Los Angeles – The tests of Lyle and Erik Menéndez He arrived at a time of cultural obsession with the courts, crime and murder, when the trials televised live captivated a national audience.
His resentment, and the now real possibility of his freedom, reached another, when the true documentaries of the crime and the docudrams have proliferated and brought renewed attention to the family.
A judge made the Menéndez brothers eligible for probation On Tuesday, when he reduced his sentences of life without 50 years to life for life for the murder of 1989 of his father José Menéndez and Mother Kitty Menéndez in his home of Beverly Hills. The state probation board will now determine whether they can be released.
His two tests reserved the OJ Simpson Judgment, creating a phenomenon of the mid -1990s where the courts subsumed soap operas as the fascinating daytime television.
“People were not used to having cameras in the room of the room.” Everyone were watching cable and everyone had that common experience. Today there is a true crime bonanza, but it moves in many different places. ”
The brothers became an immediate sensation with their 1990 arrest. They represented an image prior to the rich young people of the rich young people as described in many films of the 1980s: the preparation of tennis that plays, bound for Princeton.
For many spectators, this image was confirmed by the wave of expenses that continued after the murders. His case continued a fascination with the dark and private life of young and rich that dates back to at least Leopold and Loeb Case of murder of the 1930s, but had been in the air in cases such as the Multi -million dollar clubA Ponzi scheme of the 1980s that stimulated a murder.
His first judgments in 1993 and 1994 became a milestone for the new TV of the Court, which issued it almost entirely. The defense lawyers admitted that they had shot their parents. The jury and the public had to consider whether the testimony of the brothers about sexual abuse and another type of their father was plausible and should mean the sentence for a minor position.
The lasting image of the trial was Lyle Menéndez crying on the pod when described the abuse.
At that time there had been some public calculations with the effects of sexual abuse, but not almost to today.
The two jurors, one for each brother, blocked, largely along the gender lines. He reflected the broader cultural reaction, with women who support a conviction of involuntary homicide and men a culpability for first degree murder.
The judgments arrived at a time when the crime in the United States was at its highest point, a hard position in the crime was a previous requirement to occupy an important political position, and a wave of legislation was approved that forced more hard sentences.
That attitude seemed to prevail when, in their second judgment, the brothers were convicted of first degree murder.
As Associated Press Test Reporter Linda Germanthat covered both tests together with those of Simpson and the innumerable others, wrote in 1996:
“This time, the jury rejected the affirmation of the defense that the brothers murdered their parents after years of sexual abuse. Instead, he embraced the prosecution theory that the murders were planned and that the brothers were greedy and pampered brats who murdered to obtain the fortune of $ 14 million of their parents.”
The second trial was not televised and received less attention.
“There were no cameras, I was in the shadow of OJ, so it didn’t have the same spark and pop as the first,” said Polyitas.
They had become too well known to be forgotten, but for decades, the Menéndez brothers vanished in the background. Occasional stories arose about the brothers who lost their appeals, as well as their photos aging in prison.
“The public’s memory about them was: ‘Yes, I remember that judgment, the boys with the sweaters in the Court’,” said Politan.
That would change in the era of TV, podcasts and transmitters of true crime.
The 2017 NBC Dramatic Series “Law AND Ordene the true crime: Menéndez’s murders “was not widely observed, but still brought the case a new attention. The next decade would be more important.
Peacock 2023’s docuseries “Menéndez + What: Boys betrayed” they included a former member who said that José Menéndez raped him when he was 14 years old. Approximately at the same time, the brothers presented a letter that Erik wrote to his cousin about his father’s abuse before the murders.
The new wave of true crimes would continue to promote them, even if the representation was not always flattering.
” Monsters: The story of Lyle and Erik Menéndez“A drama created by Ryan Murphy in Netflix made them beautiful and vain jesters, the actors were already shown without a shirt in the provocative advertising fences. Javier Bardem such as José Menéndez brought a stellar power winner of the Oscar to the project that fell in September last year.
That was followed a month later by a documentary about Netflix, “the Menéndez brothers.”
Together, the shows made the public pay more attention to the case than from the judgments. Almost simultaneously came a turning point of real life, when then- Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón He said he was reviewing new tests in the case.
The Gascon successor’s office, Nathan Hochman, opposed resentment.
The deputy prosecutor Habib Balian constantly searched the hearings to ensure that the “butcher shop” caused by the brothers was not forgotten, and repeatedly emphasized that “they tried, brutally, their parents until death.”
But changes in public perception and legal actions were already moving. The judge’s decision to reduce his positions did not arrive with the drama of the televised trial, but at a brief hearing in a courtroom that would not allow cameras. The broader public never saw.
Despite his opposition, Hochman was reflective in a statement after resentment.
“The case of the Menéndez brothers has been a window for a long time for the public to better understand the judicial system,” said Hochman. “This case, like all cases, especially those that captivate the public, should be seen with a critical eye. Our opposition and analysis assured that the court received a complete and precise record of the facts. Justice should never be influenced by the show.”
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This story was first published in May. 14, 2025. It was updated in May. 15, 2025 to correct the title of the docuseries “Menéndez + What: Boys betrayed”, which caused a renewed interest in the Menéndez Brothers case.
