Prosecutors in Los Angeles are reviewing new evidence in the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez to determine whether they should be serving life sentences for killing their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion more than 35 years ago, the city’s district attorney said Thursday.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said during a news conference that there is no question Erik, 53, and his 56-year-old brother, Lyle, committed the murders, but that his office will be reviewing new evidence and will make a decision on whether a resentencing is warranted in the notorious case that captured national attention.
The new evidence presented in the petition includes a letter written by Erik that his attorneys say corroborates the allegations that he was sexually abused by his father.
The brothers have said they killed their parents out of self-defence after enduring a lifetime of physical, emotional and sexual abuse from them. Their attorneys argue that because of society’s changing views on sexual abuse, that the brothers may not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole today.
Bryan Freedman, the extended family’s lawyers, said the family strongly supports the brothers’ release.
“She wishes nothing more than for them to be released,” Freedman said of Joan VanderMolen, the brothers’ aunt.
The brothers’ attorneys said the family believed from the beginning they should have been charged with manslaughter rather than murder. Manslaughter was not an option for the jury during the second trial that ultimately led to their murder conviction, attorney Mark Geragos said.
Lyle, who was then 21, and Erik, then 18, admitted they fatally shot-gunned their entertainment executive father and their mother, but said they feared their parents were about to kill them to prevent the disclosure of the father’s long-term sexual molestation of Erik.
Prosecutors at the time contended there was no evidence of any molestation. They said the sons were after their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate. Jurors rejected a death sentence in favour of life without parole.
Attorney Cliff Gardner, who also represents the brothers, said they are pleased by the district attorney’s decision. The attorneys have asked for the court to vacate their conviction.
“Given today’s very different understanding of how sexual and physical abuse impacts children — both boys and girls — and the remarkable new evidence, we think resentencing is the appropriate result,” Gardner said in an email Thursday to The Associated Press.
“The brothers have served more than 30 years in prison. That is enough.”
New attention on case
The case has gained new attention in recent weeks after Netflix began streaming the true-crime drama Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
In a statement on X posted by his wife, Erik called the show a “dishonest portrayal” of what happened that has taken them back to a time when prosecutors “built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experience rape trauma differently from women.”
Gascón said he believes that the topic of sexual assault would have been treated with more sensitivity if the case had happened today.
“We have not decided on an outcome. We are reviewing information,” he said.
He said his office did not know the “validity” of what was presented at the trial.
“We will evaluate all of it,” he said.
Gascón, who is seeking re-election, noted that more than 300 people have been resentenced during his term, and only four have gone on to commit a crime again.
A hearing was scheduled for Nov. 29.
Lyle recently earned a sociology degree from the University of California, Irvine, through a prison program. Geragos says both brothers have been model prisoners despite believing they would never be released.
“I think it’s time,” Geragos said. “The family thinks it’s time.”
Reality TV star and celebrity personality Kim Kardashian, who has advocated for criminal justice reform, also weighed in, writing in a personal essay shared with NBC News that the outsized media attention on the first trial that was nationally televised denied them justice.
She said the brothers’ suffering and abuse were “ridiculed” in skits on Saturday Night Live and that they were painted as “two arrogant, rich kids from Beverly Hills who killed their parents out of greed. There was no room for empathy, let alone sympathy.”
“Erik and Lyle had no chance of a fair trial against this backdrop,” Kardashian wrote.