The announcement for the Menendez brothers’ resentencing came out on October 24, 2024, a few weeks after a documentary about the Menendez brothers aired.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón has said that his office favors the prospect of a new trial for Erik and Lyle Menendez, the brothers are currently serving life sentences for the murder of their parents more than three decades ago. This opportunity will allow the brothers to apply for parole.
Lyle, then 21, and Erik, 18, had pleaded guilty to the shooting deaths of their father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez. Since the brothers received life sentences, a recent TV series and documentaries on the Menendez brothers have challenged some of the questions formed in the case, such as whether the boys' father may have sexually abused them.
Fresh evidence and new details about the case of the Menendez brothers, whose family is now calling for their freedom, have reignited public interest.
Why is there a need for the Menendez brothers' resentencing?
Erik Menendez, 53, and Lyle Menendez, 56, have been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in California. They were convicted of murder: 13 shots to the parents while they were watching TV. Both Monsters 2 and the documentary about the case tell this story.
In their trials in the 1990s, prosecutors castigated the brothers as spoiled brats who meticulously planned each murder to inherit their parents' fortune. The brothers' defense lawyers argued that they were the victims of years of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse and committed the murders in self-defense. According to Mr Gascon, the brothers were their parents' killers, but they have already served their punishment by spending so much time in prison.
Mr Gascon, who was running for re-election a few days back, backed up his claim with some new evidence about the alleged sexual abuse. The new evidence included a letter written by Erik Menendez to a family member in 1988, in which he said he had been sexually abused by his father, Jose.
The other witness was a former member of the 1980s Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, who was a minor at the time of the events. He testified that the Menendez brothers' father, Jose Menendez, who worked for RCA Records at the time, had drugged and raped him during a visit to Menendez's home.
What changes since the announcement can cause delays in the Menendez brothers' resentencing?
Not everyone in the Menendez family is on board with the brothers' resentencing. Lawyers for Milton Andersen, 90, Kitty Menendez's brother, filed a legal brief asking the court to stay the sentence. A hearing has not yet been scheduled, but the prosecution said it would file a motion for a new trial soon.
According to the statement, initially, a hearing was scheduled within 30-45 days, where a judge would weigh in and hear arguments for their release.
Former U.S. Attorney Nathan Hochman, who defeated Gascón after running on a campaign that said the district attorney's policies failed to ensure public safety, told CNN on Wednesday that he would need time to review the case files before taking a position on the resentencing.
Hochman starts on December 2 and has also set December 11 as the date for a hearing on the resentencing.
“Before I can make any decision about the Menendez brothers’ case, I will need to become thoroughly familiar with the relevant facts, the evidence and the law.”
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If you are unaware of the brothers' case you can stream the show Monsters 2 available on Netflix. There is also a documentary titled Menendez Brothers on the same streaming platform.
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