FAMILY members of the Menendez brothers have gathered to demand the prosecutors reconsider the life sentences assigned to the notorious duo for killing their parents over 30 years ago.
Nearly two dozen relatives of Erik and Lyle Menendez united in Los Angeles on Wednesday to hold a press conference urging prosecutors to recommend the duo be resentenced for the murders.
Lyle, left, and Erik Menendez leaving a courtroom in Santa Monica, California, in August 1990AP
Los Angeles Superior Court filingThe recently released bombshell letter from Erik Menendez to his cousin[/caption]
ReutersLos Angeles Defense Attorney Mark Geragos at the family’s press conference on Wednesday[/caption]
Erik and Lyle are currently serving life behind bars in a California state prison for shooting their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, to death in their Beverly Hills home in 1989.
Interest in the highly publicized murder trial has spiked again in recent years due to Ryan Murphy’s drama series, a Netflix documentary, and ongoing TikTok coverage of the case.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced earlier this month that the brothers’ convictions will soon be reevaluated.
“I want to be clear; we have not conceded one way or the other,” LA County District Attorney George Gascón said on October 3.
“We’re not saying there was anything wrong with the original trial. We have been given evidence.”
Calls for the brothers to be freed were amplified when a new bombshell letter came to light after decades seeming to back up the brothers’ claims that they committed the murders in self-defense after years of abuse from their parents.
The letter, written by Erik, says in part “I never know when [the abuse] is going to happen and it’s driving me crazy. Every night, I stay up thinking [my father] might come in.”
Another piece of new evidence was revealed when pop band member Roy Rosselló said that he was sexually abused by José Menendez.
Over 20 relatives, as well as celebrity advocate Rosie O’Donnell, spoke on Wednesday with Defense Attorney Mark Geragos.
Geragos said that since 2005, the brothers “exhausted all legal remedies” and resigned themselves to being in prison for the rest of their lives until the new evidence gave them hope.
Gascón told ABC News that he plans to make a resentencing decision later this month.
“Given the totality of the circumstances, I don’t think that they deserve to be in prison until they die,” he told the outlet.
If Gascón recommends the brothers be resentenced, a judge will then decide if the brothers will be released, receive a shorter sentence, or go to a retrial.
Kitty Menendez’s sister, Joan Anderson, gave an emotional statement at the press conference on Wednesday.
Timeline of the Menendez brothers case
Erik and Lyle Menendez have been serving a life imprisonment sentence without the possibility of parole since July 1996 after being convicted of shooting their parents to death in their Beverly Hills home in August 1989
Timeline:
August 20, 1989 – José and Kitty Menendez are found dead from multiple shotgun wounds.
March 8, 1990 – Lyle is arrested for the murders
March 11, 1990 – Erik turns himself in
July 20, 1993 – Highly publicized trial begins and ends weeks later in a mistrial
October 11, 1995 – Second trial begins
March 20, 1996 – Menendez brothers are convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder
July 2, 1996 – Menendez brothers are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and sent to separate prisons
February 2018 – Lyle is transferred to the San Diego prison where Erik is held
April 4, 2018 – Erik and Lyle are reunited
May 2023 – Attorney representing the Menendez brothers files a habeas petition
September 19, 2024 – Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story comes out on Netflix
October 3, 2024: Los Angeles authorities reviewing new evidence in connection with the brothers’ convictions
October 7, 2024 – The Menendez Brothers documentary film comes out on Netflix
The 85-year-old said she struggled for years with the “nightmare” of her sister and brother-in-law’s murder.
“Their actions, while tragic, were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive the unspeakable cruelty of their father,” Anderson said through tears.
“The truth is that Lyle and Erik were failed by the very people who were supposed to protect them.”
She went on to say that the brothers have already paid a “heavy price” and that they’ve become better men “despite everything that they’ve been through.”
The pair’s aunt said they deserve to be released from prison to live the rest of their lives and heal.
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