As Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon announced Thursday that his office is reviewing the case of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were convicted of murdering their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion, the brothers’ defense attorney said he is “hopeful” that he could get them released by the end of the year.
A resentencing hearing is set for Nov. 29.
Here’s what attorney Mark Geragos said while speaking with NBC Los Angeles’ Colleen Williams.
Is there new evidence?
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There is.
We filed both pieces of evidence, one which was a letter that predates the killings, from Eric to his cousin Andy, who tragically died over 20 years ago.
In that letter, he describes the abuse by his father and how it was weighing on him as you can imagine.
The second piece of evidence is a declaration by one of the members of the band Menudo, who came forward bravely decades after it happened, signed a declaration saying, unbelievably as it may seem, that he too was molested and at the home, which was one of the points that was raised, at least in the first trial, that Jose Menendez felt so comfortable or so safe in the home where he had molested his own kids that he thought he could bring in a third party.
Was the evidence not admissible before?
Neither of those items of evidence were available during the trials.
They've been in custody for 35 years. Their case has languished. Basically, they had no appellate rights for the last almost 20 years after they exhausted all appeals.
These were found almost by happenstance somewhere in the neighborhood less than 10 years ago, and the declaration was brought forward within the last two years.
Did new TV shows on the brothers play a role?
There's been about four treatments or re-examinations of this case in the last couple of years.
The Netflix documentary has been playing for the last week. There's another one that drops next week. There was a previous one that had played out months ago back in February.
We filed this writ back in May. The DA has been taking this seriously all alone. We've done a number of things in terms of turning over evidence to them.
We've now presented the idea of, alternatively, from setting the conviction aside to just have them re-sentence.
We've done conditional examinations.
And I think most importantly, 24 of the family members have signed a letter asking the DA to re-sentence them and let them come home.
What could happen now?
A re-sentencing is something that certainly is what the DA talked about Thursday and what we have sent over in terms of a petition for resentencing supported by the family.
That is one option where the sentence would be technically recalled. They'd be re-sentenced by a judge. And presumably, they would get time served.
The other option is to set aside the conviction. That's what the habeas is. If you set aside the conviction, they can get a new trial.
But that doesn't seem to make a lot of economic sense in a challenging economy in California when you're cutting back on the court expenditures.
How are Lyle and Erik?
They're both now housed together at Donovan State Prison. I've been down there.
They're doing an amazing job of a project called the Green Space Project, which is a Norwegian model about trying to reduce recidivism.
Lyle is engineering or is vital to putting the project together.
Erik is a very talented artist who is decorating the space itself
In order to give people the idea that eventually 90% of these people who are incarcerated are going to be let back into the community, the idea is to get them the opportunity to learn the skills to re-assimilate.
What is the timetable?
I'd like to get them home before the end of the year.
The DA has indicated that all times in the last year and a half when I've worked with this office, they have been very serious and diligent in following up on things.
Either one, I just want to get them home under any terms and conditions. These are two people that I would venture to say you're never going to have to worry about re-offending.
