Friends and family of Erik and Lyle Menendez pleaded for the brothers to be resentenced for their parents’ killings during a news conference Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles, hoping it will pave the way for their eventual release from prison.
More than 20 relatives stood outside the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, urging the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office to resentence the brothers, and for the public to support the efforts to release them.
“If Erik and Lyle’s case were heard today, with the understanding we now have of abuse and [post-traumatic stress disorder], there is no doubt in my mind that their sentencing would have been very different,” said Anamaria Baralt, a cousin of the siblings.
The two brothers have spent more than three decades in prison after being sentenced to life without parole in the gruesome killing of their parents.
At one point the two faced the possibility of a death sentence. Now, attorneys for the siblings and several family members are seizing on what they see as a chance to get the brothers re-sentenced or, possibly, set free.
Previous efforts by the brothers and their attorneys to cut short their incarceration have been fruitless, but a new writ of habeas corpus citing new evidence is being considered by the Dist. Atty. George Gascón’s office.
Prosecutors have been quietly reviewing the Menendez case and their petition for more than a year. But renewed public attention to the case, partly sparked by the Netflix series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” prompted Gascón to hold a news conference earlier this month.
Gascón offered no hint as to which way he and his office were leaning, but said he hoped to “bring finality” to the case during a Nov. 26 hearing.
“We’re not at this point ready to say we believe or do not believe that information,” Gascón said during the news conference. “But we’re here to tell you that we have a moral and ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us and make a determination.”
The two brothers bought shotguns in 1989 and killed their parents in their Beverly Hills home. Prosecutors said Jose Menendez was shot five times, including once in the back of the head. His wife, Kitty Menendez, is believed to have crawled wounded on the floor before the brothers reloaded and fired a final shot.
Erik and Lyle Menendez became the prime suspects after Erik confessed to his therapist in March 1990.
Police and prosecutors argued that the two killed their parents to get their hands on the multimillion-dollar estate. Defense attorneys, however, argued that the gruesome killings came after the brothers were subjected to years of violent sexual abuse at the hands of their father.
The first trial, which was broadcast live on cable TV network CourtTV, included testimony about the alleged abuse and ended with jurors unable to reach a unanimous verdict on either brother.
In the second trial, however, Lyle Menendez did not testify, and much of the testimony of abuse was excluded. Prosecutors also argued that the allegations of abuse against Jose Menendez, an executive at RCA Records, were fabrications.
The habeas petition currently being weighed by prosecutors points to evidence that was included in a Peacock docuseries, “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed,” which alleged that Jose Menendez had also assaulted an underage then-member of the 1980s pop band Menudo.
The series also pointed to a letter allegedly written by Erik Menendez eight months before the 1989 shooting, suggesting that he had been sexually abused into his late teenage years.
The letter had been discovered by family members years earlier, but had not been submitted to the court to review until the habeas petition.
Mark Geragos, one of the attorneys representing the brothers in their petition, said the brothers had exhausted their legal avenues for appeal in 2005.
“They had resigned themselves to be in prison for the rest of their lives,” Geragos said Wednesday. But the evidence cited in the motion have given them a window at reconsideration.
He called the support from more than 20 relatives “unprecedented.”
Baralt pointed to Erik and Lyle Mendendez time in prison, pointing out that the two have been involved in rehabilitative programs in the prison despite little hope of being released.
“Despite their circumstances, they have chosen a life of light,” she said. “Lye and Erik deserve a chance.”
Baralt and other relatives on Wednesday were also set to meet with the D.A.’s office to address their support for Erik and Lyle Menendez’s resentencing.
“I never thought this day would come,” said Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sister of Kitty Menendez. “As details of Erik and Lyle’s abuse came to light it became clear that their actions, while tragic, were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive the unspeakable cruel of their father.”
Brian Anderson Jr., Erik and Lyle Menendez’s cousin, said he would welcome the brothers into his home if they were released.
“I can tell you without a doubt they are not the villains that they have been portrayed as,” he said. “They were boys, young, scared, and abused by their father in ways no child should ever experience.”
Relatives asked supporters to sign an online petition in support of the brothers’ resentencing.
Not all relatives of the siblings are in agreement as to the future of Erik and Lyle Menendez.
In a statement, Kitty Menendez’s brother, Milton Andersen, said he believes the two should remain in prison. His attorney, Kathy Cady, criticized Gascón and said he had not been keeping Anderson updated on the case.
“The lack of clarity and transparency once again leaves Mr. Andersen in the dark,” she said in the statement. “He should not be learning about the future of his sister’s murder case through a magazine or a press conference.”
