Menendez Brothers’ Netflix Series Spurs Rallying Cry

On prime of the staircase close to the doorway to the downtown Los Angeles courthouse the place Erik and Lyle Menendez have been convicted practically three many years in the past of killing their mother and father in a salvo of shotgun blasts, a lady trumpeted an indication that learn, “35 years time served. Allow them to out!”

Dianne Martin first discovered in regards to the case from Ryan Murphy’s polarizing nine-part collection detailing — and dramatizing — the 1989 killings of José and Kitty Menendez. That piqued her curiosity, which led her to look at a Netflix documentary launched earlier this month on the brothers. She mentioned she prefers the documentary, although she credit the collection for spotlighting the case.

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story “blurs the road,” she defined. “You don’t know what’s true or not. I noticed the documentary, after which I spotted they’d such a troubled life at dwelling.”

Martin was referring to newly uncovered proof corroborating the brothers’ claims that they have been sexually abused as youngsters by their father, José, who was an govt of Hollywood video distribution firm Reside Leisure Inc. And on Wednesday, Erik and Lyle Menendez’s prolonged household held a press convention calling for Los Angeles District Lawyer George Gascón’s assist to overturn their convictions or resentence them.

Mark Geragos, a lawyer for the brothers, pointed to Murphy’s collection in rallying the general public behind the brothers regardless of its portrayal of the intent behind the killings.

“When the Ryan Murphy collection got here out, it was such a caricature of them that the pendulum swing — the backlash — created a deal with it,” he mentioned.

After the discharge of the Netflix dramatization of the 1989 killings of José and Kitty Menendez, the Menendez household cried foul over the depiction. Nonetheless, thousands and thousands of subscribers watched the nine-part collection. Kim Kardashian even visited the California jail the place the brothers are presently serving their sentences. Earlier this month, a two-hour documentary that includes interviews with the duo premiered. The convictions and sentences have turn into a flashpoint of an more and more bygone tradition and prison justice system that silences accusations of sexual abuse.

Latest content material on the Menendez brothers, nevertheless problematic, “helped convey extra consideration to the case,” mentioned Lupe Delos Santos, who attended the press convention. “It modified quite a bit. There’s lots of people supporting them now.”

The timing of the announcement by the household was no coincidence. In October, Gascón mentioned his workplace is reviewing the convictions. The reexamination pertains to new proof within the case that the decide who issued the sentence didn’t account for and will reduce the period of the brothers’ imprisonment. In a social media put up, Gascón shared a picture of a handwritten letter written by Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano corroborating his claims of sexual abuse.

“I’ve been attempting to keep away from dad,” Erik Menendez wrote. “It’s nonetheless occurring Andy, however it’s worse for me now. I by no means know when it’s going to occur and it’s driving me loopy. Each evening I keep up pondering he may are available.”

Final 12 months, legal professionals for the Menendez brothers cited the letter in a petition to overview their sentence. They mentioned it was written in 1988, eight months earlier than the mother and father have been slain.

After a media circus of a trial that led to a deadlocked jury, Lyle and Erik Menendez have been convicted in 1996 on two counts of first-degree homicide. So-called “particular circumstances” for laying in wait for his or her victims served as the premise for a Los Angeles Superior Court docket decide sentencing every brother to 2 consecutive life phrases in jail, although he declined to concern the demise penalty. 

Proof of sexual abuse was severely restricted within the retrial. At their first trial, the brothers acknowledged killing their mother and father however mentioned they did so out of self-defense. They mentioned they feared the couple was going to kill them to stop them from disclosing molestation by the daddy.

“As an alternative of being seen as victims, they have been vilified — their father’s sexual abuse ignored,” mentioned Brian Andersen, the brothers’ cousin.

Anamaria Baralt, José Menendez’s niece, urged the district lawyer’s workplace to “take note of the complete image.”

Geragos additionally cited a declaration from Roy Rossello, a member of the boy band Menudo who has additionally come ahead to accuse José Menendez of sexual abuse when he was a minor. If the proof was introduced at their trial, he cited the chance that the jury would convict for manslaughter reasonably than first diploma homicide.

The alleged oversights by the decide who oversaw the Menendez brothers’ trial has exploded onto TikTok. Jessica Palmadessa, a content material creator who attended the press convention, pressured the impression the Netflix content material has had whereas noting inconsistencies in Murphy’s present. “No person was speaking about this earlier than,” she mentioned. “This wouldn’t have occurred with out the documentary.”

Delos Santoz was much less forgiving. “They didn’t speak in regards to the molestation,” he mentioned. “They introduced them as criminals.”