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Brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez will wait another two months to find out if their convictions in the shotgun murders of their parents in their Beverly Hills home more than 30 years ago will be reconsidered, after a judge delayed his decision.
The brothers were found guilty of murdering Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989 and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
While their lawyers argued at trial that their father had sexually abused them, prosecutors rejected that and accused them of killing their parents for money. In the years that followed, they repeatedly appealed their convictions without success.
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Now, at ages 53 and 56, Erik and Lyle Menendez are making a new bid for freedom. Their lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition — a request for a court to examine whether someone was lawfully detained — in May 2023, asking a judge to consider new evidence of their father’s sexual abuse.
“Newly discovered evidence directly supports the defense presented at trial,” the petition reads.
Latest releases of Netflix drama Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez and a documentary The Menendez brothers in 2024 again drew public attention to their plight. Members of the public will be given the chance to win a seat in the courtroom to see the brothers appearing virtually.
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Prosecutors last month recommended sentencing the brothers, saying they have worked for redemption and rehabilitation and shown good behavior in prison.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón held a news conference less than two weeks before Election Day, seeking new sentences ranging from 50 years to life.
That could make them immediately eligible for parole because they were under 26 when they killed their parents.
Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic said Monday (Tuesday EST) that he would consider the re-application on Jan. 30, instead of Dec. 11 as originally planned. The judge said he had 17 boxes of documents to review.
The brothers’ extended family pleaded for their release, saying they deserved freedom after decades behind bars.
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Several family members said that in today’s world – which is more aware of the impact of sexual abuse – the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
New Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman told Today that he asked for more time to review the case because of the weight of evidence that needed to be re-examined and compared with new evidence.
“This will be a big priority when I take office, I will conduct this thorough review of the facts and the law, and then go to court and make a decision, and then I will be able to defend that decision,” he said.
“It would be a disservice to the Menendez brothers, the victims, family members and the public to speculate where I will end up.”
Not all members of the Menendez family support sentencing. Lawyers for Milton Andersen, the 90-year-old brother of Kitty Menendez, filed a legal brief asking the court to uphold the original sentence for the brothers.
“They shot their mother, Kitty, reloading to ensure her death,” Andersen’s attorneys said in a statement last week.
“The evidence remains incredibly clear: the jury’s verdict was just, and the punishment fits the heinous crime.”
Current freedom is one of the possible consequences of Ješić’s upcoming decision; the judge can also weigh the merits of the evidence. And if the brothers don’t get help in court, they can hope that the governor of California will pardon them.
The new evidence includes a letter Erik Menendez wrote in 1988 to his uncle Andy Cano, describing the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his father. The brothers asked their lawyers about it after it was mentioned on Barbara Walters’ television show in 2015.
Attorneys were unaware of the letter and realized it was not presented at their trial, making it effectively new evidence they say supports allegations that Erik was sexually abused by his father.
More evidence emerged when Roy Rossello, a former member of the Latin pop group Menudo, recently came forward to say that Jose Menendez, the boy’s father, drugged and raped him when he was a teenager in the 1980s. Menudo was signed to RCA Records, where Jose Menendez was chief operating officer.
Rossello spoke about his abuse in the Peacock documentary series Menendez + Menudo: The Boys Betrayedand gave a signed statement to the lawyers of the brothers.
If the two pieces of evidence had been available during the brothers’ trial, prosecutors would not have been able to argue that there was no evidence of sexual abuse, or that their father, Jose Menendez, was not “the kind of man who would” abuse children, the petition claims.
Although a pardon could be another path to freedom for the brothers, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said last week he would not make a decision until Hochman reviews the case.
Hochman, a Republican-turned-independent who unseated the progressive Gascón on Dec. 2, said he wanted to carefully study the evidence before making any decision.
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