Prosecutors who tried Eric and Lyle Menendez say the killer brothers should remain locked up as their possible release from prison approaches, nearly 30 years after killing their wealthy parents. I think so.
Former Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Pamela Bozanich, who prosecuted the murderous brothers in their first trial, said new evidence that the brothers were routinely sexually abused by their father as children justified their release. I don't think so.
“They killed my parents,” Bozanic said, questioning the abuse allegations. he told Dateline.
“They brutally murdered our mother. Why should they live among us?”
Last month, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced that his office would recommend that two brothers, now in their 50s, be eligible for parole after spending more than 30 years in prison for shooting their parents to death in 1989. It was announced that there was.
He declared that the highly publicized parricide perpetrators had paid their debt to society and were no longer a threat to society.
If the judge agrees with Gascón's recommendation next month, the brothers will be immediately eligible for parole under California's Youth Offenders Act if resentenced.
“Are they trying to shoot faster on the court?” said Juan Mejia, a young deputy district attorney during the brothers' second murder trial, according to NBC.
Mejia was adamantly opposed to his brother's release, questioning the validity of the new evidence and explaining how his brother had a history of lying.
The two brothers killed their parents, Jose and Kitty, with shotguns in August 1989 as they watched television in their Beverly Hills mansion.
Eric and Lyle, then 21 and 18 years old respectively, became celebrities in 1996 when they were sentenced to life in prison without parole for the brutal murder.
The brothers' lawyers argued at trial that they acted in self-defense after years of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of their father, and there was also testimony from other family members to corroborate the accusations. Prosecutors claimed they were after their parents' $15 million fortune.
The trial ended in a hung jury in 1994.
A second trial in 1995 convicted both brothers on two counts of first-degree murder after the judge ruled that the jury could not hear much of the testimony regarding the sexual abuse allegations. It ended.
The case has largely been out of the spotlight as both brothers served time in prison, but Netflix's new series Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez has brought renewed interest to the brothers and the murders.
