Menendez Brothers Case: LA County District Attorney Announces Decision to Recommend Resentencing

Los Angeles
CNN
—

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón is expected to announce his decision Thursday afternoon whether to recommend resentencing in the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez, who were convicted of murdering their parents more than three decades ago.

Gascón previously said he was reviewing the case and expected to make the decision by the end of October, but on Tuesday he told CNN's Jake Tapper that he wanted to do so by the end of the week.

Gascón plans to make his announcement at a news conference at 1:30 p.m. PT in Los Angeles, his office said.

A judge will ultimately decide the brothers' case and a hearing on the matter is scheduled for November 26.

The hearing stems from a defense motion in which the Menendez brothers' lawyers cited new evidence, as well as a new California resentencing law that allows the court to consider verdicts in similar cases. The judge may also consider whether the defendants were victims of psychological or physical abuse, whether they have been rehabilitated and whether they pose a danger to society.

The re-examination of the case comes more than 35 years after the fatal shooting of Jose and Kitty Menendez in their Beverly Hills home. Her sons Lyle and Erik, who were 21 and 18 at the time, were arrested less than a year later, in 1990, and charged with first-degree murder.

At their high-profile trials decades ago – one of the first cases to be televised – the brothers did not deny killing their parents but argued that they should not be convicted because they had acted in self-defense after taking a life had been abused by their father for a long time.

A first trial ended in a mistrial after jurors disagreed on the charges. In her second trial, much of the defense's evidence about sexual abuse was excluded. The brothers were convicted in 1996 and sentenced to life in prison.

Last year, the Menendez brothers' lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition asking the court to reconsider the conviction and sentence in light of new evidence, including an affidavit from former Menudo boy band member Roy Rosselló, who accused Jose Menendez of sexually abusing him in the 1980s. Attorneys also said a letter Erik Menendez wrote to a cousin months before the murders referred to the abuse he suffered.

The defense is asking the court to either vacate the brothers' conviction and sentence or allow discovery and an evidentiary hearing at which they can present evidence, the petition says.

The brothers' story has sparked renewed interest following the September release of the Netflix series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” co-created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan. Netflix also released a documentary this month about the Menendez case, in which both men discuss what led to the murders.

Gascón, who is running for re-election on a platform that includes criminal justice reform, told CNN that this month has changed the way the public and the courts treat victims of sexual abuse.

“There's no question that a jury today would probably look at this case very differently than a jury would look at it 35 years ago,” he said.

Last week, the brothers' relatives passionately called for their release.

Joan VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez's sister, said the brothers' actions were “the desperate reaction of two boys trying to survive their father's unspeakable cruelty.”

“They were just children. Children who could have been protected and instead were abused in the most horrific ways,” she said.