Menendez brothers lawyer reveals why killers are ‘optimistic’ they could be released from prison as Netflix show puts them back in the spotlight
The Menendez brothers, convicted of murdering their parents in 1989, may be closer to release thanks to a renewed legal push and increased public interest fueled Netflix‘s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
Lyle and Erik Menendez, then 21 and 18, fatally shot their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home while they were watching television.
The brothers claimed their actions were a result of years of sexual abuse by their father, who was a top Hollywood executive. However, authorities said that greed was the true motive, citing a lavish spending spree that followed the murders.
Despite their 1996 conviction and sentences of life in prison without parole, the brothers have continued to fight for a new trial.
Their attorneys, who are ‘cautiously optimistic’ about the brothers’ release, filed a petition in May 2023 citing new evidence, including sexual abuse allegations against their father by Roy Rossello, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, who claimed Jose raped him in the 1980s.
Lyle and Erik Menendez fatally shot their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home while they were watching television.
Pictured: Jose Menendez, father of Lyle and Erik Menendez, in 1988. He and his wife, Kitty Menendez, were found murdered in their Beverly Hills, Calif., mansion in August 1989
Their team also cited a letter Erik wrote to his cousin, Andy Cano, describing the abuse months prior to their parents’ deaths.
‘Nobody had looked at [the cousin’s personal] effects until 2015, and that’s when it was found, 10 years after our last appeal,’ Menendez brothers’ post-conviction attorney Mark Geragos told People.
He argued that the borthers’ second trial violated constitutional protections and that the new evidence, including the Menudo accuser and Erik’s letter, requires a retrial.
He also said that the judge had three options: deny the petition, order the prosecution to respond, or issue an informal response. The judge chose the latter, and the prosecution has been taking it seriously for the past 15 months.
Geragos stated that the brothers’ defense team has conducted a conditional examination of Kitty’s oldest sister and obtained statements from 24 family members who have requested a resentencing.
They have also submitted additional documents and evidence for the court’s consideration.
Geragos said that if the case were retried today, the outcome would be significantly different.
Pictured: Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menendez, Chloe Sevigny as Kitty Menendez, Javier Bardem as Jose Menendez and Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez, in the Netflix series Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story
‘I tried this case today, 99 times out of 100, it’s a voluntary manslaughter. Twenty years, 30 years, the culture moves, and I think more enlightened or evolved, and people start to realize that maybe there was a feeding frenzy at the time, and on a more sober reflection, that they didn’t get a fair trial,’ he said.
Los Angeles defense attorney Neama Rahmani told PEOPLE that even though ‘it was tragic the brothers were abused,’ the chances of them going free is ‘highly unlikely.’
‘It’s a Hail Mary type argument,’ he said. ‘This isn’t enough, in my opinion. A corroborating note or the fact that a victim abused someone else, this is not the type of evidence that typically results in a habeas petition being granted.’
The case is now the subject of the second season of Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series ‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,’ starring Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny.