FIRST ON FOX: With Los Angeles District Lawyer George Gascon telling newshounds that he’s going to announce a choice on whether or not to hunt resentencing for the murderous Menendez brothers Thursday afternoon, a attorney for his or her uncle is caution that “new” proof within the case is usually a fraud.
In an interview with Other people this week, Gascon stated he does not assume the brothers pose a “threat to society” and “most certainly have not been for a long time.” Then in a remark Thursday, he stated he would publicly announce his choice throughout a information briefing at 1:30 p.m. native time.
Erik and Joseph “Lyle” Menendez barged into their oldsters’ Beverly Hills mansion at 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 20, 1989, and blasted them with shotguns as they have been consuming in the lounge, observing TV. They killed their father, former RCA Information government Jose Menendez, and their mom, Mary “Kitty” Menendez.
WATCH ON FOX NATION: MENENDEZ BROTHERS: VICTIMS OR VILLAINS?
Erik and Lyle Menendez pay attention throughout their trial within the Nineties. Los Angeles County District Lawyer George Gascon stated his workplace will evaluation new proof within the brothers’ homicide case. (Ted Soqui/Sygma)
They later instructed a therapist that they killed their father as a result of they hated him and the homicide in their mom was once a “mercy killing,” in keeping with court docket paperwork. They ran out of shells and needed to move to the automobile to get extra sooner than they struck her with a deadly shot.
Over the last 12 months, they’ve became to new regulations in California to take a look at and get out of jail, with a habeas petition that argues they will have to were convicted of manslaughter, no longer homicide, and a petition to Gascon’s workplace searching for a resentencing.
Learn the submitting
Their enchantment hinges on two key items of proof: not too long ago published allegations that their father additionally molested Roy Rossello, a former member of the boy band Menudo, within the Eighties, and a letter that Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin, Andy Cano, which surfaced in 2015, years after his demise.
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An undated picture of the Menendez circle of relatives as it sounds as if on-screen throughout a panel at CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville, Tenn., on June 2. The brothers Lyle and Erik have been convicted of fatally taking pictures their oldsters in 1989. (Michael Ruiz/Fox Information Virtual)
Critics say Gascon’s inexperienced mild on a resentencing can be debatable as a result of he is up for re-election in not up to two weeks and faces a powerful problem from unbiased candidate Nathan Hochman.
Whilst two dozen kin have publicly voiced improve for his or her unlock from jail in spite of sentences of lifestyles with out chance of parole, their uncle is adversarial to any exchange in sentencing, in keeping with his legal professional, Kathleen Cady, a distinguished sufferer’s recommend.
In a court docket submitting Wednesday, she requested to document an amicus transient 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, middle, and his brother, Lyle, are pictured on Aug. 12, 1991, in Beverly Hills. (MIKE NELSON/AFP by the use of Getty Photographs)
Cady wrote to the pass judgement on that “in simply the previous few days I’ve won knowledge from a number of other resources that the letter is largely a fraud.”
Talking with Fox Information Virtual over the telephone, she declined to enter specifics however stated she was once keen to show over the proof to Gascon’s workplace.
“[The sources] declare they’ve proof that would appear to forged doubt at the veracity of this ‘new proof’ that the protection has submitted of their habeas petition,” she stated.
WATCH: Menendez brothers’ circle of relatives speaks out
Erik Menendez and his cousin each testified about abuse by way of Jose Menendez on the brothers’ 2d trial after the primary led to a mistrial.
“And neither discussed the letter,” Cady wrote. “Whilst we undoubtedly hope that the DA’s workplace has undertaken an research of the letter, it’s a lot more most likely that the letter, if written by way of Erik, was once written in the previous few years and no longer sooner than the murders because the protection now suggests.”
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Pictured is a letter allegedly written by way of Erik Menendez and despatched to his cousin, Andy Cano, 8 months sooner than the killings of Jose and Kitty Menendez. (Awesome Courtroom of the state of California, Los Angeles County)
She additionally famous trial testimony from witnesses who stated the brothers requested them to lie for them below oath.
“Given the defendants’ makes an attempt to suborn perjury, the ‘new proof’ will have to be considered with skepticism,” Cady wrote. “Even at face worth, alternatively, the ‘new proof’ would no longer require an instruction on imperfect self-defense.”
Cano testified at trial that his cousin had instructed him concerning the abuse when he was once simply 13 years previous, however prosecutors downplayed the allegations of sexual abuse and stated the brothers simply sought after to are living a lavish way of life with their inheritance, pointing to the whole thing they purchased after the slayings, which incorporated a Porsche, Rolex watches and a cafe.
Andersen, their uncle, consents with prosecutors that the purpose was once greed.
THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS: MONSTERS OR MISUNDERSTOOD?
The Menendez brothers — Erik, left, and Lyle — take a seat at the steps in their Beverly Hills house in November 1989. (Ronald L. Soble/Los Angeles Instances)
The Menendez brothers are actually each of their 50s. They have been 21 and 18 on the time of the murders.
The letter, in keeping with their protection legal professional, Mark Geragos, bolsters Cano’s testimony. He has lengthy maintained that as a result of recent pondering, the brothers’ allegations of intercourse abuse weren’t taken critically, and he has again and again stated that in the event that they have been the “Menendez sisters” they might by no means were convicted of homicide initially.
Between 2005 and previous this 12 months, Geragos famous, that they had exhausted all attainable appeals and resigned themselves to the concept that they might by no means move loose. Each were exemplary prisoners throughout that point, he stated.
MENENDEZ BROTHERS INCH CLOSER TO FREEDOM FROM ‘LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE’ FOR PARENTS’ BEVERLY HILLS MURDERS
Exteriors of the Menendez brothers’ former mansion in 1989, appearing the expansive pool. (Clark Fogg, retired Beverly Hills Police Division forensic specialist)
“You should take two tracks on that,” he instructed newshounds final week. “You should both simply turn out to be a hardcore or irreconcilable, recidivist, or it is advisable to do what they have got finished, which is create techniques, recommend other people, broaden superb techniques, mentoring other people, move to school, get levels.”
Gascon’s workplace didn’t right away reply to a request for remark at the letter’s authenticity.
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About two dozen members of the family who do improve a discounted sentence met with Gascon’s workplace final week. The DA has no longer met with Andersen or spoke back to his requests for info at the case, Cady stated.
“Mr. Gascon has completely unnoticed our requests, and it is frankly offensive that the elected district legal professional thinks it’s high quality to violate the Charter,” she instructed Fox Information Virtual.
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The DA election has no bearing at the brothers’ habeas petition, which Cady has additionally argued will have to be rejected.
“So with all of that, it’s Milton Andersen’s persisted trust that the claims of molestation have been made up, they usually have been false, and he believes that the right kind verdict was once issued by way of the jury and the right kind sentence was once additionally dedicated,” Cady stated. “One of the crucial considerations for him, and will have to be for everybody truly, was once on the trial, the Menendez brothers attempted to get two particular witnesses to return in and lie for them. And the ones witnesses testified and stated, ‘Yea. They requested us to lie for them.’”
