A decision will be made today on the fate of the Menendez brothers, amid mounting speculation that they could be released from prison.
Erik and Lyle Menendez murdered their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion in August 1989, when they were just 18 and 21.
They have been incarcerated for 34 years, but Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón’s decision whether or not to retaliate could be their ticket to freedom.
Gascón will hold a press conference about the brothers’ fate at 1:30 PM local time – 4:30 PM EST.
If he recommends re-sentencing them, they could walk out of jail free once they take into account the time they have served. They are currently serving life sentences without parole.
The Menendez brothers could soon be released from prison after more than three decades behind bars
Erik, 51, revealed that he found it absurd that the police working on the case did not arrest him and his brother at the scene of the crime
Lyle bought a Porsche Carrera, a Rolex watch and two restaurants in the immediate aftermath
The brothers have enjoyed renewed interest in their cause thanks to two Netflix shows and celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Rosie O’Donnell.
If a jury finds them guilty of voluntary manslaughter instead of murder at a possible retrial, it would trigger their immediate release since they have served more than the maximum sentence.
Gascón recently said his office was investigating evidence that was not allowed in their trial, but insisted he was not committed anyway.
In particular, Gascón said he was looking into last year’s shocking allegations from Roy Rossello, a former member of the band Menudo, who alleged that Jose Menendez molested him as a teenager while working as a music manager in the 1980s.
The allegations opened the door to the Menendez brothers’ appeals over claims that critical evidence of their father’s alleged abuse was not admitted in their 1996 trial.
The Menendez brothers spent seven months on the streets after killing their parents
After killing their parents, they frantically called the police, claiming they came home from the theater to find their parents slaughtered, sparking fears within one of America’s wealthiest communities that a killer was on the run.
Police announced in March 1990 that they would arrest Lyle Menendez, seven months after the crime.
They said he was motivated by greed. The brothers would inherit fourteen million dollars from their parents, and began spending it shortly after their parents’ deaths.
Lyle bought a Porsche Carrera, a Rolex watch and two restaurants, while his brother hired a full-time tennis coach to compete in tournaments.
In total, they spent $700,000 between their parents’ deaths and their arrests in March 1990.
But Erik stressed in the new Netflix documentary that it is “absurd” to suggest he was having a good time in the immediate aftermath of the murders.
Lyle and Erik, now 53 and 56 years old, claimed they acted in self-defense. They said they had been victims of sexual abuse by their father all their lives.
The duo, then just 18 and 21, murdered their parents Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez in their $1 million Beverly Hills home in August 1989.
Chilling crime scene photos show blood-soaked couch where Jose Menendez was shot
More than a dozen family members of Menendez and attorney Mark Geragos held a news conference in Los Angeles this month calling for a revised sentence.
“If they were the Menendez sisters, they wouldn’t be in custody,” Geragos said of the treatment the brothers received during their trial.
The family argued that at the time of the brothers’ trial, the public did not understand the sexual abuse of boys.
Kitty’s sister Joan Andersen VanderMolen said, “As tragic as their actions were, they were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive their father’s unspeakable cruelty.”
“The truth is that Lyle and Erik were abandoned by the very people who should have protected them: their parents, the system and society as a whole.”
The family introduced a coalition called “Justice for Eric and Lyle,” sharing how the brothers lived lives of purpose during their 35 years in prison — even though they didn’t expect to ever be released.
The two men were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1996 after a retrial.
