Menendez brothers resentencing decision handed down

Prosecutors have announced whether or not Erik and Lyle Menendez will be resentenced for the 1989 killings of their parents in Beverly Hills, the focus of a hit Netflix series.

Lyle and Erik Menendez could be freed after spending more than 30 years in jail for the murders of their parents after the LA District Attorney recommended the brothers be resentenced.

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón announced that he would ask a judge to look again at the Menendez siblings sentences and will recommend to the court that they be eligible for parole.

“There is no excuse for murder and I will never imply that what we are doing here is excusing that behaviour because even if you get abuse, the right path is to call police, seek help,” Mr Gascon told a packed press conference on Friday (AEDT).

“But I understand also how sometimes people get desperate. We often see, women, for instance, who have been battered for years and sometimes they will murder their abuser out of desperation.”

Mr Gascon continued: “And I do believe the brothers were subjected to a tremendous of dysfunction in the home and molestation. But they went to prison for life without the possibility of parole which meant as under the law at the time they had no hopes of ever getting out.”

Lyle and Erik Menendez with their lawyer in the ‘80s.

Mr Gascon, who is running for re-election on a criminal reform platform, said the killer brothers had engaged on “a journey of redemption and rehabilitation” in prison.

“Even in one case Lyle negotiating for other inmates as to the conditions that they live under in prison,” Mr Gascon added.

It will be up to a judge to make the final determination on Mr Gascon’s recommendation, which he acknowledged was not unanimous even within his own department.

It was not immediately clear when a hearing on the matter might be held, although Mr Gascon said his office would file the court papers on Friday local time.

Legal experts told local media the brothers would not be leaving prison anytime soon, with a long legal process still ahead.

The grisly shotgun slayings of wealthy music mogul Jose Menendez and his wife Kitty in their Beverly Hills home in 1989 – and their sons’ subsequent, televised murder trials – became the subject of a media frenzy. A hit Netflix series has recently sparked fresh interest in the case.

The brothers, aged 21 and 18 at the time of the murders, tearfully testified they killed their parents for fear of their own lives after years of sexual abuse by their father.

They were convicted of first-degree murder and have been serving life sentences in prison without possibility of parole since their sentencing in 1996.

But US prosecutors reviewed new evidence concerning the case.

The Menendez brothers were jailed without possibility of parole. Picture: Sygma via Getty Images

Last year, the brothers’ attorneys filed a court petition setting out new evidence which they said demonstrates Jose Menendez’s history of sexual abuse.

Among the new evidence is a letter Erik wrote to a cousin months before the murders, saying “I’ve been trying to avoid dad. It’s still happening … Every night I stay up thinking he might come in.”

Former Latino boy band member Roy Rossello said in a documentary series released last year that he was drugged and raped by Jose Menendez in the 1980s.

Joan Andersen VanderMolen (C), Kitty Menendez' sister, and Karen VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez' niece (R), at a press conference outside the Criminal Courts Building this month. Picture: Getty/AFP

The brothers’ attorneys called for a resentencing, which could see their clients released from prison given the lengthy time already spent behind bars.

Prosecutors said in a statement that Los Angeles’s criminal justice system “has developed a more modern understanding of sexual violence since the Menendez brothers first faced prosecution.”

“Today, our office acknowledges that sexual violence is a pervasive issue affecting countless individuals – of all gender identities,” they wrote, confirming the case is being reviewed on multiple fronts.

Earlier this month, Mr Gascon told reporters he had “a moral and an ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us.”

His comments came two weeks after the release on Netflix of crime drama “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.” The streaming giant also put out a documentary film, “The Menendez Brothers,” last week.

Mr Gascon acknowledged the initial Netflix show resulted in a large number of calls to his office about the case.

Meanwhile, relatives of the brothers also called for their release.

A supporter holds a sign at a press conference with Menendez family members outside the Criminal Courts Building in Los Angeles, California, this month. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

“As details of Lyle and Eric’s abuse came to light, it became clear that their actions, while tragic, were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive the unspeakable cruel(ty) of their father,” their 92-year-old aunt Joan VanderMolen said this month.

“Lyle and Erik have already paid a heavy price, discarded by a system that failed to recognise their pain,” she told a news conference attended by some 30 relatives.

Their initial trial, starting in 1993, was one of the first televised murder cases to make daily headlines around the world. It ended in a mistrial due to a deadlocked jury, but they were found guilty in a second trial.

Prosecutors argued they conspired to murder their parents in order to inherit their $US14 million ($A21m) fortune.

- with AFP