Brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez, who have generated a series and documentary, today request the conditional release, after 30 years in prison
Lyle Menendez, left, and Erik Menendez, right, during a hearing held at the Beverly Hills Court, California, on April 12, 1991. Photo: Kevork Djansezian / AP / Profimedia
The brothers will appear separately before the conditional release commission in the state of California. After the events in which they were involved, a series (“Monsters: the story of the brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez”) and a documentary (“The Menendez Brothers”, directed by Alejandro Hartmann) were made.
On August 20, 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez were killing their parents, Jose and Kitty, in the family's house in Beverly Hills, California.
The two brothers get in the car, throw their hunting rifles and continue to a nearby cinema, where they buy tickets to have an alibi.
When I finally get home, Lyle calls the police and says, “Someone killed my parents!”
The Menendez brothers were not immediately suspected of double crime. But Erik could not bear the weight of his guilt, so he confessed the involvement of his therapist, Dr. L. Jerome Oziel. By ignoring his own moral responsibilities, Dr. Oziel registered the meetings with his young patient in an attempt to impress his mistress. But the woman came to the police, and in March 1990, Lyle, 22, and Erik, 19, were arrested.
There followed a three -year legal battle regarding the admission of Dr. Oziel records as evidence. And when the Supreme Court of California decided in his favor in the summer of 1993, the process began much.
In a deposition that extended for more than a month and was reported in detail by the press channels, the two brothers described the years of sexual abuse they suffered from Jose and Kitty Menendez and insisted that they shot their parents in self-defense, because they believed that Jose would kill them to prevent the truth. They tried to reject the argument that the double crime was motivated by the family's wealth.
After the first process failed to reach a second, the second, which started in October 1995, led to imposing life penalties without the possibility of conditional release for both Lyle and Erik.
Now, focusing on the argument that the brothers were victims of sexual abuse and with the support of some stars, their lawyers insist on a revision of the sentence.
On October 24, 2024, the district prosecutor of Los Angeles county, George Gascon, announced in a press conference that he will recommend a review of the sentence, actually allowing their conditional release, after 34 years in prison. A 2023 lawyer's appeal has revealed additional evidence of accusations of abuse.
“I think they paid their debt to society,” Gascon said.
The two brothers will present their arguments for conditional release this on Thursday and Friday, after a Los Angeles judge reduced the penalties of life imprisonment in May without the possibility of conditional release to 50 years, then for life.
A commission will evaluate whether the Menendez brothers represents a “danger to society” in the case of release, taking into account factors such as their judicial record, the motivation for the crime and the remorse signs, their behavior during the incarceration and the future plans.
