**Trigger Warning: This article discusses sexual abuse **
A court hearing for Erik and Lyle Menendez has been set for November 29, where newly discovered evidence will be brought before the district attorney’s office following a petition by the Menendez brothers.
The hearing comes more than 28 years after the Menendez brothers were convicted of murdering their parents, amid renewed focus following the success of Ryan Murphy’s series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menenzes Story on Netflix.
In a press conference on Thursday, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón announced that new evidence had been discovered, making note of the brothers’ allegations of molestation at the hands of their father, José Menendez.
“We have been given evidence. We have been given a photocopy of a letter that allegedly was sent by one of the brothers to another family member talking about him being the victim of molestation,” Gascón said. “We’ve also got evidence that was provided by the defense, by his lawyers, that one of the members of the Menudo band alleged that he was molested by the father.”
Could The Menendez Brothers Get Released?
The new hearing will determine whether or not the evidence submitted is significant enough to retrial the Menendez brothers, however, Gascón was quick to point out that no decision to that effect has been made.
“None of this information has been confirmed,” he said. “We are not at this point ready to say that we either believe or do not believe that information, but we’re here to tell you is that we have a moral and an ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us and make a determination based on a resentencing side, whether they deserve to be resentenced — even though they were clearly the murderers — because they have been in prison for years and they have paid back their dues to society.”
He continued: “If there was evidence that was not presented to the court at that time, and had that evidence been presented, perhaps a jury would have come to a different conclusion.”
The brothers have already spent nearly 35 years in prison for the murder of their parents, José and Kitty Menendez.
Is There An Appeal For Lyle And Erik?
While the brothers were originally trialled separately, resulting in mistrials, the pair were then tried together which lead to their conviction. At the time, Lyle and Erik were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
A petition to review the case in 1998 and 1999 was declined after both the California Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of California upheld Erik and Lyle’s convictions.
The brothers maintain to this day that they were the victims of a lifetime of alleged sexual abuse at the hands of their father – claims which were not permitted to be presented as evidence during their trial.
In May 2023, Erik and Lyle’s legal team requested a new hearing, following evidence of their father’s alleged molestation of singer Roy Rosselló of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo.
As the dramatised Netflix series gained traction, the streamer went on to release The Menendez Brothers documentary in quick succession. Both stories have garnered a huge swell in discourse around the brothers, with advocates accusing prosecutors of attempting to deny Erik and Lyle’s claims of sexual abuse based on gender.
Gascón responded to these concerns in his statement, where he said unequivocally that “both men and women can be the victims of sexual assault.”
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