A decision will be announced today regarding the fate of the Menendez brothers amid mounting speculation they could walk free from prison.
Erik and Lyle Menendez killed their parents inside their Beverly Hills mansion in August 1989, when they were just 18 and 21.
They’ve been incarcerated for 34 years, but Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón’s decision on whether or not to resentence them could be their ticket to freedom.
Gascón will hold a press conference at 1.30pm local time – 4.30pm EST – about the fate of the brothers.
If he recommends resentencing them, they could walk free from prison when accounting for time served. They’re currently serving a life sentence without parole.
The Menendez brothers could soon walk free from prison after more than 30 years behind bars
51-year-old Erik revealed he found it absurd that police working on the case didn’t arrest him and his brother at the scene of the crime
Lyle bought a Porsche Carrera, Rolex watch and two restaurants in the immediate aftermath
The brothers have enjoyed renewed interest in their case on the back of two Netflix shows and celebrity endorsements from the likes of Kim Kardashian and Rosie O’Donnell.
If a jury at any potential re-trial finds them guilty of voluntary manslaughter instead of murder, it would trigger their immediate release as they have served more than the maximum sentence.
Gascón recently said his office was scrutinizing evidence that was not permitted in their trial, but insisted he was not committed either way.
Specifically, Gascón said he was reviewing shocking allegations made last year by Roy Rossello, a former member of the band Menudo, who claimed Jose Menendez molested him as a teenager while he was working as a music executive in the 1980s.
The allegations opened the door for 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 they murdered their parents
After killing their parents, they made a frantic call to police claiming they returned home from the theatre to find their parents had been slaughtered, prompting fears within one of America’s wealthiest communities that a murderer was on the run.
Police announced they were arresting Lyle Menendez in March 1990 – seven months after the crime.
They said he was motivated by greed. The brothers stood to inherit $14million from their parents, and set about spending it shortly after their parents’ deaths.
Lyle bought a Porsche Carrera, Rolex watch and two restaurants, while his brother hired a full-time tennis coach to begin competing in tournaments.
In all, they spent $700,000 between the time of their parents’ deaths and their arrests in March 1990.
But Erik insisted in the new Netflix documentary it is ‘absurd’ to suggest he was having a good time in the immediate aftermath of the murders.
Lyle and Erik, now aged 53 and 56, claimed they acted in self-defense. They said they were lifelong victims of sexual abuse at their hands of their father.
The duo, then just 18 and 21, killed their parents Jose and Mary Louise ‘Kitty’ Menendez inside their million-dollar Beverly Hills home in August 1989
Chilling crime scene photos showing the blood-soaked couch where Jose Menendez was shot
More than a dozen Menendez relatives and defense lawyer Mark Geragos held a press conference in Los Angeles this month asking for a revised sentence.
‘If they were the Menendez sisters they would not be in custody,’ Geragos said of the treatment the brothers received in their trial.
The family argued that at the time of the brothers’ trial, the public did not understand sexual abuse of boys.
Kitty’s sister Joan Andersen VanderMolen said: ‘Their actions, while tragic, were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive the unspeakable cruelty of their father.’
‘The truth is, Lyle and Erik were failed by the very people who should have protected them—their parents, the system, and society at large.’
The family introduced a coalition called ‘Justice for Eric and Lyle’ and spoke of how the brothers have lived a life of purpose in their 35 years in prison – even though they did not expect to ever be freed.
A petition calling for a resentence revealed the brothers have worked as hospice aides in prison helping sick inmates and have run Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
They’ve both also completed college courses, and have reference letters from correctional officers discussing their exemplary behavior behind bars.
The two men were convicted of first-degree murder and were sentenced to life without parole in 1996 after a retrial
