Los Angeles – He 1989 shotgun murders José and Kitty Menéndez in Los Angeles grabbed the nation.
The murders of the entertainment executive and his wife in his rich neighborhood of Beverly Hills were brutal. His son Lyle Menéndez was the one who called 911, and the brothers initially stated that the murder was related to the mafia or related to his father’s businesses.
Lyle Menéndez attended Princeton University, and his younger brother, Erik Menéndez, was a tennis star.
The brothers were arrested, accused and convicted of the death of their parents.
The brothers have argued that they committed crimes in self -defense after years of abuse by their father.
On Tuesday, the brothers were granted his first opportunity for freedom In decades. A Los Angeles judge reduced the sentences of life imprisonment without 50 years, making them immediately eligible for probation.
This is what you should know:
Arriving after OJ Simpson testThe nation was hungry for the true crime television. The first trial of the brothers was one of the first to be televised almost completely on the television of the court. He operated documentaries, television specials and dramatizations.
Netflix drama ” Monsters: Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story “And the documentary” The Menéndez Brothers “, published in the fall of 2024, have been accredited by attracting new attention to the case.
The Brothers’ lawyers resorted to family members and those who knew the brothers since their conviction for speaking with their character and rehabilitation in prison against the judge of the Superior Court of the Los Angeles County, Michael Jesus.
The Menéndez family has supported the brothers and He asked for his release Since his resentment effort began last fall.
Prosecutors, who have opposed the resentment of the brothersHe didn’t call any witness. They have argued that the brothers have not assumed all their responsibility for their crimes.
Erik and Lyle Menéndez seemed practically reading their statements before the court.
“You didn’t deserve what I did to you, but you inspire me to do better,” said Erik Menéndez, addressing his family.
Jesus issued his decision immediately after the brothers spoke, giving a new 50 -year sentence to life.
The brothers are immediately eligible for probation under the law of youth criminals in California because they committed crime at the ages of 18 and 21, both children under 26.
The hearings of suitability of probation are held by a state board to determine if a person must be released. An inmate will be scheduled for his first audience no later than six months after his eligibility date, according to the Board’s policy.
They already have an audience before the Board scheduled for June 13 at a petition for clemency that have presented Governor Gavin Newsom. It is not yet clear if that will serve as your formal probation hearing or if a separate will be scheduled.
Newsom ordered the State’s probation board to carry out a comprehensive risk assessment for him to determine his danger to the public if he is released.
Anne Bremner, a litigating lawyer in Seattle, said the brothers will press them to prepare for the probation Board and impress on them that must be left.
“I suppose that the probation Board has been seeing this and, of course, they have already carried out these risk assessments,” he said. They know “who these two are, what were their supposed crimes and what they have done from the moment they were imprisoned until today.”
If they are denied at their first probation hearing, they will continue to receive subsequent audiences until they are granted.
If probation is granted, Newsom could move to annul the Board. If you let the probation decision put on, the brothers would be released from the prison.
In May 2023, the Brothers’ lawyers also presented a request for habeas corpus before the court, asking for a new judgment to the light of new evidence of their sexual abuse. Los Angeles prosecutors have presented a motion that opposes that request, but their condition is not clear.
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Associated Press Hallie Golden writer in Seattle contributed.
