A fresh legal attempt for Lyle and Erik Menendez, who have spent 35 years incarcerated for the shotgun slaying of their parents, has been denied by the Los Angeles County District Attorney.
Nonetheless, Nathan Hochman mentioned that a resolution had not yet been reached on a motion for resentencing which could potentially lead to their liberation.
The siblings were convicted in the 1989 killings of their entertainment executive father, Jose, and their mother, Kitty Menendez, and received life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Their recent plea for freedom centers on newly uncovered evidence regarding their father’s sexual abuse.
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However, Mr. Hochman expressed skepticism regarding the evidence, asserting that it was not relevant to the case.
“While the sexual abuse in this context may have motivated Erik and Lyle’s actions, it does not amount to a self-defense claim.”
He further indicated that the brothers’ own accounts of sexual abuse should be viewed with caution, as they presented five varying justifications for the murder.
Lyle, left, and Erik Menendez at court in 1990. Pic: AP
The Menendez family denounced the decision as “abhorrent,” arguing that it “discredited the trauma” endured by the brothers.
“Abuse does not occur in isolation. It inflicts enduring damage, rewires cognitive functions, and ensnares victims in cycles of fear and trauma,” they stated in a press release.
“To assert that it played no part in Erik and Lyle’s actions neglects decades of psychological scholarship and fundamental human empathy.”
The family posits that new evidence should be unnecessary, claiming that the judicial system failed the brothers in the past and “continues to fail them at present.”
Lyle and Erik Menendez confessed to taking the lives of their parents with a shotgun, asserting they feared for their lives as details of their father’s prolonged sexual misconduct against Erik were about to surface.
At the time, prosecutors stated there was no substantiation of abuse, and several aspects of the brothers’ account of sexual exploitation were excluded during the trial that culminated in their 1996 conviction.
Prosecutors alleged that the brothers murdered their parents for financial gain.
The anticipated resentencing for the siblings is still slated for discussion at a hearing in March, which would render them immediately eligible for parole.
The Menendez case regained attention following the release of *Monsters*, a Netflix dramatization recounting their story, alongside a documentary that was recently aired.
