The Menéndez brothers have a new opportunity to achieve freedom, after spending more than three decades behind bars for the brutal murder of their parents.
Erik and Joseph Lyle Menendez were sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1996 for the first-degree murder of their parents Jose and Mary ‘Kitty’ Menendez inside their Beverly Hills home.
But now they are appealing for a sentence reduction under a new California law that gives district attorneys the authority to make resentencing recommendations.
They have the support of more than two dozen family members, who have signed a letter to a judge asking him to resentence them.
And they hope Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, a Democrat who has been an outspoken critic of the death penalty and life without parole, will be on their side. according to Fox News.
The Menendez brothers, Erik and Lyle, photographed at their 1990 trial, could soon be freed from prison after more than three decades.
The brothers were sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1996 for the first-degree murder of their parents.
Lyle, a Princeton student then 22, and Erik, a professional tennis player then 19, entered the study of his $5 million Beverly Hills mansion in August 1989 and shot José point blank from behind. Of the head.
They then pointed the gun at their mother as she tried to flee the room. In total, José was shot five times and Kitty nine.
The brothers have never denied killing their parents, but have argued that they were forced to shoot their father to death after years of physical and sexual abuse.
They said they feared their father would kill them after they warned him they would expose him for deviant behavior.
But evidence that their children had been subjected to years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their record executive father was ruled inadmissible, as prosecutors argued they killed their parents because they wanted unlimited access to their $14 million estate. of dollars.
The two purchased Rolex watches, condos, sports cars and other expensive items in the months after the murders.
The brothers hope to enlist the support of District Attorney George Gascon, who has spoken out against life sentences.
The brothers eventually had two trials: the first had a hung jury and a mistrial was eventually declared, but when they were tried together again in 1996, they were found guilty.
They lost an appeal against their conviction in 2005 and are both currently serving their sentences at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County.
But his case was bolstered last year when Roy Rosselló, former singer of the boy band Menudo, claimed his father had raped him when he was 13.
She said in a sworn statement that she went to Jose’s house in the fall of 1983 or 1984, drank a “glass of wine” and then felt like she had “no control” over her body.
Rosselló also claims in a sworn statement that José sexually abused him on two other occasions, just before and after a performance at Radio City Music Hall.
The brothers shot to death their mother Kitty, a socialite, and their father, José Menéndez, a wealthy record company executive. The family is seen above in an undated photo.
They have argued that they were forced to shoot their parents to death after years of physical and sexual abuse.
Menendez’s lawyers also presented a newly discovered letter that Erik sent to his cousin Andy Cano about eight months before the murders.
“I’ve been trying to avoid Dad,” the hand-scrawled message read.
—This keeps happening, Andy, but it’s worse for me now. I can not explain it. He’s so overweight I can’t stand to look at him.
“I never know when it’s going to happen and it’s driving me crazy. Every night I stay awake thinking it might come in. I need to get it out of my head.
‘I know what you said before, but I’m scared. You just don’t know dad like I do. He he is crazy. He’s warned me hundreds of times not to tell anyone, especially Lyle.
The brothers were sentenced to life in prison without parole for first-degree murder in 1996.
His cousin testified that when Erik was 13, he approached him and told him that his father José was touching and ‘massaging’ his genitals, asking him if that was normal.
Another of her cousins, named Diane Vander Molen, also said that Lyle told her about the abuse when she was eight years old, and that she went to her mother to confess his confession, but was told she was lying.
Arguments presented by his defense team at his second trial described that the couple “did not harbor the mental state necessary for first-degree murder and were therefore guilty of involuntary manslaughter.”
Chilling crime scene photographs showing the blood-soaked couch where José Menéndez was shot five times by his own children became central to the prosecution.
Attorney Cliff Gardner now hopes to show that they should have been convicted of involuntary manslaughter, arguing in an appeal of their convictions that if they had been, the brothers would already be out of prison.
“My hope in the case is that the judge will realize that this new evidence is actually credible and persuasive, and will overturn the convictions,” Gardner he said 48 hours in March.