crime, the results of Erik's hearing on Thursday will probably forecast what happens to Lyle 24 hours later.

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation ERIK MENENDEZ, left, will go before the parole board Thursday. His brother Lyle's hearing is on Friday.

More than 35 years after murdering their parents in a volley of shotgun blasts, brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez are the closest to freedom since they were arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

The siblings — who infamously gunned down their mother and father in 1989 at the family’s Beverly Hills home — will go before a California parole board this week.

In recent years, the brothers have become a cause celebre amid mounting evidence that the slayings followed years of sexual abuse by their father.

A Los Angeles County judge agreed to resentence them this year over the objections of L.A.’s top prosecutor.

Now, if the parole board finds they have been rehabilitated, the brothers could soon be sent home to reunite with the family members who have spent years fighting for their release.

But just because the brothers were resentenced doesn't mean the parole process will be smooth sailing.

When are the hearings? Can I watch?

The brothers will have individual hearings. Erik, 54, will go before the board at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. The hearing for Lyle, 57, will take place about the same time Friday. Each hearing is expected to last two to three hours, and the board will probably make a decision immediately, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Parole board hearings take place over videoconference. The brothers will appear from a room in the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.