Los Angeles
“Time TV”
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Los Angeles County District Lawyer George Gascón is anticipated to announce his choice Thursday afternoon on whether or not to suggest resentencing within the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez, who have been convicted of murdering their dad and mom greater than three a long time in the past.
Gascón beforehand mentioned he’s reviewing the case and expects to make the choice by the tip of October, however on Tuesday, he instructed “Time TV”’s Jake Tapper he deliberate to take action by the tip of the week.
Gascón plans to make his announcement at a information convention at 1:30 p.m. PT in Los Angeles, his workplace mentioned.
A decide will finally determine on the brothers’ case, and a listening to on the matter has been scheduled for November 26.
The listening to stems from a protection petition citing what the Menendez brothers’ attorneys argue is new proof, in addition to a latest California regulation on resentencing by which the courtroom can take into accounts sentences in comparable circumstances. The decide may contemplate whether or not the defendants have been victims of psychological or bodily abuse, whether or not they’re rehabilitated and whether or not they’re a hazard to society.
The reexamination of the case comes greater than 35 years after the deadly taking pictures of Jose and Kitty Menendez of their Beverly Hills house. Their sons, Lyle and Erik, who have been 21 and 18 on the time, have been arrested lower than a 12 months later, in 1990, and accused of first-degree homicide.
At their high-profile trials a long time in the past – one of many first circumstances to be televised – the brothers didn’t deny killing their dad and mom, however argued they shouldn’t be convicted as a result of they acted in self-defense after enduring a lifetime of abuse by their father.
A primary trial led to a mistrial after jurors deadlocked on the costs. Of their second trial, a lot of the protection proof about sexual abuse was excluded. The brothers have been discovered responsible in 1996 and sentenced to life in jail.
Final 12 months, attorneys for the Menendez brothers filed a habeas corpus petition asking the courtroom to rethink the conviction and sentence in mild of recent proof, together with a sworn assertion by former Menudo boy band member Roy Rosselló, who alleged Jose Menendez sexually assaulted him within the Nineteen Eighties. The attorneys additionally mentioned a letter Erik Menendez wrote to a cousin months earlier than the killings alludes to the abuse he endured.
The protection is asking the courtroom to both vacate the brothers’ conviction and sentence, or allow discovery and an evidentiary listening to throughout which they will present proof, the petition says.
The brothers’ story has taken on new curiosity following the September launch of the Netflix collection, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” co-created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan. Netflix additionally launched a documentary on the Menendez case this month that includes each males discussing what led to the killings.
Gascón, who’s campaigning for reelection on a platform that features sentencing reform, instructed “Time TV” this monthtimes have modified relating to how the general public and the courts deal with victims of sexual abuse.
“There isn’t any query {that a} jury right this moment would have a look at this case in all probability very otherwise than a jury did 35 years in the past,” he mentioned.
Final week, the brothers’ family members made impassioned pleas for his or her launch.
Joan VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez’s sister, mentioned the actions of the brothers have been “the determined response of two boys attempting to outlive the unspeakable cruelty of their father.”
“They have been simply youngsters. Kids who might have been protected and have been as an alternative brutalized in essentially the most horrific methods,” she mentioned.
