Los Angeles County. Atti. Nathan Hochman is expected to provide updates on Friday afternoon about Erik and Lyle Menendez, two brothers attempted to be released from prison for killing parents serve their sentences.
The killings were carried out in the 1989 house of the family Beverly Hills, and the subsequent highly publicized trial sparked documentaries, movies and more recently TV series that attracted public interest decades later. Last year’s revelation also prompted new considerations for crimes and requests for their release.
The brothers’ life sentences appear to be being reconsidered last year, and then after the hit at that time. Atti. George Gascón says he Support their leniency . Gascon Ask the judge to revoke the brothers’ previous judgment There is no possibility of parole, but it is sentenced to 50 years. The move may qualify them as young criminals, as they are younger than 26 when they kill their parents.
Gascon said at the time that he believed the brothers had “repaid social debt.” But after defeating Gascon in November’s general election, Hawkman said he Intent to review the decision.
The hearing is scheduled for March 20.
Hochman’s latest news about the case comes the day after Erik and Lyle Menendez talked to TMZ about their time in prison, they said This includes attacks and bullying during their early periods of backwardness.
In the “2 Angry Men” podcast with Harvey Levin and Mark Geragos, the young man in Menandes brother Erik discusses the “bullying and trauma” he has endured over the years.
“Prison is hard for me,” he said. “I face a lot of bullying and trauma – it’s a dangerous environment.”
Sources told The Times that Governor Gavin Newsom’s office communicated with the brothers’ legal representatives after describing their prison experience.
Their thirty years of imprisonment may be under scrutiny, part of their call for freedom. Hawkman had previously said that before a decision was made, he would need to review not only the criminal case, but also the prison archives of the Menendes brothers, their time, and question whether the two were fixed.
Prisoners, lawyers and rehabilitation workers have told The New York Times that both have been deeply rooted in Participate in rehabilitation programsincluding launching its own programs to promote inmate rehabilitation in California prisons.
Their brother portraits are very different than what they portrayed in the experiment.
In 1989, Erik and Lyle Menendez bought a pair of shotguns with cash, walked into their Beverly Hills home and watched in the family living room. The parents were opened during the movie. Jose Menendez was hit five times, including the back of the head, Kitty Menendez climbed to the floor and injured, and the brothers reloaded And drove the last fatal explosion.
Police initially speculated that the killing was based on the horrible scenes of the mafia hit. But the brothers were eventually charged with murder after Erik, then 18, killed at his therapist in March 1990.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that the brothers’ motivation for killing their parents was rooted in greed, centered on their connections to their parents’ multi-million dollar estate. The brothers’ defense lawyers countered that years of violent sexual abuse by their father proved that killing was a form of self-defense before the shooting.
The first trial ended with a jury for each brother. In the second, allegations of abuse and support for testimony are limited, Lyle and Erik Menendez convicted of first-degree murder March 1996.
Since then, the two have made years of appeals without success, but it seems to have reached a turning point last year. Attorneys and advocates in May called on the court to revisit the case in a new sexual assault allegation, saying they confirmed the history of abuse against the brothers.
A letter recently discovered, attorney said, written by Erik Menendez, suggested that his father’s sexual abuse lasted until his teenage years. New allegations filed by former members of Puerto Rican boy band Menudo show that Lyle and Erik Menendez are not the only victims.
Roy Rossellóhe filed the allegations in the Peacock documentary “Menendez + Menudo: The boy betrayed.
one Petition on behalf of brothers Last year, the Los Angeles County Superior Court argued that the new evidence directly questioned the arguments raised by prosecutors during the trial, paving the way for reconsideration of their case.
Earlier this month, two Los Angeles County prosecutors recommended brothers to be liberated from prison – Brock Lunsford and Nancy Theberge, who oversee the District Attorney’s Hate Division ) They are allegedly punished by Hawkman and slandered online by one of his political allies.
The brothers’ relatives support the brothers’ news report, saying that Hodgman may be injecting politics into the case this month, suggesting that Lunsford and Theberge proved it. Nearly twenty family members met with Hochman to support Erik and Lyle.
“Their commitment to facts and law is a source of hope for us, reaffirming our belief in the ability to develop the judicial system,” the family said of the prosecutor. “However, bringing these dedicated prosecutors out of the case,” the family said. The decision to delete fully emphasizes what we are concerned about, and political influence may have masked justice.”
Staff worker James Queally contributed to the report.
