In court papers recommending their grudge, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office described the Menendez brothers’ conduct as “exceptional” in the more than three decades they have spent behind bars for killing their parents.
“Erik and Lyle Menendez’s positive transformation, as well as their ability to find meaning and purpose in their current incarceration, illustrate how much circumstances have changed since the time they were sentenced to life without parole,” the court documents said, detailing reports on their work, behavior and educational activities within prison walls.
On March 20, 1996, a jury found the brothers guilty of first-degree murder shoot their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, as the couple sat on a couch in their Beverly Hills home in August 1989. The brothers had confessed to killing their parents but said they did so in self-defense, claiming they had been sexually and physically abused. year. Prosecutors argued that the killings were motivated by greed. They were ultimately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The second trial followed an earlier mistrial, when the jury failed to reach a verdict.
AP
As the case has received renewed attention in recent weeks, District Attorney George Gascón announced Thursday that he is recommending a resentencing for the brothers, calling for a prison sentence of 50 years to life. A judge would make the final decision.
“I believe they have paid their debt to society,” he told reporters this week.
Gascón has said that retaliation would largely take place depending on their progress while he is in prison. Meanwhile, the other possible route to parole – a habeas corpus petition filed by their lawyers last year – seeks a review of the case based on new evidence.
Several family members argued for their release at a press conference in Los Angeles last week, during which they spoke about what they described as horrific abuse at the hands of their father and the rehabilitation efforts they made while behind bars.
“Lyle and Erik have already paid a high price, thrown away by a system that failed to recognize their pain,” said their aunt and mother’s sister, Joan VanderMolen. ‘They have grown. They have changed. And they have become better men, despite everything they have been through.”
Meanwhile, at least one of their relatives has spoken out against their possible release. Milton Andersen, their uncle and brother of Kitty Menendez, filed an amicus brief in the case arguing against their release. “The evidence remains overwhelmingly clear: the jury’s verdict was fair and the sentence fits the heinous crime,” read a statement from his attorney, Kathy Cady.
At the time of the murders, Lyle and Erik were 21 and 18 years old. Today they are 56 and 54.
The paperwork filed by Gascón’s office cites statements from their family members supporting their abuse allegations, as well as documents such as probation and employment reports that track their progress behind bars. In a 1996 Los Angeles County probation officer report, their aunt and father’s sister, Marta Menendez-Cano, were quoted as saying: “When Erik was 12, he was beaten by his father because he was suspected of telling Lyle about sexual abuse that was going on between him and his father.”
Court documents say she claimed Jose Menendez once sat down with Erik and her son, Andy Cano, to watch an “educational video” that turned out to be pornography. Andy Cano had testified in court that Erik told him about the alleged abuse.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP
While Andy Cando has now passed away, a letter that Erik is said to have written to him Apparently it refers to the allegations cited as one of two potential new pieces of evidence. The other is a rape allegation by Roy Rosselló, former member of the boy band Menudo, against Jose Menendez, a onetime executive at RCA Records who signed the band in the 1980s.
The brutal paperwork also notes Erik Menendez’s acceptance last year to UC Irvine and the college degrees he earned in sociology and social and behavioral sciences, in addition to his founding of support groups such as a meditation program for prisoners.
Court records show Lyle Menendez graduated from UC Irvine last year with a bachelor of arts degree and founded the Greenspace Project, which has raised more than $250,000 and brought inmates, including his brother, together in painting murals and landscaping. He also founded the Adverse Childhood Experience and Rehabilitation (ACER) program in 2016, according to court documents.
“It is important to note that Lyle Menendez has not had a single fight in the 20 years he has been incarcerated. In 1997, he had to be transferred from the General Population Ward to the Special Needs Yard because he did not fight back when attacked. “, the documents say.
More than 300 people have been resentenced under the leadership of DA Gascón, who was sworn in in December 2020.
