What to Know
- Family members of Lyle and Erik Menendez gathered Wednesday at a news conference in downtown Los Angeles.
- The gathering of roughly two dozen family members comes as LA County's top prosecutor reviews new evidence in the case that led to their convictions and life prison sentences.
- The review hinges on a letter that Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin that his attorneys say corroborates claims of sexual abuse by his father just nine months before their parents were killed.
Family members of Lyle and Erik Menendez added their voices Wednesday to a new push for the brothers' release after more than three decades in prison for the killings of their parents.
About two dozen Menendez family members gathered in front of a downtown Los Angeles court building with attorney Mark Geragos to make emotional pleas. The brothers have been serving a life prison sentence for the murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, inside their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989.
They have claimed they were sexually abused by their father and feared for their lives.
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Attorney Mark Geragos said the afternoon news conference represented a display of unity as Los Angeles County's top prosecutor is conducting a review of new evidence in the case, the subject of the recent Netflix true-crime drama "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story."
He said relatives flew to Los Angeles from across the country.
"Over time, it became clear there were two other victims on that day, my cousins Lyle and Erik," said Anamaria Baralt, Jose Menendez's niece. "They became victims of a culture that was not ready to listen."
Family members expected to speak included Baralt; Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sister of the brothers' mother Kitty Menendez; Brian A. Andersen Jr., nephew of Kitty Menendez; and the brothers' attorneys. Comedian and TV personality Rosie O'Donnell, a vocal advocate for the Menendez brothers, also is expected to speak.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón has not announced a timeline for a decision on his office's review. Geragos said. Gascón, who is running for re-election in the Nov. 5 election, announced Oct. 3 that the review was launched after attorneys for 53-year-old Erik Menendez and 56-year-old Lyle Menendez asked a court to vacate their convictions.
"The DA has said that he's taken it seriously. He hasn't made a decision, yet," Geragos said Monday night. "I take his at his word because he's been honest with us all the way along.
"They're cautiously optimistic."
Geragos said the legal path forward for the brothers has two tracks. Attorneys have filed for the conviction to be overturned and, at the same time, are asking for a review and possible re-sentencing, he said.
The review hinges on a letter that Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin that his attorneys said corroborates claims of sexual abuse by his father just nine months before their parents were killed. The brothers have said they killed their parents out of self-defense. Their attorneys have argued that the brothers may not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole if the trial was held today.
The brother's attorneys said family members believed the brothers should have faced a lesser charge of manslaughter instead of murder during the trial that led to their convictions at ages 21 and 18.
"They were children who could've been protected and were instead brutalized," said Joan Andersen VanderMolenm, sister of Kitty Menendez. "In the years since their conviction… society's understanding of sexual abuse has grown significantly.
"In their case, if it were tried today, the evidence of their father's abuse would not only be admitted in court, but it would provide essential context for why they acted as they did."
Prosecutors at the time argued there was no evidence of molestation. They said the brothers killed their parents for their multimillion-dollar estate.
Jurors rejected a death sentence in favor of life without parole.
Geragos said the family members planned to meet Wednesday afternoon with the district attorney's office.
The case gained new attention after Netflix streamed the true-crime drama "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story." In a statement on X posted by his wife, Erik Menendez called the show a "dishonest portrayal" of what happened that has taken them back to a time when prosecutors "built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experience rape trauma differently from women."
Gascón has said he believes that the topic of sexual assault would have been treated with more sensitivity if the case had happened today.
“We have not decided on an outcome. We are reviewing information,” Gascón said in early October.
A hearing was scheduled for Nov. 29.
