After it was announced last week that Erik and Lyle Menendez might have their case reevaluated, based on the emergence of new evidence, the Los Angeles district attorney on Tuesday clarified that the decision would likely come by the end of the week.
In an unrelated news conference on Tuesday evening, LA District Attorney George Gascon answered a prompt for an update on the brothers’ potential resentencing by saying, “As I said 10 days ago, I would make a decision within 10 days or so. I plan to make the decision by the end of this week.”
He concluded by saying, with some finality: “Yes, the end of this week.”
VIDEO: Menendez brothers’ new evidence ‘strengthens’ case: Legal expert
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The Menendez brothers have served more than 30 years in prison for gunning down their parents, José and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989.
The brothers were sentenced to life in prison at their second trial after the first was declared a mistrial.
They have never denied committing the crime; it is the motivation for the crime that has divided opinions over the decades.
Erik Menendez and his brother Lyle Menendez in Los Angeles during their trial on March 9, 1994.
Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty Images, FILE
Erik was 18 and Lyle was 21 at the time of the murders. At their first trial, their attorney argued that they killed their parents in self-defense.
She argued that the brothers feared their parents would kill them if they disclosed the years of alleged molestation they had suffered at their father’s hands.
The newest legal filing expands upon the abuse that the brothers allegedly endured from José Menedez.
New evidence includes a letter that Erik wrote to his cousin prior to the murders, detailing what his father was doing to him, according to the brothers’ attorneys.
Another potential victim has also come forward: Roy Rosselló, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, who has alleged that he was abused by José Menendez when he was 14.
Additionally, the passage of time has helped to cast their motive in a new light. A growing base of supporters argue that the Menendez brothers are victims themselves, and the crimes they committed out of a traumatic response should be reconsidered with a 21st-century lens on the psychology of male sexual assault.
Currently, the next court date for the Menendez brothers is scheduled for Nov. 26, 2024.
