A resentencing hearing or Lyle and Erik Menendez has been scheduled next month in Los Angeles following the release of Netflix series “Monsters,” George Gascón, the city’s District Attorney, announced on Thursday.
Among the possible outcomes are that the brothers could be released, receive a shorter or even longer sentence, or be granted a new trial. Gascón added that he is “keeping an open mind” about the case and that the “final decision will be mine.”
He said, “I don’t think there is any question” that the brothers murdered their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989. But, following renewed interest in their case due to Ryan Murphy’s limited series, his office has received “a lot of calls,” calling for their release.
The hearing on Nov. 29 will determine whether the brothers should be resentenced. Gascón added that if the case were tried today, there would likely be “a greater level of sensitivity” about the abuse allegations, which were not admissible during the brothers’ second trial.
Among the considerations to be discussed at the hearing are whether they “deserve to be resentenced” and whether “they have paid back their dues to society,” after 35 years in prison.
“I think the questions that are presented to us are two simple questions. One possibility was being alleged by their lawyers, that there was evidence that, had it been presented to the jury, the outcome of this case would have been different. And second, under California law, a path to resentencing where a prosecutor can evaluate whether someone has been rehabilitated, and if so, ask the court to determine whether the person should be resentenced,” Gascón elaborated.
He added, “If they give resentence, there are multiple things that could happen. They could walk out based on what the court decides, or they can have the sentence given a different shape, and perhaps they [will stay in prison], but for a longer period, or lesser period of time, or they can have a new trial. Those are all options, and we will evaluate all of it.”
Erik and Lyle were convicted in 1996 of the double murder and are both serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Besides Murphy’s new dramatization of the case, recent documentaries that revealed new allegations of molestation against Jose Menendez have helped shift public opinion in Erik and Lyle’s favor.
Last year, Rosie O’Donnell called for the brothers to be released after she watched “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed,” which included new claims of sexual abuse from former Menudo member Roy Rosselló.
“In ’96, you know in the late 80s, people weren’t ready to accept the fact that boys to get raped sometimes by their fathers, and as a culture, we ridiculed them,” she said in a June 2023 TikTok video. “Everyone thought this was a funny target to kids who had been molested since the age of preschool, fighting back and standing up and people thought they just wanted the money. They had the money. They didn’t need the money. Money was not what it was about.”
O’Donnell said she had been in touch with Lyle’s wife Rebecca and has continued to call for their release from prison.
More recently, Kim Kardashian, who has become an advocate against the death penalty, visited the brothers in prison, as did the actors who play them in “Monsters,” Nicholas Chavez and Cooper Koch.
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