Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón has said the Méndez brothers do not deserve to die in prison while their family asks for a new sentence.
‘Given the totality of the circumstances, I don’t think they deserve to be in prison until they die,’ Gascón told IMPACT x Nightline, as reported PEOPLE.
The district attorney made the comments for the episode titled Hermanos Menendez: Monsters or Victims?, which will air Thursday on Hulu.
It comes as the extended family of Erik and Lyle Menendez will hold a news conference in Loa Angeles on Wednesday to advocate for the brothers’ release from prison as prosecutors review new evidence to determine whether they should serve life in prison for killing their parents. .
Erik Menendez, now 53, and his 56-year-old brother, Lyle Menendez, are currently incarcerated in state prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of killing their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion more than 35 years.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon has said the Mendez brothers do not deserve to die in prison as their family asks for a new sentence.
Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted of the murder of their parents, José and Kitty, in 1996 after their first trial was declared a mistrial.
Called “a powerful show of unity” by more than a dozen family members, including the brothers’ aunt, who are traveling across the country to Los Angeles, the news conference will be held less than two weeks later. after Gascón announced that his office was looking again into the brothers’ case.
Lyle Menéndez, then 21, and Erik Menéndez, then 18, admitted they shot and killed their entertainment executive father, José Menéndez, and mother, Kitty Menéndez, in 1989.
They said they feared their parents were about to kill them to prevent the father’s long-term sexual abuse of Erik from being revealed.
The extended family’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, previously said they strongly support the brothers’ release. Comedian Rosie O’Donnell also plans to join the family on Wednesday.
“All he wants is for them to be released,” Freedman said earlier this month of Joan VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez’s sister and the brothers’ aunt.
Jose and Kitty (pictured) were shot 14 times with 12-gauge shotguns in their million-dollar home in Beverly Hills in August 1989.
The two men were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1996 after a retrial.
Earlier this month, Gascón said there is no doubt the brothers committed the 1989 murders, but that his office will review new evidence and make a decision on whether a new sentence is warranted in the notorious case that captured national attention.
A new sentence could free the brothers, who have already served more than three decades in prison.
The brothers’ attorneys said the family believed from the beginning that they should have been charged with manslaughter rather than murder. Involuntary manslaughter was not an option for the jury during the second trial that ultimately led to the brothers’ murder conviction, attorney Mark Geragos previously said.
The new evidence includes a letter written by Erik that his lawyers say corroborates allegations that his father sexually abused him. A hearing was scheduled for Nov. 29.
They were sentenced to life in prison in 1996, the two had not seen each other since.
Prosecutors at the time of his conviction maintained that there was no evidence of any sexual abuse. They said the children were seeking their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate.
But the brothers have said they killed their parents in self-defense after enduring a lifetime of physical, emotional and sexual abuse from them.
Their attorneys argue that because of society’s changing views on sexual abuse, the brothers may not have been convicted of first-degree murder or sentenced to life in prison without parole today.
In 1996, the jury rejected the death penalty, preferring life in prison without parole.
