With Los Angeles’ infamous Menendez brothers inching closer to freedom despite sentences of life without parole for the shotgun murders of their parents in 1989, more than a dozen family members are rallying outside the city’s Hall of Justice Wednesday to call on District Attorney George Gascón to push for a new sentence that could set them free before the end of the year.
Also slated to speak at the 4 p.m. rally were the brothers’ defense attorneys, Mark Geragos and Cliff Gardner, and celebrity Rosie O’Donnell, who has been working with the older brother, Lyle Menendez, as he remains incarcerated.
After a mistrial, the brothers were convicted and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. A resentencing under new California laws could be controversial because the district attorney overseeing their case is up for re-election in less than a month.
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An undated photo of the Menendez family as it appears on screen during a panel at CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville June 2. The brothers, Lyle and Erik, were convicted of fatally shooting their parents in 1989. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
But lawyers for the brothers argue they should have been convicted of manslaughter, not murder. If they had, they would’ve already been released from prison.
They filed two efforts toward release earlier this year – a habeas petition asking a court to review new evidence, and a petition to Gascon under the new law, which gives district attorneys the authority to make resentencing recommendations.
Erik and Joseph “Lyle” Menendez, the sons of former RCA Records executive Jose Menendez and wife Mary “Kitty” Menendez, have been in prison since the 1990s after killing their parents in a shotgun massacre at their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989.
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Erik Menendez, center, and his brother Lyle, left, are pictured Aug. 12, 1991, in Beverly Hills, after they were accused of killing their parents, Jose and Mary Louise Menendez. (Mike Nelson/AFP via Getty Images)
They accused their father of sexual abuse and fired so many shots they had to go back to the car to reload before firing the shot that killed their mother, who had tried to escape after being wounded, according to authorities.
The scene was so gory, one of the crime scene investigators on the case previously told Fox News Digital a detective held an umbrella overhead to block dripping blood and guts.
“It comes down to one thing,” retired Beverly Hills forensic specialist Clark Fogg said earlier this month. “The reason why they’re in jail is that they killed their mother and father brutally, not poison them, but shotgun them to death to a point that they were all over the ceiling.”
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The Menendez brothers — Erik, left, and Lyle — on the steps of their Beverly Hills home in November 1989. (Ronald L. Soble/Los Angeles Times)
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At the heart of their appeal is a letter unveiled earlier this year from Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano, purportedly written months before the murders, that contains evidence that their father was sexually abusing the sender when they killed him.
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.
The letter, according to Geragos, bolsters Cano’s testimony.
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)
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Cano’s mother found the letter in 2015. He died in 2003.
Gascón has for months signaled he may be open to reducing their sentence.
If they are resentenced to anything lesser than life without parole, they could become immediately eligible for parole.
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“This is not a political issue. This is about truth, justice and healing,” said Anamaria Baralt, the niece of Jose Menendez and a cousin of the brothers. “Lyle and Erik deserve a chance to heal, and our family deserves a chance to heal with them.”
An archive photo shows Lyle and Erik Menendez wearing prison jumpsuits during their murder trial in Los Angeles. (Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty Images)
She and more than a dozen relatives of the brothers and their slain parents attended the briefing Wednesday to support their release.
Many of them argued that the evidence of Jose Menendez’s abusive treatment of his sons would’ve been a larger part of their defense if ht trial were held today, and they could have received lighter sentences as a result.
The Menendez brothers are now both in their 50s.
They were 21 and 18 at the time of the murders.
Attorney Mark Geragos speaks in front of members of the Menendez family during a press conference to announce developments on the case of brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
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.
‘You could take two tracks on that,” he told reporters. “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.”
After the briefing, the family was expected to meet with Gascon’s office as part of their quest for resentencing. If they are resentenced, they could be home as early as Thanksgiving, Geragos said. If they are successful in their separate request for a writ of habeas corpus, they could get new trials.
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Fox News’ Audrey Conklin, Mollie Markowitz and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.