Menendez Brothers Resentencing Supported By L.A. DA; George Gascón Sets Press Conference For This Afternoon On Ryan Murphy Spotlighted Case
EXCLUSIVE: Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said this week he would have a decision on the legal fate of the long incarcerated Menendez brothers, and he is making it public today.
The DA, who’s in the middle of a tough re-election campaign, will announce his support for a resentencing of Erik and Lyle Menendez for the shotgun murder of their parents in 1989, Deadline has learned. A day ahead of schedule, the DA’s office just revealed that Gascón will give a press conference Thursday “regarding the potential resentencing of Erik and Lyle Menendez.”
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Having been on a media tour of late over weighing newer evidence of the repeated sexual abuse the brothers allegedly suffered from their father, music executive Jose Menendez, Gascón is expected to ask for Erik, 55, and Lyle, 56 to get out of prison in the next few months, sources tell me. However, Gascón could still back away from that plan in the next few hours due to sharp divisions in his office, individuals close to events caution of the fickle prosecutor.
Sentenced to life without parole in their second trial in 1996, the next stage in the siblings’ case will now need to go before a judge to become official. That could mean a new trial for the brothers, reduced prison time or the siblings walk free ASAP. A November 26 hearing on the case has been on the calendar for a few weeks.
While the vast majority of sexual abuse claims was barred from the 1996 trial by the presiding judge, the brothers always argued the killings of their parents was self-defense. Twenty-eight years ago, coming off their defeat in the O.J. Simpson trial, the prosecutors claimed the brothers, who did go on a spending spree after their parents’ death, was all about getting their hands on their parent’s wealth. The two perspectives clash obviously, but what is clear is that perception on sexual abuse against males has shifted considerably from 1996 and would likely play a significant role in any resentencing.
The recommendation from Gascón and any judicial ruling on the brothers will likely center on the 1988 letter on the fear and sexual violence from his father that Erik Menendez wrote to one of his cousins months before the brothers fatally shot Jose and Kitty Menendez at point blank range in their Beverly Hills home. Also in play is Marsy’s Law, a California amendment that gives victims, in this case the family, the right to be heard in a post-sentencing hearing.
Gascón himself has said that “the public attention to this case” with the very well-watched success of Ryan Murphy’s Netflix hit Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and a series of documentaries on the brothers put a renewed spotlight on the brothers’ case. Down double digits against ex-U.S. Assistant Attorney General Nathan Hochman in his bid for a second term, the polarizing Gascón has garnered wide spread attention in local, national and international media for his latest interest in the high profile matter.
This latest round of attention on the case started with an odd presser on October 3 where Gascón said he would be reviewing material that his office has had for over a year that gets more specific over the sexual abuse the elder Menendez is alleged to have subjected his son to, as well as at least one member of boy band Menudo decades ago. That was followed with a sit-down with ABC News for their October 17 Hulu- debuting IMPACT x Nightline: Menendez Brothers: Monsters or Victims? where the DA said he did not think the brothers deserved “to be in prison until they die.”
A well attended October 16 press conference by Menendez family members outside DTLA’s Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center – the very building where both the brothers’ trials took place – advocated for the release of the siblings. Backed by lawyers Bryan Freedman, Mark Geragos and Cliff Gardner, the nearly two dozen family members then went to the DA’s office for a meeting with officials there.
However, Milton Anderson, the 90-year-old brother of Erik and Lyle’s mother Kitty, has long objected to the siblings getting any early release or new trial. Earlier this week, as momentum on the matter sped up, Anderson filed an Amicus brief in LA Superior Court stressing the horrors of the 1989 murders, especially the brothers hunting down their mother and reloading their shotguns to make sure she was dead from their bullets.
Still, after chatting with People magazine, Gascón went on Jake Tapper’s CNN show on October 22 to say he planned to have a “decision by the end of this week.” At the time, The Lead host offered the DA a return spot on October 25 to discuss that decision — looks like Gascón jumped his own gun.
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