- Lyle and Erik Menéndez could be resentenced for the 1989 murders of their parents
- The brothers are currently serving life in prison for the crimes
- District attorney George Gascón says the siblings have ‘paid their debt to society’
Their case has come to prominence again in recent months.
And now the Menéndez brothers may be resentenced for the 1989 murders of their parents.
In a news conference on October 24, George Gascón, the Los Angeles county district attorney, made the recommendation that life without the possibility of parole be removed for Lyle, 56, and Erik, 53, after the office reviewed new evidence in the case.
Gascón also said that the siblings will be eligible for parole immediately because of their ages at the time of the murder.
A judge will have the final say in a case during a hearing next month.
“After a very careful review of all the arguments made… I came to a place where I believe that, under the law, resentencing is appropriate and I’m going to recommend that to a court tomorrow,” Gascón said.
While prosecutors argued at the time of their trial in 1994 that the pair were motivated by greed and a desire to inherit a multimillion-dollar fortune, the brothers and their supporters said that they killed their parents in self-defense after years of sexual, physical and psychological abuse by their father.
Gascón said he believed the brothers’ account of abuse. “I do believe the brothers were subjected to a tremendous amount of dysfunction in the home, and molestation,” he said.
“They have been in prison for nearly 35 years. I believe that they have paid their debt to society.”
The brothers are currently serving life in prison without possibility of parole in California.
The case centered on their motive in the murders, in which their parents – Jose and Kitty Menéndez – were shot 13 times as they watched television inside their Beverly Hills mansion in August 1989.
A hearing for the resentencing will be scheduled in the next 30-45 days.
Family say Netflix series ‘riddled with mistruths’
While a recent Netflix series about the brothers has helped to rocket their case back into public consciousness in recent months, their family criticized the show.
Reaching the number one spot on the streaming service, the second season of Ryan Murphy’s show Monsters was branded “gross” and “riddled with mistruths” by the Menéndez family.
A statement from their aunt, Joan VanderMolen read, “We are virtually the entire extended family of Erik and Lyle Menéndez. We are 24 strong and today we want the world to know we support Erik and Lyle.
“Ryan Murphy’s ‘Monsters, the Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story’ is a phobic, gross, anachronistic, serial episodic nightmare that is not only riddled with mistruths and outright falsehoods but ignores the most recent exculpatory revelations. Our family has been victimized by this grotesque shockadrama.”
It continued, “The character assassination of Erik and Lyle, who are our nephews and cousins, under the guise of a ‘story telling narrative’ is repulsive. We know these men. We grew up with them since they were boys. We love them and to this very day we are close to them.
“It is sad that Ryan Murphy, Netflix, and all others involved in this series, do not have an understanding of the impact of years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Perhaps, after all, Monsters is all about Ryan Murphy.”
On September 19, Erik himself made a statement about the series.
“I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show,” he said. “I can only believe they were done so on purpose. It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent.”
He added that the show was a “dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime.”
