Erik and Lyle Menendez, convicted nearly three decades ago of murdering their parents, should be resentenced, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón said Thursday, a key step toward securing the brothers’ freedom.
“After a very careful review of all the arguments that were made from people on both sides of this equation, I came to a place where I believe that under the law resentencing is appropriate,” Gascón announced at a press conference in Los Angeles.
Gascón will recommend to the court on Friday that the sentence of life without parole be removed and that they receive a sentence of life with parole, he said. Based on the age of the brothers at the time of the crime—both were under 26 years old—they could become immediately eligible for parole.
A reduction from murder to manslaughter wouldn’t be appropriate because the killings were pre-meditated and “clearly murders,” Gascón said. The brothers’ ages when they were convicted and their work advocating for other inmates in prison were part of the decision to request resentencing, he said.
Evidence of sexual abuse of the boys by their father led Gascón to make the recommendation, which a judge must still decide to adopt. That evidence included a letter sent by Erik to a friend detailing fear of future abuse as well as a sworn declaration by Roy Rosselló, a member of the band Menudo, saying the Menendez’s father assaulted Rosselló when he was 13.
Counsel for the brothers urged prosecutors to review the new evidence in 2023. Gascón said early in October that his office was looking into new evidence in the brothers’ case.
Gascón is up for re-election in November. His announcement followed the release of a high-profile Netflix series and documentary that prompted public outrage over their sentences.
The second look at their convictions illustrates the degree to which changing social attitudes are influencing the work of district attorneys’ offices. The debate over whether to resentence the brothers divided the office, Gascón said.
“It’s important to have some introspection today,” Gascón said. “I think that often for cultural reasons we don’t believe victims of sexual assault. Whether they’re women or whether they’re men.”
The brothers had two trials in the 1990s. The first, which resulted in a hung jury, incorporated evidence that Jose Menendez sexually abused the brothers. The second excluded much of that evidence and led to a murder conviction.
Gascón said in an early October news conference that 300 people have been resentenced during his administration, and of those, four have reoffended.
His office is concurrently asking a judge to re-open the case of a man who Gascón says was pressured as a 15-year-old into a false murder confession, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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