By Ole Braatelien October 25, 2024 at 4:10am
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón announced a recommendation Thursday that infamous murderers Erik and Lyle Menendez be re-sentenced.
The brothers have been imprisoned nearly 35 years after shooting their parents, Jose and Kitty, with shotguns in their Beverly Hills home, KABC-TV in Los Angeles reported.
Because the brothers were both sentenced under the age of 26 years old, re-sentencing would make the brothers eligible for parole immediately, Gascón said at a news conference.
“I believe they have paid their debt to society,” Los Angeles County DA George Gascon said Thursday in announcing that he would file to have Erik and Lyle Menendez be eligible for parole immediately. pic.twitter.com/duOnNvzqES
— KTLA (@KTLA) October 24, 2024
“I believe that they have paid their debt to society,” Gascón said. “The final decision will be made by the judge.”
Support for the controversial decision has been mixed.
Former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman, whom Gascón is running against for re-election, suggested in a statement that it’s nothing more than a political charade, considering the election being just days away.
D.A. George Gascon received the Menendez habeas corpus petition in May 2023 and request for resentencing in February 2024.
Yet, he has waited until days before the November 5 election, 30 points down in the polls with articles coming about how his failed policies have led to… pic.twitter.com/OPoM2wEfDL— Nathan Hochman (@NathanHochmanDA) October 24, 2024
Have you seen “The Menendez Brothers” on Netflix?
“D.A. George Gascon received the Menendez habeas corpus petition in May 2023 and request for resentencing in February 2024,” Hochman wrote in a statement. “Yet, he has waited until days before the November 5 election, 30 points down in the polls with articles coming about how his failed policies have led to additional murders of innocent people, to release his recommendation for resentencing.”
A different point of view on the Menendez brothers’ grisly crimes has come to light recently, however.
During the first trials in 1993 and 1995, prosecutors said that the brothers’ motive was financial, due to the Menenedez’ spending spree after the murders, according to Deadline.
Their defense, however, maintained that they acted in self defense after years of alleged sexual abuse from their father, KABC-TV reported. Nevertheless, at their 1996 trial, the brothers were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole, much of the sexual abuse evidence being reportedly barred from the trial.
New evidence, which the Los Angeles D.A.’s office has had for almost a year, has resurfaced, seemingly corroborating the brothers’ claims of abuse.
Months before the murders, Erik Menendez had reportedly penned a letter to his cousin, detailing his father’s alleged sexual abuse, Deadline reported.
At a news conference last week, some of the brothers’ relatives pushed for their release, KABC-TV reported.
“Their actions, while tragic, were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive the unspeakable cruelty of their father,” said, Joan Andersen VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez’s sister. “As their aunt, I had no idea of the extent of the abuse they suffered.
“It’s time to give them the opportunity to live the rest of their lives free from the shadow of their past,” she said.
Their uncle, Milton Andersen, however, wants the brothers to stay behind bars. He believes they were acting on greed and that they were not sexually assaulted, KABC-TV reported.
The brothers had already gained renewed attention recently, due to the Netflix drama “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and documentary “The Menendez Brothers.”
Ole Braatelien has written for The Western Journal since 2022. He earned his bachelor’s from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
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