Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón snapped at a reporter when asked if his call for the Menendez brothers to be resentenced was influenced by their fight for re-election.
Gascón, 70, held a news conference Thursday to recommend that Erik and Lyle Menendez receive a new sentence, 35 years after they murdered his parents Kitty and José inside their Beverly Hills mansion.
After asking that the brothers be eligible for parole, arguing that the couple had “paid their debt to society,” a reporter at the news conference asked if Gascón was trying to score political points two weeks before the day of the protests. elections.
‘Could you please stop? I’m not going to talk about re-election,’ Gascón shouted.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, 70, snapped at a reporter when asked if his call for the Menendez brothers to be resentenced was influenced by their fight for re-election.
Erik (left) and Lyle (right) Menendez were sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for the murder of their parents, but now they may receive a new sentence, as their supporters say the trial did not allow key evidence that their father abused them.
The reporter didn’t even finish his question before Gascón’s outburst, when the DA’s supporters intervened to tell them to “relax.”
“It’s a fair question,” the journalist said, to which a woman snapped: “No, it’s not.”
Gascón added: “You want to talk about re-election, let’s go outside and we can talk about re-election there… I’m sorry sir, you are interrupting.”
This comes as Gascón faces an uphill fight to remain district attorney, with polls showing him trailing his rival, former prosecutor Nathan Hochman, with two weeks left until Election Day.
In a recent survey by UC Berkeley’s Institute for Government Studies and Government Studies Los Angeles Timeshe was a staggering 30 points behind Hochman, 51 percent to 21 percent.
Gascón, once dubbed the “godfather of progressive prosecutors,” saw his popularity decline in Los Angeles amid a rise in violent crime and his office’s lenient stance on crime.
The LA Times reported this week that Gascón’s downfall has also caused his fundraising to dry up, and Hochman is outfunding and outspending Gascón by 11 to 1.
Gascón faces an uphill fight to remain district attorney, with polls showing him trailing his rival, former prosecutor Nathan Hochman (pictured), with two weeks left until Election Day.
The Menendez brothers’ trials gained national attention in 1996 and recently returned to the public consciousness following a controversial Netflix show about the murders.
Gascón may have seen the Menéndez case, which returned to the public consciousness after a controversial Netflix show about the murders, as a way to score political points from public sympathy for the brothers.
Lyle and Erik were convicted of the murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty, in 1996 after their first trial was declared a mistrial.
The brothers never denied killing their parents by shooting them 14 times with 12-gauge shotguns in their million-dollar home in Beverly Hills in August 1989, when they were just 18 and 21 years old.
But Lyle and Erik, now ages 53 and 56, claimed they acted in self-defense.
They said they had been victims of sexual abuse all their lives at the hands of their father, a high-level businessman who worked in several industries, and that they were terrified that their parents were about to kill them to prevent the allegations from coming to light. accusations.
However, Gascón’s decision to recommend a new sentence was quickly criticized by the Menéndez brothers’ uncle, who criticized Gascón’s justification for his decision and for not informing him before the explosive press conference.
Lyle and Erik were convicted of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty, in 1996, but claimed they were motivated by fear of their allegedly abusive father.
Milton Andersen, brother of Kitty Menéndez, murdered along with her husband by her children in 1989, called it “extremely offensive.”
‘Mister. Gascón’s contempt for Mr. Andersen is absolutely criminal,’ a lawyer for the 90-year-old uncle said in a statement.
“He did not consider it appropriate to inform Mr. Andersen what he was going to do before telling the general public, and that is extremely offensive,” he continued.
Andersen has said that he “strongly believes that his nephews were not sexually abused.”
Gascon can only recommend a new sentence and the brothers’ fate will ultimately be in the hands of the courts.