Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced at a press conference on Thursday, Oct. 3, that he is “keeping an open” mind about the Menendez brothers’bid for release.
“I’m not leaning in any direction right now,” Gascón said. “We have people in the office that are looking at this very carefully, very experienced lawyers that are looking at this. Their recommendation will be presented to me, but the final decision will be mine.”
“We are reviewing the information, but I think it’s also important that we recognize that both men and women can be the victims of sexual assault,” he continued.
Gascón also told reporters that his office has “a moral and an ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us” to decide if the brothers should be resentenced or if a new hearing of the case is “appropriate.” He added, “If there was evidence that was not presented to the court at that time, and had that evidence been presented, perhaps a jury would have come to a different conclusion.”
Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted of the first-degree murders of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1996.
In May 2023, attorneys for the brothers, who are serving life sentences, filed a habeas corpus petition with the Los Angeles County Superior Court, citing new evidence in the case.
In the petition, attorneys cited sexual abuse allegations by Roy Rosselló, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, against Jose, whom he claims raped him in the 1980s. The brother’s attorneys also pointed to a newly discovered letter Erik wrote to his now-deceased cousin Andy Cano describing his father’s alleged sexual abuse months before the killings.
About the new evidence, Gascón, who is up for reelection, said none of the evidence has been confirmed by his office. “We are not at this point ready to say that we either believe or do not believe that information,” he said Thursday. “We’re not saying that there was anything wrong with the original trial.”
Gascón said that deputy district attorneys in his office have different opinions about what should happen to the brothers.
“There are differences of opinion within the office and that is a healthy part of the process,” he said. “You don’t want to have everybody agreeing to any one thing. And then one of the things that I personally do well is by listening to different opinions and different ways of looking at evidence or looking at a particular case or the law. So there are people in the office that would tell you this case should never be either resentenced nor a habeas should be granted. There are other people in the office that believe that this should be evaluated carefully and that there may be a process there on the path. I will make the final decision based on all those conversations.”
Gascón said a hearing has been set for Nov. 26.
Asked if the case would have been handled differently today, Gascon said he was “not here to make judgment of that, but there is no question that today there would have been a greater level of sensitivity to the way the case was looked at.”
Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18 when they burst into the den of their home in Beverly Hills, Calif., with 12-gauge shotguns and fatally shot their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, while the couple watched TV on Aug. 20, 1989.
Jose, the head of RCA Records at the time of his murder, was shot multiple times. including point blank in the head. Kitty, 47, suffered 15 gunshot wounds, including one to the face.
The killings, according to the brothers, came after years of sexual abuse by their Hollywood executive father — abuse which they insisted was ignored by their mom, a former pageant queen.
However, prosecutors at the time said the two brothers’ motive was greed, citing the lavish spending spree — which involved expensive watches, cars and tennis lessons — they went on after the slayings.
Erik Menendez with his attorney Leslie Abramson and his brother Lyle Menendez during the trial of the Menendez brothers in Los Angeles on March 9, 1994.
Ted Soqui/Sygma/Getty
In 1996, three years after their first trial ended in a deadlock, the siblings were convicted of the first-degree murders and subsequently sentenced.
Mark Geragos, the Menendez brothers’ post-conviction attorney, said the brothers, who have spent over three decades in prison and are now both in Donovan State Correctional Facility, are “cautiously optimistic” the petition will be successful, he said.
