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    • LA District Attorney recommends resentencing
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    LA District Attorney recommends resentencing

    Vaseline Posted on

    A jury found the brothers guilty of the murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1996 after their highly publicized first trial ended in a mistrial.

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    Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced Thursday that he is recommending the conviction of Erik and Lyle Menendez, brothers serving life sentences without parole for the murders of their parents in a case first reported 35 years ago. caught the country’s attention.

    Gascón told reporters he will submit his recommendation to the court on Friday and push for the possibility of parole to be put back on the table. The sentence for two murders is 50 years to life, but since the brothers were under 26 years old at the time of the crime, Gascón said they would be immediately eligible for parole under California law.

    “I believe they have paid their debt to society,” he said.

    Gascón considered new evidence in the case and has met with family members who have advocated for the brothers’ release. Family members say the new evidence shows the abuse the brothers suffered at the hands of their father, wealthy music executive Jose Menendez.

    A jury found the brothers guilty of the murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1996 after their highly publicized and televised first trial ended in a mistrial.

    Erik Menendez was 18 and Lyle 21 at the time of the 1989 killings. Their lawyers argued they acted in self-defense and said they were sexually abused by both parents. The brothers had confronted their parents and believed their parents would kill them to prevent them from disclosing the abuse, the lawyers argued.

    Prosecutors dismissed the abuse claims as untrue at the time, saying the brothers were seeking their parents’ fortune, which was then valued at about $15 million. A spending spree the brothers carried out between the murders and their arrest helped fuel public skepticism about their plight.

    The brothers’ attorneys and the coalition of family members have said the judge who oversaw the second trial excluded substantial evidence of the abuse the Menendez brothers suffered.

    During Thursday’s press conference, some family members expressed their gratitude for the prosecutor’s decision, after years of calling for the brothers’ release.

    “This step gives us all hope that the truth will finally be heard and that Lyle and Erik can begin to heal from the trauma of their past,” said Anamaria Baralt, a niece of Jose Menendez.

    Thursday’s decision comes after a heated internal debate in the district attorney’s office, Gascón said, with some calling for the brothers’ immediate release while others urged that they remain in prison for life.

    “I must tell you unequivocally that we do not have a universal agreement,” Gascón told reporters, adding that some people from his office may appear in court to oppose the decision.

    The brothers committed “heinous acts,” Gascón said, adding that he also believes they were “subjected to a tremendous amount of home dysfunction and molestation.”

    The conditions for a recidivism recommendation focus on whether the person has been rehabilitated and can be safely released into society, Gascón said. He added that the Menendez brothers worked to advance themselves while supporting others in prison, despite having no hope of release for years.

    Gascón said he previously planned to announce his decision at a court hearing in November. Yet a new documentary had renewed interest in the case, sparking a firestorm of public investigations that Gascón said the prosecutor’s office did not have the resources for.

    Earlier this month, Netflix released a nearly two-hour documentary titled, “The Menendez Brothers,” featuring interviews with Erik and Lyle Menendez. Before the release, Kim Kardashian wrote an essay published in NBC News urging a “reconsideration” of the brothers’ life sentences.

    The decision also comes as Gascón seeks re-election in a challenging race, trailing his opponent by more than 20 points in a recent poll. The prosecutor refuted claims that his announcement was motivated by his campaign, noting that more than 300 people have been reconvicted since he came to power, including 28 murder cases. Four people have reoffended, he said.

    “There is nothing political about it,” Gascón said during the press conference.

    Earlier this week, Gascón announced that a hearing on the acquittal and release of two other convicted murderers, Charlotte Pleytez and Lombardo Palacios, will take place on November 1. Both spent more than 17 years in prison for a 2007 murder in East Hollywood that his office’s Conviction Integrity Unit determined they were not guilty of.

    “We must continually reevaluate past questionable convictions in the interest of justice,” Gascón said in a statement announcing that hearing. “In doing so, we recognize that sometimes the system has failed, and when it does, the consequences are life-changing.”

    Case of the Menendez Brothers: Family pleads fervently amid new evidence

    In the Menendez case, intense interest continued long after the convictions. The case subsequently gained new attention amid multiple new documentaries and rumors surrounding the new evidence, including a letter allegedly written by Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano several months before the murders. Excerpts are included in the 2023 petition filed by the brothers’ lawyers.

    “I’ve been trying to avoid dad. It’s still happening Andy, but it’s worse for me now,” an excerpt read. “I never know when it’s going to happen and it drives me crazy. Every night I stay awake thinking he might come in.”

    Later the letter reads: “I know what you said before, but I’m scared. You just don’t know Dad like I do. He’s crazy! He warned me a hundred times not to tell anyone.”

    Investigators are also looking into allegations by a member of the 1980s pop band Menudo that he was abused by Jose Menendez.

    These allegations were published last year in the Peacock documentary series called “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.”

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