This week’s parole hearings were the latest twist in the saga of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who have been behind bars since their arrest in 1990 for killing their parents with shotguns.
At their televised trial, which was a 1990s media sensation, the brothers said the killings were an act of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father.
A panel of California commissioners denied Erik Menendez parole on Thursday. Then on Friday, Lyle Menendez was also denied parole. Here are four key takeaways from the hearings this week.
The Menendez family supports their bid for freedom
More than a dozen relatives of the two brothers testified in favor of their release at the parole hearings, and they reacted with anger to the decision to keep them behind bars for at least three more years. “How is my dad a threat to society!!!!!” Erik’s stepdaughter Talia Menendez wrote on Instagram. “This has been decades of torture to our family. How much longer???”
Erik’s wife, Tammi Menendez, accused the presiding commissioner of the two-person panel, Robert Barton, of bias in a post on X. During the hearing Barton told Erik Menendez, “Contrary to your supporters’ beliefs, you have not been a model prisoner,” and cited his possession of a contraband phone.
Netflix and TikTok have generated new sympathy for the brothers
Support for the brothers has grown since a generation of younger Americans were introduced to the case by the release of the Netflix series Monsters, in which Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny played their parents, and a Netflix documentary, featuring phone interviews with both Lyle and Erik. The new media attention has propelled support for the brothers on social networks, including TikTok and Instagram.
Even so, the fictional drama series, which suggested without evidence that the brothers had an incestuous relationship, was denounced by family members as a “grotesque shockadrama”. In a statement, the family called Monsters “a phobic, gross, anachronistic, serial episode nightmare that is not only riddled with mistruths and outright falsehoods but ignores the most recent exculpatory revelations”. Erik Menendez also called the series a “dishonest portrayal” and criticized what he called “horrible and blatant lies” in the series.
The brothers have argued for a new trial based on new evidence of sexual abuse
Lawyers for the brothers filed a petition to a Los Angeles superior court judge in 2023 in which they argued that two pieces of evidence discovered after their trials support their claims that they were sexually abused by their father. If the judge agrees, the brothers could be granted a new trial or given reduced sentences.
The first piece of evidence is a letter, discovered by a reporter, in which Erik described years of sexual abuse by his father to a cousin when he was 17. The second piece of evidence is the testimony of a former member of the boyband Menudo who said in a 2023 documentary that the father of the Menendez brothers had sexually assaulted him when he was a teenager.
The new Los Angeles county DA opposes the release of the brothers
The movement to release the Menendez brothers suffered a setback last November, when George Gascón, the progressive prosecutor who had supported a reduction in their sentences – from life in prison without the possibility of parole – lost his bid for re-election as Los Angeles county district attorney to Nathan Hochman, a Republican who opposed parole.
On the eve of the election last year, Gascón said in a statement that society’s understanding of the impact of sexual abuse had evolved. “Since the original prosecution of the Menendez brothers more than nearly three decades ago, our office has gained a deeper understanding of the complexities surrounding sexual violence. We recognize that it is a widespread issue impacting individuals of all gender identities, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to support all victims as they navigate the long-lasting effects of such trauma,” Gascón wrote.
Less than two weeks later, Gascón lost to Hochman by nearly 20 points.
On Thursday, Hochman said in a statement that the decision to deny parole to Erik Menendez “does justice for Jose and Kitty Menendez, the victims of the brutal murders carried out by their sons on August 20 1989”.
“The prior administration’s motion for resentencing failed to examine or consider whether the Menendez brothers have exhibited full insight into, and taken complete responsibility for, their crimes,” Hochman added, in reference to Gascón’s moves to make parole a possibility.
