The Los Angeles County district attorney recommended Wednesday that Lyle and Erik Menendez, the brothers known for the 1989 shotgun slayings of their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion, be resentenced.
District Attorney George Gascón announced at a news conference that his office would be recommending that the brothers, who are currently serving a life sentence without parole, be resentenced to 50 years to life. However, because they were under 26 years old at the time of the killings, they will be eligible for parole.
Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18 when they shot José and Kitty Menendez in the family’s living room.
Gascón’s announcement came amid a groundswell of advocacy for the brothers, who admitted they killed José and Kitty Menendez but said they acted in self-defense after enduring years of physical and sexual abuse by their father. Their supporters, including their close relatives, believe that were they tried today — when society has a better understanding of child sexual abuse and trauma — they would have received a lighter sentence than life without parole.
Lyle and Erik Menendez — 21 and 18, respectively, at the time of their crimes — have served more than 34 years in prison. They could be released if they were resentenced to a shorter term. Only a judge, not the district attorney, can resentence the men. That could happen in as soon as 30 days, according to Variety, or in a future court hearing. The men’s freedom might also depend on the recommendation of a parole board, if they aren’t sentenced to time served, or even Gov. Gavin Newsom’s approval.
Public sympathy for the brothers has grown exponentially since the September release of a controversial Netflix docudrama series, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.” Erik Menendez has said it’s “full of lies,” but it also generated tons of attention for his and his brother’s case. In May 2023, in the Peacock docuseries “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed,” former boy band member Roy Rosselló said that Jose Menendez, then a record company executive, had drugged and raped him when he was a teen, which the brothers’ defense attorneys said corroborated their own claims of sexual abuse.
Gascón has faced mounting pressure on numerous fronts, including from the men’s relatives, true crime TikTokers, and celebrities like Kim Kardashian, who recently met with the brothers in prison and wrote a personal essay for NBC News advocating for their freedom. Many see Gascón’s announcement as a last-ditch effort to retain his seat in the upcoming election, which has him trailing by 30 points.
Last year, the brothers’ attorneys asked for their conviction to be vacated in light of Rosselló’s allegations and a resurfaced letter Erik had written to his cousin eight months before the killings describing his father’s sexual abuse.
In a surprise news conference on Oct. 3, Gascón announced that his office would be reviewing the brothers’ sentencing and convictions, with the next court date set for Nov. 26.
On Oct. 16, more than 20 of the brothers’ relatives held a news conference calling for their release from prison and announced the launch of a formal initiative, Justice for Erik & Lyle.
In an emotional plea, the brothers’ maternal aunt, Joan Andersen Vandermolen, 92, said, “The whole world was not ready to believe that the boys could be raped” when they were convicted in 1996.
In their first trial, which was televised on Court TV, jurors heard evidence of their sexual abuse and deadlocked on a verdict. Much of that evidence was barred in the second trial, which ended with a conviction.
“The evidence of their father’s abuse would not only be admitted in court, it would provide essential context for why they acted as they did. No jury today would issue such a harsh sentence without taking their trauma into account,” Vandermolen said.
After the killings, the brothers were not portrayed in the media as sympathetic figures. They were viewed as arrogant rich kids who murdered their parents out of greed and then concocted a lie about being molested by their father after they were caught.
The killings were ferocious. The brothers opened fire on their parents with 12-gauge shotguns in their living room, striking Kitty 10 times and their father six. According to the autopsy report, quoted by Dominick Dunne in an infamous series for Vanity Fair on the case, Jose Menendez suffered an “explosive decapitation with evisceration of the brain” from a shotgun blast to the back of his head. The brothers’ therapist testified that they told him Kitty was “moaning and trying to crawl away” when they reloaded their guns and shot her in the face.
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Vandermolen said that not only has society’s understanding of sexual abuse changed, but the brothers themselves have, too.
“We know that abuse has long-lasting effects, and victims of trauma sometimes act in ways that are very difficult to understand,” she told reporters on Oct. 16.
“Lyle and Erik have already paid a heavy price, discarded by a system that failed to recognize their pain. They have grown, they have changed, and they have become better men despite everything that they’ve been through.”
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.
