Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – The case of Erik and Lyle Menendez will go before a Los Angeles court Friday in the latest chapter of their bid to get out of jail, decades after slaughtering their own parents. The brothers — who are among America’s most infamous murderers — are hoping the court will agree to resentence them for the 1989 shotgun slayings that left their luxury Beverly Hills mansion soaked in blood.
During blockbuster trials in the 1990s, prosecutors said the men killed Jose and Kitty Menendez to get their hands on a $14 million fortune, initially blaming their deaths on a Mafia hit. Supporters say the men acted in self-defense, terrified of their parents’ rage after years of sexual and emotional abuse by a tyrannical father and a complicit mother. But despite a lengthy campaign and a seemingly sympathetic public — nourished by a hit Netflix series — Erik Menendez, 54, and Lyle Menendez, 57, face an uphill battle.
Last month, the new chief prosecutor of Los Angeles County said his office wanted to withdraw its earlier support for a resentencing hearing that supporters hoped would see the brothers walk free. District Attorney Nathan Hochman said the pair should remain behind bars because they had never accepted their guilt and continued to rely on untruths. “In looking at whether or not the Menendezes have exhibited the full insight and complete responsibility for their crimes, they have not,” Hochman told reporters. “They have told 20 different lies, they’ve actually admitted to four of them, but 16 realized lies remain unacknowledged.”
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic is expected to hear arguments Friday from Hochman’s office asking to withdraw a motion filed by his predecessor George Gascon, who believed the brothers were reformed. That motion asked for the court to resentence them, changing their current life-without-parole to a minimum term with parole that would allow them to go free, given the length of time they have been in prison. The resentencing effort is one of three separate routes being pursued by attorneys for the brothers, who are also seeking a retrial and are appealing to California Governor Gavin Newsom for clemency. Hochman also opposes a new trial.
The brothers’ original trials were huge events, and the case saw a surge of renewed interest last year with the release of the Netflix hit “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.” Newsom is bound by no specific timeline and could release the men at any point, or refuse their appeal for clemency. He has said he has not watched dramatizations of the Menendez case or documentaries on it “because I don’t want to be influenced by them. I just want to be influenced by the facts.”
© 2024 AFP
