Menendez Brothers: Released After 30 Years?

As speculation mounts about the possibility of Lyle and Erik Menendez being released after 28 years in prison, theories abound about what the brothers could do with their newfound freedom.

Since their conviction in 1996, Lyle, 56, and Erik, 53, have been preparing for life on the outside. The brothers both have multiple college degrees, have been mentors in college programs and have worked as hospice caregivers for elderly inmates.

Earlier this year, Lyle earned a degree in sociology and it is thought he could consider working as a prison reform advocate if he is released, thanks to newly surfaced evidence.

Now, 35 years later since the brothers fatally shot their parents, Jose, 45, and Kitty Menendez, 47, in the family’s Beverly Hills home on August 20, 1989, it seems likely that their case will be re-examined and their convictions may be overturned.

A newly found letter Erik wrote to his cousin Andy Cano shortly before the murders, as well as new testimony from a former boy band member, which was led by businessman Jose, could corroborate Lyle and Erik’s claim of sexual and emotional abuse by their father .

NEW EVIDENCE DISCOVERED

Musician Roy Rossello claimed last year that he was drugged and raped by Jose at the Menendez family home in New Jersey in 1986 when he was 14 years old.

Last week, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said at a news conference that he is open to prosecutors considering the new evidence.

“There is no doubt that (the brothers) committed the crimes,” the prosecutor said. “The question is: to what degree of culpability should they be held responsible, given the totality of the circumstances?”

For the first 22 years of their life sentences, Lyle and Erik were held in separate prisons until they were finally reunited in 2018 at the low-security Richard J Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California.

Despite being in prison, both brothers are married. Erik married pet groomer Tammi Saccoman in June 1999, while Lyle tied the knot with his second wife, journalist Rebecca Sneed, in November 2003, after splitting from his first wife of five years, Anna Eriksson, in 2001.

While incarcerated, Erik has embraced religion, while Lyle has served on prisoner councils. Both have also provided support and guidance to prisoners who are victims of sexual abuse.

Their post-conviction attorney, Mark Geragos, says he hopes the brothers will be released by the end of the year and believes their future could include helping other inmates in some way.

He explains that the broader Menendez family also believes the brothers should be released.

“The most important thing is that 24 family members have signed a letter asking the prosecutor to take revenge and let them come home,” he says, adding: “These are two people I dare say you never have to worry. about recidivism.”

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

The brothers were sentenced to life without parole in July 1996 after the judge limited the defense’s ability to call the brothers “abused children.”

The public perception was that Lyle and Erik were “spoiled trust fund kids” who murdered their “overbearing” parents to inherit a $14 million fortune.

After the death of their parents, they spent $700,000 on luxury goods, businesses and sports cars. Recently they explained that this was their way of coping.

“Everything was meant to cover up this terrible pain of no longer being alive,” said Erik, who explained this in the recently released Netflix documentary The Menendez brothers.

“One of the things that kept me from committing suicide was that at the time I felt like I would be a complete failure to my father,” he says.

KIM FIGHTS FOR THEIR FREEDOM

Reality star and prison reform advocate Kim Kardashian, 43, is also calling on the district attorney to re-examine the case.

In a post for NBC News last week, she wrote a lengthy essay explaining her views, arguing that airing the first trial in 1993 meant Lyle and Erik could not get a fair trial.

“The media turned the brothers into monsters,” she wrote.

“There was no room for empathy, let alone sympathy.”

Kim recently visited the brothers in prison and wrote that they were “kind, intelligent and honest men.”

“The murders are inexcusable (but) the trial and punishment these brothers received was more befitting a serial killer than two individuals who suffered years of sexual abuse at the hands of the very people they loved and trusted.”

REALITY VERSUS HOLLYWOOD

In addition to the new documentary about the brothers, Netflix is ​​also streaming the drama series Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez. Here’s what the show got right and wrong about the Menendez brothers.

FACT: In it, Erik confesses that he killed Jose and Kitty to their therapist Dr. Jerome Oziel. Recordings were made by Dr. Oziel and led to investigators arresting the brothers.

FICTION: After killing Jose and Kitty, the Monsters version of Lyle and Erik go to the movies to create an alibi. However, the real Lyle and Erik never left home after killing their parents.

“We had no alibi,” Erik told ABC News in 1996. “All we did was say we were in the cinema.”

FACT: In a tense scene in the series, Jose rips a toupee off Lyle’s head, revealing that he has gone bald. It is speculated that Lyle lost his hair in 1988 due to intense fear of being abused by his father.

That same year, he ordered a human hair wig that cost $1,450. After the trials, he stopped wearing it.

FICTION: The series causes controversy among viewers and shows Lyle and Erik having an incestuous relationship. There is no evidence that the brothers were intimate with each other.

Creator Ryan Murphy says this rumor comes from journalist Dominick Dunne, but Vanity fairfor whom he wrote denies this.

FACT: In Monsters, the brothers’ lawyer, Leslie Abramson, plays hangman’s game with Erik as the prosecutor makes their closing statements.

In reality, Leslie played the role of executioner in court with her clients, explaining that she often chose the words used in the game to describe the persecution.

FICTION: In the final episode of the series, OJ Simpson is placed in the cell next to Erik’s and Erik suggests that OJ take a plea deal.

This was largely true in real life, but it was Lyle who developed a friendship with OJ – who was already a family friend – while he was on trial for the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.