35 years later, Menendez “monsters” can be released. Netflix justice or effect?

It is difficult to prove the impact of two Netflix series inspired by the notorious double homicide case – but clearly increased public scrutiny about the court decision that more than three decades condemned Erik and Lyle Menendez for life imprisonment for parents’ death.

When the documentary “Menendez Brothers: Misjudged?”It was transmitted in 2022 at Discovery+, its impact was not immediate – except for Tiktok, where it was difficult to determine if people spoke of the case because of the program or because a osmose cultural General had brought the theme to the ribalta.

Erik and Lyle Menendez killed their parents In 1989, when they were 18 and 21 years old. At the time, they claimed a childhood of sexual, psychological and physical abuse by the father, that the mother knew but did not acted, says the columnist Zoe Williams in an opinion article published in

The judge did not allow what then called “abuse excuse“And the accusation was able to impose the argument that the two brothers had murdered their parents by inheritance. The trial resulted in a sentence of penalties of perpetual prison without possibility of parole.

Last year, two years after Discovery’s documentary, the Netflix launched the play “”, followed by a documentary, “The Menendez Brothers“With testimonials from Erik and Lyle from the prison of Donovan.

The two documentaries divided public opinion.

Many felt that if the brothers were judged today, with our current understanding of abuse and how this can affect the brain and the behavior, its penalties would have been much less severe.

Others consider that, Given the wealth of the familywhose heritage was then valued at about 12.5 million euros, the money was probably the real reasonand that the only people who could contest the accusations of abuse They were dead.

This week, a California judge reduced the penalty to 50 years to Perpetualwhich makes the two brothers immediately eligible for parolesince the crimes occurred before they were 25 years old.

The judge justified his decision Not as a post-hoc assessment About the credibility of allegations of abuse, but because the two brothers, who in the meantime have taken on “total responsibility” for the murders, have done enough in the last 35 years to deserve an opportunity for freedom“.

A Interaction between drama true-crime And the judicial process is simultaneously very subtle and incredibly pronounced, considers Zoe Williams.

Os dramatized documentaries that became popular on streaming platforms, are based on real facts or just likeliinfluences the constantly results of judicial proceedings, says the columnist of The Guardian – and we always stay surprised as if it were the first time.

Ultimately, none of the documentaries about the Menendez proved the reason for the crime, and none directly led to the possibility of parole. Does the Opportunity to speak and be heard on Netflix allowed the brothers eventually express the remorse that the judge considered decisive?

This is difficult to prove. But the dramatized documentaries, at their best, foster curiosity for matters that are supposedly closed, the empathy for the supposedly worseand reminds us to everyone that people should not be completely forgottenwhatever your crime.

These documentaries are a complement to the law, Not a stone in the shoe From justice, concludes Zoe Williams.