LA District Attorney George Gascón has recommended the resentencing of the Menendez brothers’ life without parole sentence.
In 1989, the Menendez brothers were sentenced to life without parole for the first-degree murder of their parents, José and Kitty Menendez, in Beverley Hills, California. If the judge accepts Gascón’s recommendation, the case can be reopened, and the Menendez brothers may be eligible for parole immediately. Two Netflix documentaries on the brothers have brought attention to their plight, which may be their saving grace.
LA district attorney’s recommendation for Menendez Brother’s resentencing
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón said earlier in October that he had been looking into the Menendez brothers’ case for over a year. The main focus of the highly publicized trial was the reasoning behind the murder.
“I believe they have paid their debt to society,” said Gascón in a news conference.
If the judge accepts Gascón’s recommendation, the sentence would be reduced to 50 years, and the brothers would be eligible for parole. Hypothetically, if the judge accepts the recommendation, the Menendez brothers would be brought before a parole board, which would decide if they should be released from prison on parole.
In their trials in the ’90s, the defense attorneys attempted to argue self-defense, while the prosecution claimed the brothers murdered their parents in cold blood to access the $14 million fortune to be left behind in their parents will. The first trial was deemed a mistrial, while the second one included evidence of abuse that the defense attorneys presented. This had been excluded from the case entirely.
The Menendez brothers claimed self-defense after suffering sexual and physical abuse from their parents. While the evidence proposed by the defense attorneys at the time was excluded, new evidence was submitted in 2023 by the Menendez brothers’ appellate attorney. The latest evidence is a letter from Erik Menendez to a cousin that details the alleged sexual and physical abuse by his father.
The Menendez brothers’ resentencing bid also has more weight to it, as Roy Roselló, a former member of the boy band Menudo, has also come out saying that he was allegedly abused by José Menendez, who was an executive at RCA records at the time the boy band signed their deal with the record company.
Family members of the brothers have also supported their release. However, Kitty Menendez’s brother, Milton Andersen, has opposed the idea of resentencing the Menendez brothers and potentially freeing them.
According to the case files, “The ‘new evidence’ Gascón relies on cannot legally justify overturning the murder convictions of Erik and Lyle Menendez, who meticulously planned and executed the cold-blooded murders of both their parents.”
