ALBAWABA - The Menendez brothers are serving life without parole for shooting their parents in 1989.
Los Angeles prosecutors are reexamining Erik and Lyle Menendez, two brothers serving life sentences for killing their parents in their Beverly Hills home in 1989.
Over 35 years after the incident, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said Thursday that the office is investigating new information that might lead to resentencing.
“There is no question that Erik and Lyle Menendez committed the murders,” Gascón tells reporters. His administration is now deciding whether to revisit the brothers' punishment after Erik Menendez wrote a letter claiming parental sexual abuse.
The 50-year-old Menendez brothers have long claimed they murdered their parents, Jose and Kitty, in self-defense following years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. At their trial, prosecutors successfully established that the killers wanted to inherit their parents' multi-million-dollar fortune, not fear for their lives.
However, the brothers' lawyers claim that evolving social attitudes against sexual assault may have changed the trial. Mark Geragos, who has defended the Menendez brothers for years, said the case may have resulted in manslaughter rather than first-degree murder today.
Erik Menendez's murder letter describes his father's sexual abuse. This letter and a deeper knowledge of trauma and abuse bolster the brothers' assertions of being caught in a cycle of dread and violence, according to the lawyers.
On August 20, 1989, the jury found Lyle and Erik Menendez guilty of killing their parents, José and Kitty, at their Beverly Hills residence. That night, the boys shot their parents in the living room. In the terrible incident, the parents perished quickly. Lyle and Erik first contacted 911, stating they had discovered their parents dead in a break-in or robbery gone wrong.
Netflix's true-crime movie, "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story," has brought the 1990s case back to life. The play depicts the murder and trial, but Erik Menendez called it “dishonest” and unpleasant to revisit. Gender prejudices against male sexual assault victims influenced the previous trial, according to his wife's social media post.
