A Los Angeles prosecutor said Thursday that he is asking the court to resentence Eric and Lyle Menendez after they spent more than 30 years in prison for the murder of their parents, after new evidence emerged indicating that their father He sexually abused them. For years.
The recommendation raises the possibility of releasing the brothers under conditions.
“I believe that under the law, a resentencing is appropriate and I will recommend it to the court tomorrow,” Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said at a news conference.
Gascón said he would recommend revoking their life sentences and replacing them with 50 years to life in prison, but that they would be eligible for parole because of their young age at the time of the murders.
“I think they paid their debt to society,” Gascón said, highlighting his good behavior in prison.
But he said other prosecutors within his office opposed their release and could argue at an upcoming hearing in favor of keeping them in prison.
It was not immediately clear how long it would take for the court to issue its ruling.
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 for their wealth and privilege as the children of a record company and an entertainment industry executive. .
José Menéndez was shot in the back of the head and Kitty Menéndez was shot 15 times in her Beverly Hills home. Lyle was 21 and Eric was 18 at the time.
Months of talks between prosecutors and the defense
A recent Netflix series dramatizing his story has revived interest in the case, but for more than a year defense attorneys have been in talks with prosecutors to overturn the ruling or request a new trial, citing new evidence that has come to light. the light that supports the brothers' decision. They claim they were sexually abused for years.
At their first trial, which was televised and ended with a hung jury, the brothers testified that both parents had sexually abused them for years and that they were acting in self-defense, and that their father had threatened to kill them if they revealed the truth. abuse.
Prosecutors said the couple was after their parents' multimillion-dollar fortune.
A jury convicted them in a second trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court that was not televised, but the same jury also spared them the death penalty, opting for life in prison without parole.
Gascón said there was no doubt the brothers killed their parents, but cited new evidence, including a letter Eric Menendez allegedly wrote to his cousin eight months before the murders in which he described the abuse. He added that if the evidence had been presented at trial, the jury might have reached a different conclusion.
Gascón said he still considered the killings “horrible acts,” adding: “There is no justification for killing.”
Investigators are also examining allegations from a member of the 1980s pop band Menudo, who said José Menéndez abused him. The allegations were published last year in a documentary series called Peacock. Menéndez + Menudo: The betrayed boys.
Gascón also said he was concerned about comments made by a member of the prosecution team at the time that the men could not be raped. “Since the original trial … our office has gained a deeper understanding of the complexities surrounding sexual violence,” he said in a statement.
DA electoral challenger questions timing
Gascón previously said he would wait until the Nov. 26 court hearing to decide the case, but expedited the decision given intense public interest.
He also faces a tough reelection battle against challenger Nathan Hochman on Nov. 5.
Hochman on Thursday questioned the timing of Gascón's announcement, which came less than two weeks before the election, calling it a “desperate political measure.”
He said he could not form his own opinion about the case without access to confidential records and relevant witnesses.
“If I became a prosecutor and the case was still pending at that time, I would conduct a review consistent with how I would review any case,” Hochman said.
Gascón on Thursday denied that politics played any role and said his office had resentenced another 332 convicts as part of its policy to address “overincarceration.”
