After more than thirty years in prison for the murder of their parents, Erik and Lyle Menendez may have a chance at freedom.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said Thursday that his office is reviewing new evidence from the brothers’ attorneys related to sexual abuse allegations, and that his office will decide whether the brothers should be resentenced and may need to be released from prison.
“We are not ready at this point to say whether or not we believe this information,” Gascón said. “But we are here to tell you because we have a moral and ethical obligation to assess what is presented to us and make a decision.”
A hearing is scheduled for November 26.
In 1989, the brothers were convicted of shooting and killing their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion, and the case was a media sensation at the time. Erik and Lyle Menendez, who were 19 and 21 years old respectively when the crime was committed, admitted to killing their parents and said it was self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father and indifference toward their mother.
Their first trial was declared a mistrial, and at their second trial, prosecutors succeeded in disqualifying a large amount of sexual abuse evidence and accused the brothers of lying about it. A jury ultimately found them guilty of first-degree murder, and they were sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The brothers have long tried to have their convictions overturned. But public interest and support for them has increased dramatically in recent months, thanks in large part to the hit Netflix documentary series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.” The show has been widely criticized for the liberties it takes in portraying the relationship between the brothers. Erik Menendez also issued a statement through his wife, calling the series an “unfair portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime.”
Gascón noted to reporters on Thursday that the Netflix show has generated “tremendous interest” in the case. “We get a lot of calls,” he says.
Cliff Gardner, one of the brothers’ attorneys, told The Associated Press that they believe imposing a sentence is “appropriate” given the new evidence and current “understanding of how sexual and physical abuse affects children — both boys and girls.”
“The brothers have spent more than 30 years in prison,” he added. “That’s enough.”
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
