Nearly three decades after they were convicted of killing their parents, Erik and Lyle Menendez have been given fresh hope for a retrial. The brothers are set for a new court hearing scheduled for 29 November 2024, in light of new evidence which has emerged from Netflix’s dramatised documentary Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story.
LA County District Attorney George Gascon announced that Erik and Lyle’s case deserves to be looked at again, given the fresh findings which support the siblings’ claim that they were allegedly abused by their father Jose. Erik hinted at the abuse in a letter that the brothers’ defence attorney Cliff Gardner said he wrote to his cousin Andy Cano in December 1988, around eight months before the murders.
‘We have been given evidence. We have been given a photocopy of a letter that allegedly was sent by one of the brothers to another family member talking about him being the victim of molestation,’ George said in a press conference. ‘We’ve also got evidence that was provided by the defence, by his lawyers, that one of the members of the Menudo band alleged that he was molested by the father.’
While the new hearing could lead to a retrial or resentencing for Erik and Lyle, the attorney said it’s too soon to make any decisions.
‘We are not at this point ready to say that we either believe or do not believe that information, but we’re here to tell you is that we have a moral and an ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us and make a determination based on a resentencing side, whether they deserve to be resentenced – even though they were clearly the murderers – because they have been in prison for years and they have paid back their dues to society,’ George said.
‘If there was evidence that was not presented to the court at that time, and had that evidence been presented, perhaps a jury would have come to a different conclusion.’
The brothers’ lawyer Cliff Gardner is feeling optimistic.
‘They’re obviously looking at it closely, which is great,’ he told the Los Angeles Times. ‘I’m encouraged by it because I think that anyone that takes a look at that evidence is going to walk away with the understanding those boys were molested as children.’
Who are the Menendez brothers?
Erik and Lyle were aged 18 and 21 respectively when their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez were found shot multiple times at close range at their Beverly Hills home in August 1989. The brothers claimed that they resorted to murder for self-defence – they feared their father would kill them after they threatened to expose him for years of sexual, emotional and physical abuse. Lyle testified that his father began sexually abusing him when he was six years old.
Prosecutors painted the boys as spoiled kids and asserted that money – and their inheritance – were the motive for the killings. They argued that the murders were premeditated since the brothers bought shotguns days in advance, and said that the abuse that the brothers were alleged to have suffered didn’t give them the right to kill.
The brothers were arrested for first-degree murder in March 1990 after confessing to the crime on tape.
They had two trials. In the first trial, the siblings were tried together with separate juries. The judge declared a mistrial when the juries deadlocked. During the second trial, they were tried together with one jury. They were found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1996.
Where are the Menendez brothers now?
Erik and Lyle remain in prison at Richard J Donovan Correctional facility in California. Their petition appeals have been denied in past years.
Could the Menendez brothers be freed?
George Gascon said Erik and Lyle could be resentenced after a court examines the new evidence in their cases and if it works in their favour, the brothers could potentially ‘walk out based on what the court decides’.
‘I’m keeping an open mind. We have people in the office that are looking at this very carefully, very experienced lawyers that are looking at this,’ he said. ‘Until we get there, we’re not sure yet which direction this will go.’
Does Kim Kardashian know the Menendez brothers?
Reality TV star and criminal justice reform advocate Kim Kardashian has waded into the Menendez brothers’ case, campaigning for their freedom. The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star met the siblings when she visited Richard J Donovan Correctional facility in California in September 2024.
‘The killings are not excusable. I want to make that clear. Nor is their behaviour before, during or after the crime. But we should not deny who they are today in their 50s,’ Kim wrote in a piece for NBC News.
‘I have spent time with Lyle and Erik; they are not monsters. They are kind, intelligent and honest men,’ ‘In prison, they both have exemplary disciplinary records. They have earned multiple college degrees, worked as caregivers for elderly incarcerated individuals in hospice, and been mentors in college programs – committed to giving back to others. Twenty-four family members, including their parents’ siblings, have released statements fully supporting Lyle and Erik and have respectfully requested that the justice system free them.’
Kim added, ‘I don’t believe that spending their entire natural lives incarcerated was the right punishment for this complex case. Had this crime been committed and trialled today, I believe the outcome would have been dramatically different.
‘My hope is that Erik and Lyle Menendez’s life sentences are reconsidered. We owe it to those little boys who lost their childhoods, who never had a chance to be heard, helped or saved.’
What do the Menendez brothers think of the Netflix series Monsters?
While the Netflix documentary Monsters has brought attention to Erik and Lyle’s case, the brothers have called the show a ‘blatant lie’ with its portrayal of sexual abuse trauma. Erik called the portrayals of them by actors Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez ‘vile, appalling and dishonest’ and accused the show’s creator Ryan Murphy of ‘bad intent’ in a statement shared on his wife Tammi’s Twitter account.
However, Ryan – who has also worked on Glee and American Horror Story – said the show is ‘the best thing to happen to the Menendez brothers in 30 years’.
‘The Menendez brothers should be sending me flowers. They haven’t had so much attention in 30 years. And it’s gotten the attention of not only this country, but all over the world. There’s sort of an outpouring of interest in their lives and in the case. I know for a fact that many people have offered to help them because of the interest of my show and what we did.'
He added, 'There is no world that we live in where the Menendez brothers or their wives or lawyers would say, "You know what, that was a wonderful, accurate depiction of our clients." That was never going to happen, and I wasn’t interested in that happening.'
What were the Menudo allegations against Jose Menendez?
Roy Rossello, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, claimed in April 2023 that Jose Menendez sexually assaulted him as a teenager. Roy said in a sworn affidavit in 2023 that the abuse happened when he visited Jose’s home in 1983 or 1984.
‘I know what he did to me in his house. That’s the man here that raped me. That’s the paedophile,’ he said in the docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.
Shereen Low is a Senior News and Entertainment writer for Grazia UK.