Brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez fatally shot their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, on Aug. 20, 1989. The following year, their arrest sparked a trial that captivated the nation.
Public interest, coupled with new evidence of a letter Erik wrote to his cousin alluding to sexual abuse from his father months before the murders unfolded, prompted the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office to open up a new investigation into the Menendez case.
Interest has only heightened since their 1996 life sentence convictions – even more so because of the release of “The Menendez Brother” documentary with audio from Erik and Lyle and the recent criticism of Producer Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series “Monsters,” which attempted to retell the brothers’ story.
While incarcerated for over three decades, the Menendez brothers have obtained college degrees, got married, and counseled other inmates who have experienced sexual abuse.
This has led many people to believe that at their core, they are good people.
Earlier today, close to a dozen of their family members held a press conference outside Los Angeles County Superior Court in downtown L.A., calling for the release of Erik and Lyle.
Anna Maria Baralt, niece of Jose Menendez, touched on the shift in the societal conversation surrounding abuse.
“If Lyle and Eric’s case were heard today with the understanding we now have about abuse and PTSD, there is no doubt in my mind that their sentencing would have been very different,” Baralt said.
Annenberg Media’s Jake Petroff spoke to news conference attendees about what compelled them to come to the courthouse.
“What I see in this case is these guys have really done their time. They’ve openly admitted that, yes, they did the crime, and we are all very aware of that. And coming from a background of being a victim myself, we didn’t talk about this in the 80s. We didn’t talk about this in the nineties. We didn’t. It was everything was very shameful, put under the rug, and even our own family members wouldn’t believe us. But it’s not just that they’ve done the crime. They’ve done the time. It’s called a correctional facility for a reason.”
That was Shannon Fox, a woman who calls herself a “crime sleuth” and has been intently following this case since 1989 from the perspective of an abuse victim. She drove over an hour to pledge her support for Erik and Lyle today.
Todd Willever, a New Jersey native who happened to be in town, decided to check it out.
“I remember back in New Jersey. It was local news. It was a hot topic at that time, New Jersey, you know, kids that grew up in New Jersey and what they did? So it was on the news, and I, I was following it, and we watched Netflix series, and just watching everything that they went through that we figured, we come down here and see what was going on with this, with the rally,” Willever said.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon issued a statement hours after the family’s press conference, saying that a decision on the case should be coming in the next 10 days.