Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced Monday he would not support Erik and Lyle Menendez’s efforts to be released from prison because he believes they have maintained a decades-long lie that the 1989 murders of their parents were committed in self-defense.

Hochman has asked the court to withdraw a resentencing motion filed by his predecessor last year who advocated for the brothers to receive a sentence that would make them eligible for parole.

Though the court can still proceed with a resentencing hearing scheduled for March 20, Hochman’s opposition threatens to capsize the strong momentum that has driven the brothers’ latest bid for freedom.

Hochman said the brothers have displayed “lack of acceptance of responsibility for their murderous actions” and urged the court to consider what he said were a string of lies told during the trial and maintained over their three decades behind bars.

“The District Attorney’s Office is prepared to proceed forward with the hearing on the Court’s initiation of resentencing proceedings for the Menendez brothers but we are requesting that the prior District Attorney’s motion for resentencing be withdrawn,” Hochman said in a statement.

The brothers, who are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, launched a three-part legal effort in 2023 seeking their release: a request for clemency to Gov. Gavin Newsom, a petition for an adjusted sentence that would allow them parole and a call for a new trial based on claims of new evidence.

But each of these efforts was made under Hochman’s progressive predecessor, George Gascón, and Hochman has so far taken a more restrained approach.

Hochman last month announced he opposes the Menendezes’ request for a new trial and resisted claims from the brothers that new evidence of sexual abuse by their father had arisen since their trials in the 1990s.

This is a developing story and will be updated.