Menendez brothers are due at court today as their lawyers asks judge to re-sentence them based on new sex abuse evidence
The Menendez brothers are set to appear at court today where their lawyers will request the judge to re-sentence them based on new sex abuse evidence.
The Menendez brothers are set to appear at court today where their lawyers will request the judge to re-sentence them based on new sex abuse evidence.
Erik, 56, and Lyle Menendez, 53, are both expected to attend the hearing via videolink from San Diego where they are incarcerated following the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in Beverly Hills.
The much-awaited court hearing will allow only a limited public attendance, with just 16 courtroom seats available through a lottery which will be held outside the Van Nuys courthouse, Los Angeles, on Monday morning.
Both brothers are currently serving life sentences without parole at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, California, with Mondays hearing expected to confirm details for the resentencing meeting scheduled for December 11.
It comes after California Governor Gavin Newsom declined to grant the siblings clemency - deferring the review of the case to newly-elected DA Nathan Hochman, who will enter office on December 2.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos said he will ask the judge during the hearing to re-sentence the Menendez brothers on the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter - a crime for which they have already served three times the maximum sentence.
But the final decision would land in the hands of the parole board who would need to provide their stamp of approval.
The pair have been in prison since a blockbuster trial in 1993 that became almost compulsory viewing for millions of Americans.
Erik, 56, and Lyle Menendez, 53, are both expected to attend Mondays hearing via videolink from San Diego where they are incarcerated
The brothers claimed they suffered years of emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of their father, and that he forced them to perform sex acts on their mother
California Governor Gavin Newsom declined to grant the siblings clemency - deferring the review of the case to newly-elected DA Nathan Hochman (pictured) who will enter office on December 2
The brothers attorney Mark Geragos said he will ask the judge during the hearing to re-sentence the Menendez brothers on the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter
Television audiences thrilled to the gruesome details of the slayings of Jose and Kitty Menendez at the familys luxury Beverly Hills mansion.
Prosecutors painted it as a cold-hearted bid by the men - Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18 at the time - to get their hands on their parents $14 million fortune.
But their attorneys described the 1989 killings as an act of desperate self-defense by young men subjected to years of sexual abuse and psychological violence at the hands of an abusive father and a complicit mother.
Last month, evidence in the form of a damning letter was revealed in the shocking case ahead of the review that could lead to a potential resentencing of the siblings.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón publicly posted a screenshot to Instagram of the letter written by Erik Menendez to his cousin, Andy Cano, in which he alludes to serious, and long-term, abuse at the hands of his father Jose.
The letter, first revealed by DailyMail.com, was written eight months before they killed their parents.
It reads: I’ve been trying to avoid dad. It’s still happening Andy but it’s worse for me now. I can’t explain it. He’s so overweight that I just can’t stand to see him. I never know when it’s going to happen and it’s driving me crazy.
Prosecutors argued during the pairs second trial that the abuse did not take place, and the judge who oversaw the trial refused to allow much of the defenses evidence of sexual abuse to be presented.
But, more than 35 years on from the brutal murders, evidence that the brothers attorneys say corroborates their account of sexual abuse was shared on social media.
Erik Menendez wrote a letter to his cousin, Andy Cano, in which he alludes to serious, and long-term, abuse at the hands of his father Jose
The Menendez brothers spent seven months on the streets after they murdered their parents, Kitty and Jose (pictured center)
The brothers killed their parents, Kitty and Jose, in their Beverly Hills mansion with a shotgun in 1989
The Menendez brothers have spent over three decades in prison for the murder of their parents
This was the scene outside the Menendez familys Beverly Hills mansion when police arrived on August 20, 1989
Jose and Kitty (pictured) were killed in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989
The letter, published in full by Fox News last month, read: Every night I stay up thinking he might come in. I need to put it out of my mind. I know what you said before but I’m afraid. You just don’t know dad like I do. He’s crazy!
He’s warned me a hundred times about telling anyone. Especially Lyle. Am I a serious whimpus? I don’t know I’ll make it through this. I can handle it, Andy. I need to stop thinking about it.
According to defense attorney Cliff Gardner, the letter was written December 1988 – several months before Kitty and Jose were murdered.
Cano, who died in 2003, testified that Erik told him about his fathers abuse when he was 13.
His mother found the letter nine years ago, and it was included in a 2023 petition to examine whether the brothers were unlawfully imprisoned.
Gardner said that if the letter was introduced to the jury during the 1996 trial, the jury may have change their minds about the final verdict.
Gardner told CNN: Given today’s very different understanding of the devastating impact of sexual and physical abuse on young children (both boys and girls), the testimony about Jose’s sexual abuse of Lyle that was excluded at the second trial and the remarkable new evidence presented in the habeas petition, we think resentencing is in the interests of justice.
The brothers have served more than 30 years in prison. That is enough.
If a jury at any potential re-trial finds them guilty of voluntary manslaughter instead of murder, it would trigger their immediate release as they have served more than the maximum sentence.
Their case was popularised this year by the Netflix show: Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Erik and Lyle are one step closer to freedom after Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon recommended they be resentenced for killing their parents
The Menendez case saw a huge surge of renewed interest this year with the release of the Netflix hit Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
The documentary re-hashes some of the most emotional details of the murder trial, in which both brothers disclosed they were being molested by their father, and that their mother turned a blind eye to the abuse.
Lyle told the jury on the stand that he then, in turn, took his younger brother to the woods and molested him, doing to Erik what his father had done to him.
Erik said: I remember when he apologized to me on the stand for molesting me. That was a devastating moment for me. He had never said he was sorry to me before.
According to Erik, his father began molesting him when he was six years old and that abuse continued for 12 years.
Mondays hearing comes after a campaign to secure their release, supported by Kim Kardashian and other celebrities.
Set them free before the Holidays! wrote Tammi Menendez, Eriks wife, on social media last week.
Kardashian wrote in an op-ed last month: Following years of abuse and a real fear for their lives, Erik and Lyle chose what they thought at the time was their only way out - an unimaginable way to escape their living nightmare.
