Progressive Los Angeles County District Lawyer George Gascon mentioned his workplace will evaluate what he mentioned was new proof that Erik and Lyle Menendez had been presumably molested, which might end result of their sentences being re-evaluated in a case that has drawn important media protection much more than 30 years after they killed their mother and father.
Gascon mentioned he hasn’t made a willpower on the matter.Â
“We’ll consider all of it,” he mentioned, referring to the brand new proof.
“We’re not able to imagine or not imagine that data,” he instructed reporters at a information convention. “However we’re right here to inform you that we have now a ethical and moral obligation to evaluate what’s being introduced to us and make a willpower.”
MENENDEZ BROTHER, WHO GUNNED DOWN PARENTS, SLAMS NEW SHOW FOR ‘DISHONEST PORTRAYAL’
Erik and Lyle Menendez hear throughout their trial within the Nineteen Nineties. Los Angeles County District Lawyer George Gascon mentioned his workplace will evaluate new proof within the brothers’ homicide case. (Ted Soqui/Sygma)
Joseph Lyle Menendez, 56, and Erik, 53, had been convicted of capturing their mother and father, Jose and Mary “Kitty” Menendez, to dying of their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. Kitty Menendez was killed after she was shot and the brother reloaded earlier than firing the ultimate blow, prosecutors mentioned.Â
Following a mistrial, the pair had been convicted of the killings in a second trial and ordered in 1996 to serve life in jail.Â
Nevertheless, they’ve lately been looking for lowered sentences. Each are presently being held within the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.Â
The case drew important media consideration due to the household’s wealth – Jose Menendez was an leisure government – and the character of the crime.Â
Initially, theories arose that the slayings had been the work of the mafia.
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Los Angeles County District Lawyer George Gascon mentioned his workplace will evaluate what he mentioned was new proof that Erik and Lyle Menendez had been presumably molested. (Myung Chun / Los Angeles Instances through Getty Photographs)
The brothers ultimately admitted to finishing up the slayings, however mentioned they had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by their father and feared for his or her lives. They’ve repeatedly appealed their convictions.Â
Prosecutors argued there was no proof that the pair had been molested, however dedicated the homicide as a result of they had been after their mother and father’ multimillion-dollar property.
They had been motivated by greed, prosecutors mentioned, pointing to their lavish spending sprees after the killings. Protection attorneys argued the pair suffered abuse from their father and killed their mother and father in self-defense.Â
A brand new eight-part Netflix true crime drama, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” has sparked a resurgence of curiosity within the case.Â
In a press release on X posted by Tammy Menendez, spouse of Erik Menendez, referred to as the present a “dishonest portrayal of the tragedies,” saying prosecutors “constructed a story on a perception system that males weren’t sexually abused, and that males expertise rape trauma in another way from ladies.”
An undated photograph of the Menendez household because it seems on display screen throughout a panel at CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee, on Sunday, June 2. The brothers Lyle and Erik had been convicted of fatally capturing each of their mother and father in 1989. (Michael Ruiz/Fox Information Digital)
A 12 months in the past, the brothers filed a writ of habeas corpus asking the court docket to vacate their 1996 conviction. It cited the “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed” Peacock docuseries by which Roy Roselló, a former member of the favored Eighties Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, alleged that Jose Menendez sexually assaulted him.Â
The brothers mentioned the brand new allegations again their claims of self-defense after years of abuse by their mother and father. Within the almost three many years which have handed since their convictions, Gascon mentioned he believes sexual assault would have been handled with extra sensitivity if the case had occurred within the current.Â
He mentioned his workplace will evaluate new proof and resolve whether or not the case ought to be thought-about for re-sentencing. A listening to was scheduled for Nov. 29.
Lyle, left, and Erik, proper, are pictured in latest mugshots from 2023. After years aside, they had been moved into the identical housing unit at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego in 2018, in line with the New York Every day Information. (California Division of Corrections)
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Gascon, who’s looking for re-election following two failed recall makes an attempt over his progressive felony justice insurance policies, famous that greater than 300 individuals have been re-sentenced throughout his time period, and solely 4 have gone on to commit against the law once more.
