Could New Evidence Get the Menendez Brothers Out of Prison?
Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, has brought the Menendez trial back into the public eye. In 1989, Lyle and Erik killed their parents, Kitty and Jose, in their Beverly Hills home. Afterward, the boys claimed it was self-defense after having suffered from years of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.
The crime became a tabloid sensation. There were two trials. The first had a hung jury, and in the second, Erik and Lyle were sentenced to life in prison without parole. At the time, the judge, Stanley Weisberg, barred the defense from including the abuse allegations in their argument. Now that the brothers’ story has regained traction, one of their defense lawyers, Cliff Gardner, is hoping to appeal their convictions.
Gardner claims there’s new evidence supporting the Menendez brothers’ defense. Their team discovered a letter written by Erik to his cousin Andy in which he opened up about his father’s abuse. The prosecution suggested that the boys lied, and this letter proves otherwise. It’s dated December 1988, months before Kitty and Jose died.
CBS News obtained a copy of the note. Here is part of what Erik wrote:
“I’ve been trying to avoid dad,” he said. “It’s still happening, Andy, but it’s worse for me now…Every night, I stay up thinking he might come in…I’m afraid…He’s crazy. He’s warned me a hundred times about telling anyone, especially Lyle.”
A new witness has also come forward. According to CBS, a man named Roy Rosello said in a sworn affidavit that Jose assaulted him. Rosello claims the incident happened in the eighties when he was a member of Menudo, a Puerto Rican boy band that Jose signed to RCA Records.
With these two revelations, Gardner hopes the Menendez brothers could get out of prison. He told 48 Hours that the court mishandled their case. “The boys were abused as children,” he said. “They were abused their whole life…and this is a manslaughter case, not a murder case. It’s just that simple.”
In May 2023, Gardner filed a habeas corpus petition on the brothers’ behalf. They are still in prison, but that could change if their attorney gets his way. There are no further updates at this time.
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