Case of the two brothers gained world notoriety after a movie and a Netflix documentary in 2024
A California judge (southwest) paved the way for the Menendez brothers, famous in the United States for their parents’ murder in 1989, will be placed on parole.
Judge Michael Jesic reduced the penalties of the two men on Tuesday, who were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1996 and already served 35 years behind bars, a sentence between 50 years in prison and life imprisonment.
The new sentence allows the two brothers to ask to leave on parole, something that will be decided by a special committee on June 14.
Judge Jesic’s decision was made after an audience, in which the family of Erik and Lyle Menendez supported the release request.
“We think 35 years are enough,” explained a cousin of the two, Anamaria Baralt in court. “Our family forgave them completely. They deserve a second opportunity in their lives,” he added.
The case of the two brothers gained worldwide notoriety after a movie and a Netflix documentary in 2024.
In 1990, the US prosecutor accused the two young people, then 18 and 21 years old, of having killed their parents to be shot to inherit a fortune of $ 14 million (12.5 million euros).
The lawyers claimed that the brothers had been violated for years by their father and that their mother knew it, and that the murder set a desperate attempt at self -defense.
The judge’s decision on Tuesday was made at the end of the first day of a two-day audience, whose new Los Angeles district prosecutor Nathan Hochman tried to prevent it for months.
Hochman considers that the brothers continue to lie about the reasons that led them to commit the 1989 murders, in which they killed their parents in their Beverly Hills home.
