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Movement to have Menendez brothers released from prison gains momentum
Federal litigator Vik Bajaj unpacks the new evidence that may lead to Lyle and Erik Menendez’s release from prison on ‘Fox News @ Night.’
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FIRST ON FOX: With Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon telling reporters that he could make a decision on whether to seek resentencing for the murderous Menendez brothers by the end of the week, a lawyer for their uncle is warning that “new” evidence in the case could be a fraud.
In an interview with People this week, Gascon said he doesn’t think the brothers pose a “danger to society” and “probably haven’t been for a very long time.”
Erik and Joseph “Lyle” Menendez barged into their parents’ Beverly Hills mansion at 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 20, 1989, and blasted them with shotguns as they were eating in the living room, watching TV. They killed their father, former RCA Records executive Jose Menendez, and their mother, Mary “Kitty” Menendez.
WATCH ON FOX NATION: MENENDEZ BROTHERS: VICTIMS OR VILLAINS?
Erik and Lyle Menendez listen during their trial in the 1990s. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said his office will review new evidence in the brothers’ murder case. (Ted Soqui/Sygma)
They later told a therapist that they killed their father because they hated him and the murder of their mother was a “mercy killing,” according to court documents. They ran out of shells and had to go to the car to get more before they struck her with a fatal shot.
Over the past year, they have turned to new laws in California to try and get out of prison, with a habeas petition that argues they should have been convicted of manslaughter, not murder, and a petition to Gascon’s office seeking a resentencing.
Their appeal hinges on two key pieces of evidence: recently revealed allegations that their father also molested Roy Rossello, a former member of the boy band Menudo, in the 1980s, and a letter that Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin, Andy Cano, which surfaced in 2015, years after his death.
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An undated photo of the Menendez family as it appears on-screen during a panel at CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville, Tenn., on June 2. The brothers Lyle and Erik were convicted of fatally shooting their parents in 1989. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
Critics say Gascon’s green light on a resentencing would be controversial because he’s up for re-election in less than two weeks and faces a strong challenge from independent candidate Nathan Hochman.
While two dozen relatives have publicly voiced support for their release from prison despite sentences of life without possibility of parole, their uncle is opposed to any change in sentencing, according to his attorney, Kathleen Cady, a prominent victim’s advocate.
In a court filing Wednesday, she asked to file an amicus brief on behalf of Milton Andersen, Kitty Menendez’s brother.
LYLE MENENDEZ, WHO SHOTGUNNED PARENTS TO DEATH WITH BROTHER, PLANS FOR LIFE AFTER PRISON
Erik Menendez, center, and his brother, Lyle, are pictured on Aug. 12, 1991, in Beverly Hills. (MIKE NELSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Cady wrote to the judge that “in just the last few days I have received information from several different sources that the letter is essentially a fraud.”
Speaking with Fox News Digital over the phone, she declined to go into specifics but said she was willing to turn over the evidence to Gascon’s office.
“[The sources] claim they have evidence that would seem to cast doubt on the veracity of this ‘new evidence’ that the defense has submitted in their habeas petition,” she said.
Erik Menendez and his cousin both testified about abuse by Jose Menendez at the brothers’ second trial after the first ended in a mistrial.
“And neither mentioned the letter,” Cady wrote. “While we certainly hope that the DA’s office has undertaken an analysis of the letter, it is much more likely that the letter, if written by Erik, was written in the last few years and not before the murders as the defense now suggests.”
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Pictured is a letter allegedly written by Erik Menendez and sent to his cousin, Andy Cano, eight months before the killings of Jose and Kitty Menendez. (Superior Court of the state of California, Los Angeles County)
She also noted trial testimony from witnesses who said the brothers asked them to lie for them under oath.
“Given the defendants’ attempts to suborn perjury, the ‘new evidence’ should be viewed with skepticism,” Cady wrote. “Even at face value, however, the ‘new evidence’ would not require an instruction on imperfect self-defense.”
Cano testified at trial that his cousin had told him about the abuse when he was just 13 years old, but prosecutors downplayed the allegations of sexual abuse and said the brothers merely wanted to live a lavish lifestyle with their inheritance, pointing to everything they bought after the slayings, which included a Porsche, Rolex watches and a restaurant.
Andersen, their uncle, agrees with prosecutors that the motive was greed.
THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS: MONSTERS OR MISUNDERSTOOD?
The Menendez brothers — Erik, left, and Lyle — sit on the steps of their Beverly Hills home in November 1989. (Ronald L. Soble/Los Angeles Times)
The Menendez brothers are now both in their 50s. They were 21 and 18 at the time of the murders.
The letter, according to their defense attorney, Mark Geragos, bolsters Cano’s testimony. He has long maintained that because of contemporary thinking, the brothers’ allegations of sex abuse were not taken seriously, and he has repeatedly said that if they were the “Menendez sisters” they would never have been convicted of murder to begin with.
Between 2005 and earlier this year, Geragos noted, they had exhausted all potential appeals and resigned themselves to the idea that they would never go free. Both have been exemplary prisoners during that time, he said.
MENENDEZ BROTHERS INCH CLOSER TO FREEDOM FROM ‘LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE’ FOR PARENTS’ BEVERLY HILLS MURDERS
Exteriors of the Menendez brothers’ former mansion in 1989, showing the expansive pool. (Clark Fogg, retired Beverly Hills Police Department forensic specialist)
“You could take two tracks on that,” he told reporters last week. “You could either just become a hardcore or irreconcilable, recidivist, or you could do what they’ve done, which is create programs, counsel people, develop amazing programs, mentoring people, go to college, get degrees.”
Gascon’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter’s authenticity.
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About two dozen family members who do support a reduced sentence met with Gascon’s office last week. The DA has not met with Andersen or responded to his requests for information on the case, Cady said.
“Mr. Gascon has absolutely ignored our requests, and it’s frankly offensive that the elected district attorney thinks it’s fine to violate the Constitution,” she told Fox News Digital.
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The DA election has no bearing on the brothers’ habeas petition, which Cady has also argued should be rejected.
“So with all of that, it’s Milton Andersen’s continued belief that the claims of molestation were made up, and they were false, and he believes that the correct verdict was issued by the jury and the correct sentence was also committed,” Cady said. “One of the concerns for him, and should be for everyone really, was at the trial, the Menendez brothers tried to get two specific witnesses to come in and lie for them. And those witnesses testified and said, ‘Yea. They asked us to lie for them.’”