Los Angeles District Lawyer George Gascón has moved up his timeline on making a call in regards to the destiny of the Menendez brothers.
Gascón beforehand introduced in October that his workplace was reviewing the 2023 habeas corpus petition filed by Erik and Lyle Menendez, which comprises new proof and asks for a resentencing of the brothers who’re presently serving life in jail with out parole for the 1989 murders of their mother and father, José and Kitty Menendez. He had beforehand set a listening to date for Nov. 29.
However talking to CNN on Tuesday, Gascón, who’s presently up for re-election, stated he’ll decide on the brothers’ resentencing by the tip of this week, citing the rising public push to launch the brothers as his reasoning.
A press convention has now been set for Thursday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. in downtown Los Angeles.
“I plan to have a call by the tip of this week,” he had informed Jake Tapper, “which is what I promised after we began getting a variety of inquiries. We had been this case for over a yr, by the way in which. We had a courtroom time late November on the habeas, however given the general public consideration to this case, I’ve tried to provide you with a call sooner than that and I’ll.”
That announcement adopted the lately renewed curiosity within the decades-old case, thanks largely to the TikTok motion of help round Erik and Lyle and the hit Netflix drama collection from Ryan Murphy, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, in addition to the following Netflix documentary that interviewed the brothers collectively for the primary time in many years following their 1996 first-degree homicide conviction. Monsters rapidly topped Netflix’s international TV charts and has amassed hundreds of thousands of viewers since its late-September launch.
The habeas consideration might be the Menendez brothers’ final alternative, as they’re out of appeals. Gascón stated his workplace is break up on the end result. “There are literally two totally different camps in my workplace,” he informed Tapper. “I’ve a bunch of individuals, together with some who have been concerned within the authentic trial, which are adamant that they need to spend the remainder of their life in jail and that they weren’t molested. I’ve different individuals in my workplace that consider, truly, that they most likely have been molested and that they need to have some aid.”
The newly uncovered proof that led to the habeas petition contains a recovered letter written by a then-17-year-old Erik to his cousin Andres “Andy Cano” in 1988, eight months earlier than the murders and by no means introduced up within the mid-Nineties trials, that corroborates the brothers’ self-defense claims of ongoing abuse from their father; in addition to an abuse declare in opposition to José from new witness Roy Rosselló, a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo that was managed by José and his RCA Information. Rosselló got here ahead with the allegation within the April 2023 Peacock docuseries, Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed. Gascón has beforehand shared a picture of the handwritten letter on his social media, however has since eliminated the submit.
“This can be a trial that occurred twice. Initially, the jury couldn’t make a decision, so it hung,” Gascón defined to Tapper. “Then within the second trial, there was a variety of proof that was offered within the first trial that was not offered within the second trial, they usually have been discovered responsible. There’s no query that they murdered their mother and father.”
So Gascón stated what’s underneath evaluation is the proof that was by no means offered that might have modified the end result, in addition to contemplating, underneath California legislation, if the brothers are rehabilitated prisoners who’re protected to reenter the neighborhood.
“Both a type of autos must be evaluated by a courtroom and authorised by a courtroom, and I’m each,” he stated, including that he thinks “implicit bias” round male rape additionally performed a task on the time of the trials and “could have had an influence in the way in which the case was offered to the jury.”
Final week, Erik and Lyle’s prolonged household held a press convention calling for Gascón’s assist to reexamine the case. The brothers’ legal professional, Mark Geragos, pointed to Murphy’s nine-part collection for rallying the general public behind the brothers. “When the Ryan Murphy collection got here out, it was such a caricature of them that the pendulum swing — the backlash — created a give attention to it,” he stated.
This story initially posted Oct. 23 at 7:52 a.m.