Menendez brothers who killed their parents will have case reviewed

Evidence has emerged relating to Erik and Lyle’s allegations of sexual abuse

The case of two brothers who notoriously killed their parents more than 30 years ago, which became the subject of a Netflix series, is to be reviewed by prosecutors.
Erik and Lyle Menendez shot their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion in August 1989, before calling emergency services in tears and claiming they had discovered their bodies.
They later admitted to the killings but said they did so in self-defense because their father, Jose, had sexually abused them while their mother, Kitty, turned a blind eye.
Much of the abuse evidence was deemed inadmissible, and they were sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1996.
George Gascón, the Los Angeles County district attorney, said authorities were now reviewing the case after evidence emerged related to the brothers’ allegations of sexual abuse.
“We have been given a photocopy of a letter that allegedly was sent by one of the brothers to another family member, talking about him being the victim of molestation,” Mr. Gascón said.
Erik Menendez is alleged to have written to his cousin eight months before the murders in which he described the alleged abuse at the hands of his father.
Mr. Gascón added: “We have a moral and ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us and make a determination… whether they deserve to be resentenced.”
Following a review of the evidence, the brothers could be resentenced or have a new trial. A hearing on the case is scheduled for late November.
The Menendez brothers’ case was one of the first criminal trials to be broadcast in full across the United States. Interest has recently been revived by a Netflix series, Monsters, which was released this year.
The pair, 18 and 21 when they committed the murders, are now 53 and 56 and have been incarcerated in a California prison for more than 30 years.
Kim Kardashian, the reality television star, wrote in an essay for NBC that the brothers had not been given a “fair trial” and called for their sentences to be “reconsidered.”
She claimed that media coverage had characterized them as “two arrogant, rich kids from Beverly Hills who killed their parents out of greed” and turned them into “monsters.” Having met them in prison last month, she said they were “kind, intelligent, and honest men.”
Kardashian added: “I don’t believe that spending their entire natural lives incarcerated was the right punishment for this complex case.”