Los Angeles District Attorney Says He Is Reviewing Menendez Case

Interest in the Menendez brothers has intensified after the release of a new Netflix drama about the case. A separate documentary is forthcoming.

George Gascón, the Los Angeles district attorney, said on Thursday that his office was reviewing a decades-old case involving the brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez, who killed their parents in their Beverly Hills home and were sentenced to life in prison.

The case in the 1990s was one of the first to draw a daily national audience to a televised criminal trial. By their own testimony, the two young men marched into the den of the family’s mansion one evening with shotguns and fired more than a dozen rounds at their mother and father while the couple sat on the couch.

Prosecutors presented the brothers as greedy, coldblooded killers, interested in having unfettered access to their parents’ assets, which were valued at about $14 million. Defense lawyers for the brothers argued that they had been sexually molested for years by their father, and had killed out of fear.

Mr. Gascón wouldn’t indicate which way he was leaning, but his remarks indicated that the sex abuse claims are among the aspects his office was reviewing. He said his office was divided over whether the brothers should remain in prison for the rest of their lives.

“We have a moral and ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us,” he said.

Mr. Gascón’s remarks come in the homestretch of his re-election bid as interest in the Menendez case has intensified after the release of a new Netflix drama about the case. The series, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” has been assailed by Erik Menendez and many other members of the Menendez family as grotesque and riddled with falsehoods.

Ryan Murphy, one of the series’s creators, has defended his work in interviews. He told The Hollywood Reporter that there was “room for all points of view” and argued that the brothers should be grateful to him for bringing more attention to the case.

Yet another Netflix project, a documentary titled “The Menendez Brothers,” will debut on Oct. 7. The trailer shows that the brothers will tell their story in the film.

In his brief remarks on Thursday, Mr. Gascón acknowledged that Mr. Murphy’s docudrama had generated buzz and resulted in many calls to his office.

Lawyers for the brothers are asking Mr. Gascón to recommend a resentencing, which could lead to their release given that they have already spent decades in prison.

The Menendez brothers burst into public view more than three decades ago. The accusations made headlines across the country, and the subsequent criminal trial was televised to a national audience — a precursor to the trials of O.J. Simpson and others that ushered in the era of Court TV.

Lyle and Erik Menendez were charged with the 1989 murders of their parents, Mary Louise, a former beauty queen who went by Kitty, and their father, Jose, a music executive.

The first prosecution, which began in 1993, ended with hung juries in both brothers’ trials, after their lawyers argued that they had been sexually molested by their father and had killed out of fear. But when the brothers were retried together two years later, the judge banned cameras in court and limited witness testimony and evidence related to Jose Menendez’s parenting.

And as the trial wound to a close, the judge, Stanley M. Weisberg, also ruled that the “abuse excuse” argument could not be used. The ruling essentially forced jurors to decide between letting the brothers off entirely or convicting them of murder.

They were found guilty of first-degree murder, and in 1996 they were sentenced to life in prison, where they remain.

At his news media briefing on Thursday, Mr. Gascón said, “It’s important to recognize that both men and women can be victims of sexual abuse.” And he pointed to his office’s record, saying more than 300 people have been released under his resentencing policy and only four of them have reoffended.

Recent treatments of the case — including several documentaries and the scripted series “Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders” — have been more sympathetic toward the brothers.

And new evidence has emerged. The journalist Robert Rand, who has covered the story for decades and has written a book, “The Menendez Murders,” uncovered a letter Erik wrote to Cano, his cousin, when he was 17, describing the sexual abuse by his father and how afraid he was. A 2023 Peacock docuseries, “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed,” based on reporting by Mr. Rand and Nery Ynclan, detailed new accusations by a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo that Jose had sexually assaulted him as a teenager.

Amid the renewed interest, the brothers and their case have become something of a social media phenomenon, with legions of young people calling for their release. In May 2023, Cliff Gardner, a lawyer for the brothers, filed a habeas corpus petition arguing that their conviction should be vacated because of the new evidence. Mr. Gascón’s office has yet to respond formally, and was granted an extension from the court earlier this week.

Another lawyer for the Menendez brothers, Mark Geragos, said on Thursday that he found it “very brave” of the district attorney “to come out 30 days before a contested election and make the bold statements he did.” Mr. Geragos added that he was “more than optimistic” about the outcome, and pointed to the two new pieces of evidence as “more than an ample basis to set aside the result of the second trial.”

In their court filings, lawyers for the Menendez brothers argued that in 2024 “there is an evolved understanding of sexual abuse.” They submitted a letter in which two dozen family members, including Kitty’s sister and Jose’s sister, called for resentencing, saying that “time has provided perspective” and that “continued incarceration serves no rehabilitative purpose.”

“They say enough is enough,” said Bryan Freedman, a lawyer for two dozen members of the Menendez family. “It’s time.”

Not every family member shares the same perspective.

One of Kitty’s brothers, Milton Andersen, was not among the signatories of the family letter. Speaking to The New York Times last year after the release of the “Menendez + Menudo” documentary, he used an expletive to call the accusation against Jose false and said the Menendez brothers should not be set free.

“They do not deserve to walk on the face of this earth after killing my sister and my brother-in-law,” he said.

Shivani Gonzalez contributed reporting.