L.A. prosecutor seeks resentencing for Menendez brothers
25/10/2024 6:06
A Los Angeles prosecutor said on
Thursday he is asking the court to resentence Erik and Lyle
Menendez after they have spent 34 years in prison for the
shotgun murder of their parents, after new evidence emerged
indicating they were sexually abused by their father for years.
The recommendation raises the possibility that the brothers
will be released on parole.
"I believe that under the law resentencing is appropriate
and I am going to recommend that to a court tomorrow," Los
Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon told a press
conference.
Gascon said he would recommend that their life sentences
be removed and replaced with a sentence of 50 years to life, but
that they would be eligible for parole because of their young
age at the time of the murders.
"I believe they have paid their debt to society," Gascon
said.
The Menendez brothers, now 56 and 53, were convicted after
the second of two highly publicized trials that captivated the
United States at the time because of their wealth and privilege
as the sons of a record company and entertainment industry
executive.
Jose Menendez was shot in the back of the head and Kitty
Menendez was shot 15 times at their Beverly Hills home. Lyle was
21 and Erik was 18 at the time.
A recent Netflix series dramatizing their story revived
interest in the case, but for more than a year defense lawyers
have been in talks with prosecutors about vacating the sentence
or seeking a new trial, citing new evidence that came to light
supporting the brothers' claim they had been molested for years.
In their first trial, which was televised and ended in a
hung jury in 1994, the brothers testified they were sexually
mistreated by both parents for years and were acting in self
defense, and that their father threatened to kill them if they
revealed the abuse.
Prosecutors argued the pair were seeking their parents'
multimillion-dollar fortune.
A jury convicted them in a second trial in Los Angeles
County Superior Court that was not televised, but that same jury
also spared them the death penalty, opting for life in prison
without parole.
Gascon has said there is no doubt the brothers killed their
parents but cited new evidence including a letter Erik Menendez
purportedly wrote to a cousin eight months before the murders in
which he described the abuse. Had the evidence been presented at
trial the jury may have reached a different outcome, he said.
Investigators also are examining allegations from a member
of the 1980s pop band Menudo who said he was abused by Jose
Menendez. Those allegations were publicized last year in Peacock
documentary series called "Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed."
Gascon also said he was concerned by comments from a member
of the prosecution team at the time that men could not be raped.
"Our office has developed a more modern understanding of sexual
violence since the Menendez brothers first faced prosecution,"
Gascon said in an Oct. 16 statement.
Gascon previously said he would wait until a Nov. 26 court
hearing to made a decision on the case, but he sped up the
decision given the intense public interest.
He also faces a difficult re-election battle against
challenger Nathan Hochman on Nov. 5.
The district attorney told CNN on Wednesday that the case
had split his office into two camps.
"I have a group of people, including some that were involved
in the original trial, that are adamant that they should spend
the rest of their life in prison and that they were not
molested," Gascon said. "I have other people in the office that
believe actually that they probably were molested and that they
deserve to have some relief."
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