The family members of Erik and Lyle Menendezthe brothers who they are serving life sentences for killing their parents in Beverly Hills more than 35 years ago, have asked the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office to consider releasing them after the new evidence this appeared in this case.
The brothers They were convicted in 1996 to life in prison for the murder of his parents, José and Kitty Menéndez, in a controversial case in which the young people said they suffered sexual abuse at the hands of their father. A case in which public interest was revived following the Netflix series,’Monsters: the story of Lyle and Erik Menéndez‘.
“I had no idea the extent of the abuse they suffered from my brother-in-law. None of us knew,” Joan Andersen VanderMolen, Kitty’s sister, said brokenly. Menéndez, at a press conference in Los Angeles attended by more than 20 family members.
The woman called the couple’s deaths “tragic” but warned that it is now known that abuse “has lasting effects and that victims of trauma sometimes act in ways that are very difficult to understand.”
Furthermore, he added that at the time of the trial, “the whole world was not prepared to hear that boys could be raped… and today we know more.” For her part, Ana María Baralt, cousin of Erik and Lyle and spokesperson for the family, said that “if the case had been heard today, with the understanding we now have of the abuse and the post-traumatic stress disorder, I have no doubt that The sentence would have been very different.“.
Mark Geragos, the brothers’ attorney, believes the brothers must be releaseds following new evidence presented in the case to the office of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón.
Among the new evidence is “a letter allegedly sent by one of the brothers to another family member, confessing that he had been the victim of abuse”, well before the murder.
Added to this are the statements of a member of the famous Menudo group, who assures that José Menéndez mistreated him during a visit to his home. Earlier this month, Gascón said that while the prosecution maintains that the brothers committed the murders, he plans to re-examine that evidence and decide whether a new conviction is necessary.
After the crime, which occurred on the afternoon of Aug. 20, 1989, in their home in an upscale Beverly Hills neighborhood, using shotguns they had purchased days before the attack, the brothers said the authorities who found the dead bodies from their parents after spending the afternoon away from home.
The case became particularly relevant when the brothers began living a life of luxury and excess after gaining access to their father’s fortune, which aroused the suspicions of the authorities.
Shortly after, Erik’s psychologist’s girlfriend notified the police the existence of recorded sessions in which he admitted and discussed his guilt. Although prosecutors claimed they were seeking to inherit the family fortune, the brothers claimed and still maintain today that their actions were due to a lifetime of physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of their father.
The brothers’ lawyer, Mark Geragos, also pointed out that during their time in prison, the brothers created programs to advise and guide other inmatesand were part of the first class of 22 prisoners to graduate from college while incarcerated.
The family also opened a website for seek public support in the release of the two brothers, of Cuban origin.
