Practically two weeks after Kim Kardashian‘s advocacy work round jail reform led her to a gathering with imprisoned Erik and Lyle Menendez, the truth TV star and enterprise mogul is talking in hopes that the brother’s life sentences might be “reconsidered.”
“I’ve frolicked with Lyle and Erik; they don’t seem to be monsters. They’re sort, clever, and trustworthy males. In jail, they each have exemplary disciplinary data. They’ve earned a number of faculty levels, labored as caregivers for aged incarcerated people in hospice, and been mentors in faculty applications — dedicated to giving again to others,” Kardashian writes in an unique essay posted by NBC Information. “After I visited the jail three weeks in the past, one of many wardens advised me he would really feel snug having them as neighbors. Twenty-four members of the family, together with their mother and father’ siblings, have launched statements absolutely supporting Lyle and Erik and have respectfully requested that the justice system free them.”
The publication of Kardashian’s column comes sizzling on the heels of a report that prosecutors in Los Angeles are reviewing new proof within the case after attorneys for the Menendez brothers requested a courtroom to vacate their conviction. Erik, now 53, and Lyle, 56, had been convicted of killing their mother and father, Jose and Kitty Menendez, at their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989, and later sentenced to life.
It additionally comes because the case has discovered its manner again to the forefront of popular culture dialog due to Ryan Murphy and Netflix, which is now streaming the tremendous producer’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. Kardashian’s phrase selection appears intentional giving the title, although it needs to be famous that she’s near the inventive crew after having starred in Murphy’s current American Horror Story: Delicate. Kardashian additionally invited Monsters star Cooper Koch, who performs Erik, to accompany her to Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County.
“You suppose the story of Lyle and Erik Menendez. I actually thought I did: In 1989, the brothers, aged 21 and 18, respectively, viciously shot and killed their mother and father of their Beverly Hills residence. In 1996, after two trials, they had been sentenced to life in jail with out the opportunity of parole. As is usually the case, this story is way more advanced than it seems on the floor. Each brothers mentioned they’d been sexually, bodily and emotionally abused for years by their mother and father,” writes Kardashian, who then goes on to element what occurred within the ensuing felony trial.
She additionally makes be aware that the district lawyer’s workplace liable for the Menendez case additionally dealt with the O.J. Simpson case when he was charged with the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Kardashian’s lawyer father, Robert Kardashian, served on O.J. Simpson’s profitable protection crew. Kardashian then goes on to put in writing that the Menendez case “grew to become leisure for the nation” with their tales of abuse inspiring skits on Saturday Evening Dwell.
“The media turned the brothers into monsters and sensationalized eye sweet — two conceited, wealthy youngsters from Beverly Hills who killed their mother and father out of greed. There was no room for empathy, not to mention sympathy,” she writes. “There have been just about no techniques in place to assist survivors, and public consciousness of the trauma of male sexual abuse was minimal, typically clouded by preconceived judgments and homophobia. Can anybody truthfully deny that the justice system would have handled the Menendez sisters extra leniently?”
In closing, Kardashian reveals that her hope is that their life sentences might be “reconsidered” for the sake of these little boys who “misplaced their childhoods, who by no means had an opportunity to be heard, helped or saved.”
“The killings aren’t excusable. I wish to make that clear. Neither is their habits earlier than, throughout or after the crime,” she concludes. “However we must always not deny who they’re immediately of their 50s. The trial and punishment these brothers obtained had been extra befitting a serial killer than two people who endured years of sexual abuse by the very folks they liked and trusted. I don’t consider that spending their total pure lives incarcerated was the fitting punishment for this advanced case. Had this crime been dedicated and trialed immediately, I consider the end result would have been dramatically totally different.”