Menendez brothers’ 1996 murder case will be reviewed, prosecutors say

Prosecutors in Los Angeles are reviewing new evidence in the case of the Menendez brothers, who were convicted of killing their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion more than 35 years ago, the city’s district attorney has said.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said during a news conference overnight that lawyers for Erik Menendez, 53, and his 56-year-old brother, Lyle, have asked a court to vacate their conviction.

Erik, 19, and Lyle Menendez, 22, leave the memorial service for their parents, Jose and Mary Louise, who were shot in August 1989. Credit: Steve Dykes, Los Angeles Times

Gascon said his office will review new evidence and also decide whether the case should be considered for resentencing. A hearing has been scheduled for November 29.

The new evidence presented in the petition includes a letter written by Erik Menendez that his lawyers say corroborates the allegations that he was sexually abused by his father.

The brothers shot and killed their parents, record company executive Jose Menendez and former journalist Kitty, in their mansion in August 1989. They have admitted the killings, but claim they were committed as an act of self-defence.

They were twice tried for murder. The first trial, in 1993, was broadcast on Court TV and turned the young, rich brothers into celebrities.

Their defence rested on the claim that they feared for their lives because they had threatened to reveal the sustained abuse, including sexual, to which they had been subjected by their father, while their mother knew of it and failed to protect them.

Lyle Menendez claimed his father had begun raping him when he was six. Erik only revealed to his older brother that he was also being abused a couple of weeks before the shotgun killings.

Their argument was deemed inadmissible in the second trial, and was largely dismissed at the time as a thin veneer for the real motive, financial gain. In 1996, they were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life without parole. That verdict was confirmed on appeal in 1998.

Cooper Koch as Erik and Nicholas Chavez as Lyle in Ryan Murphy’s Monsters series.Credit: Miles Crist/Netflix

But in recent years, there has been growing support for the argument that their claim to be victims of abuse should be taken seriously.

Renewed interest in the case was sparked by the release of documentary series The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All, which featured in-depth interviews with Erik Menendez, in 2017. Following its wider availability on streaming platform Hulu from 2019, a surge in social media sleuthing and advocacy has helped make the Menendez brothers unlikely poster boys for the argument that victims of sexual abuse should be heard and believed.

Interest in the case has surged further since the release last month of Ryan Murphy’s drama series Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story. Though it has been the most-watched series on Netflix globally for the past two weeks, the show has been enormously controversial, with advocates for the brothers furious with the multiple-perspective approach to the story, and with what some have deemed an undue salaciousness in the depictions of the alleged abuse.

Next week, Netflix will release The Menendez Brothers, a two-hour documentary featuring telephone interviews from prison with both brothers.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

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With AP