Prosecutor seeks new sentence for Menendez brothers who murdered parents

Prosecutors in the United States have recommended resentencing Lyle and Erik Menendez for the murder of their parents after new evidence emerged of sexual abuse by their father.

The brothers have been behind bars for 34 years, serving life sentences for shooting their father and mother in their home in Beverly Hills, California, in a notorious case that was recently the subject of a documentary film.

They were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1989 killings.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said on Thursday his office will recommend the brothers’ sentences be rescinded and they be resentenced to 50 years to life.

Because they were under 26 years old at the time of the crimes, they will be eligible for parole immediately, he said.

“I came to a place where I believe, under the law, resentencing is appropriate,” Gascon told reporters.

“It’s salient to understand that our own implicit and sometimes explicit bias around sexual abuse and sexual assault often leads us to severe injustices in our community,” he said.

Gascon added some members of his office opposed the decision to recommend the resentencing.

Feared parents would kill them

Lyle Menendez, then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, admitted they fatally shot their entertainment executive father, Jose Menendez, and their mother, Kitty Menendez, in the den of their Beverly Hills mansion.

The brothers said they feared their parents were about to kill them to stop people from finding out that Jose Menendez had sexually abused Erik Menendez for years.

The Menendez brothers were tried twice for the murders, with the first trial ending in a hung jury.

Prosecutors at the time argued that there was no evidence of molestation, and many details in their story of sexual abuse were not permitted in the second trial.

They argued the motive for the murders was the family’s multimillion-dollar fortune.

The brothers have unsuccessfully appealed their convictions.

The Menendez case has gained new attention recently after Netflix began streaming the true-crime drama series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

Prosecutors are reviewing a letter, written by Erik Menendez when he was 13 years old to his cousin, that his lawyers say backs up the allegations that he was sexually abused by his father.

There is also evidence from Roy Rossello, a former member of the Latin pop group Menudo, who also revealed in a 2023 Peacock film that he was drugged and raped twice by the brothers’ father when he was a teen in the 1980s.

Menudo was signed under RCA Records, which was headed by Jose Menendez.

These allegations are part of the evidence listed in the petition filed last year by the Menendez brothers’ lawyer to review their case.

Family support

The brothers’ extended family have pleaded for their release.

At a recent news conference, several family members said the brothers’ 1996 sentence was at a time when people didn’t want to hear about sexual abuse.

“If Lyle and Erik’s case were heard today, with the understanding we now have about abuse and PTSD, there is no doubt in my mind that their sentencing would have been very different,” said Anamaria Baralt, a cousin of the brothers.

But some family members think they should stay in jail. Kitty Menendez’s brother, Milton Andersen, 90, filed a legal brief asking the court to keep the brothers’ original punishment.

“They shot their mother, Kitty, reloading to ensure her death,” Andersen’s lawyers said in a statement. “The evidence remains overwhelmingly clear: The jury’s verdict was just, and the punishment fits the heinous crime.”

Gascon told reporters despite their life sentences, the brothers worked on redemption and rehabilitation inside prison.

“I believe that they have paid their debt to society,” he said.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies