They killed their parents, but the Menendez brothers could now be freed

Lyle and Erik Menendez, better known as the Menendez brothers, are fighting to have their murder case retried based on newly uncovered evidence of their father’s prolonged sexual abuse.

The two brothers are serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in 1989 and have long claimed they killed them out of fear for their lives. 

During their first explosive trial, the Menendez brothers gave gut-wrenching testimony about the sickening sexual violence they suffered for years at the hands of Jose Menendez, while their mother sat back and let it happen. Both Erik and Lyle admitted to shooting dead their parents with 12 gauge shotguns.

Two juries deadlocked back in 1993 on whether to convict the pair of premeditated murder or manslaughter (which carries a far lesser sentence) based on the brother’s defense that they believed their father would kill them.

However, at their second trial in 1995, the judge refused to admit witnesses and evidence relating to Jose’s sexual abuse. 

Earlier this month their attorneys filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court, arguing that the brothers deserve a new trial based on a recently unearthed contemporaneous letter penned by Erik about his father’s abuse, as well as new rape allegations made against Jose Menendez by a former member of the band Menudo. 

The Menendez brother’s believe that had the jury been presented with those pieces of evidence, they may have returned with a different verdict. Moreover, a modern jury may even be more sympathetic to Erik and Lyle a third time around and see them as victims as well as perpetrators.