Menendez Brothers' Family Calls For Resentencing: DA Poised To Decide

Crime & Safety

Menendez Brothers' Family Calls For Resentencing: DA Poised To Decide The family of the Eric and Lyle Menendez and the parents they killed, are asking for their convictions to be overturned or resentenced.

LOS ANGELES, CA — About 20 members of the Menendez family Wednesday gathered outside the Los Angeles courthouse where Lyle and Erik Menendez were sentenced to life in prison nearly 30 years ago for the murdering their parents. Speaking as one, they publicly called for the resentencing or overturning of the brothers' conviction in light of new evidence bolstering the brothers' claims they endured years of sexual abuse by their father before shooting their parents to death inside their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989.

The family members of victims Jose Menendez and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez are set to meet with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office Wednesday afternoon to press the case for resentencing the brothers.

"The world was not ready to believe that young boys could be raped, said Joan Andersen VanderMolen, Kitty" Menendez 's sister. "Today we know better."

"As details of Lyle and Erik's abuse came to light, it became clear that their actions, while tragic, were the desperate actions by two boys attempting to survive their father's abuse," added VanderMolen.

"I can tell you without a doubt they're not the villains they've been portrayed as. They were boys, young, abused by their father," said Brian A. Anderson Jr., nephew of Kitty Menendez. "It breaks my heart to know the system failed them so badly. They tried to protect themselves the only way they knew how. Instead of being portrayed as victims, they were vilified."

Attorneys for the family said they are pursing two separate legal tracks: they filed a writ to have the conviction overturned in light of the abuse evidence, and they are making a case to Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón to have the brothers resentenced.

There is evidence Gascón may be open to their pleas.

"Given the totality of the circumstances, I don't think they deserve to be in prison until they die," Gascón told ABC News Nightline co-anchor Juju Chang in an interview shot on October 10, Deadline reported . The interview is slated to air October 17 in "Menendez Brothers: Monsters or Victims?" streaming on Hulu .

Gascón earlier this month announced his office is reviewing the brothers' conviction in light of new and renewed allegations of sexual abuse by their father.

A response by Gascón's office is due by Nov. 26 to the writ filed by the brother's attorneys last year seeking to have their convictions overturned. The DA earlier this month said he's "keeping an open mind" and was not "leaning in any direction."

The news conference was held at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles, where more than a dozen members of the Menendez family gathered following a flurry of developments this month related to the brothers' 1996 conviction for murdering their parents.

A Netflix documentary released Oct. 7 includes brand-new jailhouse audio interviews with the brothers, who have long held they were victims of sexual abuse from their father, a high-powered record company exceutive. It comes as prosecutors are due to decide whether the brothers' conviction should be overturned or their sentence reconsidered amid evidence surrounding the sexual abuse claims.

Attendees included nine of Kitty Menendez's nieces and nephews, three of her great nephews and nieces, and her sister; along with three of Jose Menendez's nieces and nephews, a family friend, the Menendez brothers' attorneys Mark Geragos and Cliff Gardner.

Jose and Kitty Menendez were gunned down by Lyle, then 21, and Erik, 18, in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. The brothers — now 56 and 53 — never denied carrying out the killings, but maintained they were repeatedly sexually assaulted by their father and feared for their lives.

As part of their bid to have the brothers' conviction overturned, their attorneys pointed to new new pieces of evidence they say corroborate the brothers' allegations: A letter written by Erik Menendez to his cousin eight months before the killing and recent allegations by a former member of the boy band Menudo that he was also sexually abused by Jose Menendez as a teenager.

Gascón said he said there's no question that the brothers killed their parents. But in light of the new evidence, he said his office has an obligation to consider if they brothers should be resentenced — have they paid their dues to society after 35 years in prison? Or, if the case should be reheard — with the idea that if additional evidence had been presented in 1996, the jury may have come to a different conclusion.

In their successful conviction of the brothers, prosecutors had argued Erik and Lyle Menendez were motivated financially to kill their parents, pointing to lavish spending sprees by the brothers after the killings.

Their conviction in a second trial came after two separate juries were unable to reach a verdict. The courtroom drama captivated people worldwide thanks to wall-to-wall coverage on Court TV and other networks. A mistrial was declared just weeks before prosecutors mounted their case against O. J. Simpson.

Public fixation on the Menendez brothers' case has been renewed in recent years, spurred by a wave of TikTok users who made videos calling for the brothers' release from prison. Many criticized the 1990s media frenzy and what they said was prosecutors minimizing or denying the issue of sexual abuse of young boys.

As part of their bid to overturn the brothers' conviction, the Menendez' attorneys cited allegations that surfaced last year in a Peacock documentary series in which Roy Rosselló alleged that Jose Menendez drugged and sexually assaulted him when he was about 14 years old in the 1980s.

Rosselló was a member of Menudo and Jose Menendez was an executive at RCA Records, which signed the Puerto Rican boy band to a recording contract.

In September, Netflix released "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story," a dramatization of the murder case. The series was blasted by Erik Menendez in a statement shared by his wife that criticized creator Ryan Murphy's "horrible and blatant lies."

"How demoralizing to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma," reads the statement.

The world got to hear Erik and his brother's side of things in the documentary "The Menendez Brothers," which dropped earlier this month and became the most-watched Netflix title the week it was released.

Among the new details was Erik Menendez saying his post-murder shopping spree was a response to suicidal ideations. "The idea that I was having a good time is absurd. Everything was to cover up this horrible pain of not wanting to be alive," he said.

Gascón's public response to the Menendez case comes the same month he was pushed into responding to criticism about his response to another highly publicized case.

A woman who has accused musician Marilyn Manson of sexual misconduct teamed up with Nathan Hochman — who is challenging Gascón in the DA's contentious reelection bid — for a news conference earlier this month, where they slammed what they said was Gascón's languid response to the case.