A decision on the fate of the Menendez brothers will be announced today amid growing speculation that they could be released from prison.
Erik and Lyle Menendez killed their parents inside their Beverly Hills mansion in August 1989, when they were only 18 and 21 years old.
They have been imprisoned for 34 years, but Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón’s decision on whether to resentence them could be their ticket to freedom.
Gascón will hold a press conference at 1:30 p.m. local time – 4:30 p.m. EST – about the fate of the brothers.
If he recommends resentencing them, they could be released from prison taking into account time served. They are currently serving a life sentence without parole.
The Menéndez brothers could soon be released from prison after more than 30 years behind bars
Erik, 51, revealed that he found it absurd that the police working on the case did not arrest him and his brother at the crime scene.
Lyle bought a Porsche Carrera, a Rolex watch, and two restaurants immediately afterward.
The brothers have enjoyed renewed interest in their case thanks to two Netflix shows and endorsements from celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Rosie O’Donnell.
If a jury in any potential retrial finds them guilty of voluntary manslaughter instead of murder, it would trigger their immediate release since they have served more than the maximum sentence.
Gascón recently said his office was examining evidence that was not allowed in his trial, but insisted he was not compromised in any way.
Specifically, Gascón said he was reviewing shocking allegations made last year by Roy Rosselló, a former member of the band Menudo, who claimed that José Menéndez sexually abused him as a teenager while working as a music executive in the 1980s.
The accusations opened the door to appeals by the Menendez brothers over allegations that critical evidence of their father’s alleged abuse was not admitted at their 1996 trial.
The Menéndez brothers spent seven months on the streets after murdering their parents
After killing their parents, they made a frantic call to police claiming that they returned home from the movies to discover their parents had been massacred, raising fears within one of America’s wealthiest communities that a killer was fleeing
Police announced they would arrest Lyle Menendez in March 1990, seven months after the crime.
They said he was motivated by greed. The brothers would inherit $14 million from their parents and set out to spend it shortly after their parents died.
Lyle bought a Porsche Carrera, a Rolex watch and two restaurants, while his brother hired a full-time tennis coach to start competing in tournaments.
In total, they spent $700,000 between the time of their parents’ deaths and their arrests in March 1990.
But Erik insisted in the new Netflix documentary that it is “absurd” to suggest he was having a good time immediately after the murders.
Lyle and Erik, now ages 53 and 56, claimed they acted in self-defense. They said they were victims of sexual abuse throughout their lives at the hands of their father.
The duo, then only 18 and 21 years old, killed their parents, José and Mary Louise ‘Kitty’ Menéndez, inside their million-dollar home in Beverly Hills in August 1989.
Chilling crime scene photos show blood-soaked couch where José Menéndez was shot
More than a dozen of Menendez’s relatives and defense attorney Mark Geragos held a news conference in Los Angeles this month calling for a revised sentence.
“If it were the Menendez sisters, they wouldn’t be in custody,” Geragos said of the treatment the brothers received at their trial.
The family argued that at the time of the brothers’ trial, the public did not understand sexual abuse of children.
Kitty’s sister, Joan Andersen VanderMolen, said: “His actions, while tragic, were the desperate response of two children trying to survive their father’s unspeakable cruelty.”
“The truth is that Lyle and Erik were failed by the very people who should have protected them: their parents, the system and society at large.”
The family introduced a coalition called “Justice for Eric and Lyle” and talked about how the brothers have lived a purposeful life in their 35 years in prison, even though they never expected to be released.
The two men were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1996 after a retrial.