- Netflix has released a true crime drama and a documentary about the Menendez brothers’ high-profile ’90s trial.
- But both projects leave out two new pieces of evidence that were made public in 2023.
- On Thursday, the Los Angeles DA recommended that the brothers be resentenced with the option of parole.
Netflix has released both a true crime drama and a documentary about brothers Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez, who killed their parents in 1989. But neither mentions new evidence that the pair are using to appeal their life sentences.
The brothers were sentenced without parole in 1996 for murdering José Menendez and Kitty Menendez, but decades later audiences are still obsessed with their story, motivating Hollywood and streamers to find new ways to tell it.
The drama “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” was an instant hit when Netflix released it in September, and stayed at the top of the most-watched chart for two weeks.
This was followed in October by the release of “The Menendez Brothers,” a new documentary about the trial, which features new interviews with the pair. A title card at the end of the documentary briefly mentions that the brothers filed a habeas corpus petition in May 2023 to vacate their murder convictions.
Here’s what to know about the petition.
Lyle Menendez and Erik Menendez’s attorneys believe new evidence could prove their father abused them
The brothers admitted to killing their parents before their first trial, so the jury was tasked with understanding why.
While the prosecution argued the pair wanted their parents’ money, the brothers said that they acted in self-defense because their father physically and sexually abused them, enabled by their mother. They said they feared their father would eventually kill them.
The brothers’ first trial ended in 1994 with a hung jury. In the second trial, Judge Stanley M. Weisberg made several changes, including limiting testimonies related to the brothers’ abuse claims, and removing the jury’s option of voting on a manslaughter charge. The jury’s had to decide whether the brothers were guilty or not guilty of murder, and chose the former.
The brothers’ appeal petition filed last year, which journalist Robert Rand, who has reported on their case since the ’90s, shared on X, includes a letter Erik Menendez sent to his cousin Andy Cano a year before the murders. In the letter, he writes that he is avoiding his father and alludes to being afraid of him.
The petition also includes a declaration from Roy Roselló, a former member of the boyband Menudo, who was signed to the record label where José Menendez was an executive. He said José Menendez drugged and raped him when he was a teenager, and made him perform sexual acts on two other occasions.
The brothers’ attorney hopes this will prove they were defending themselves against abuse to get the lesser charge of manslaughter.
The creators of “Monsters” and “The Menendez Brothers” didn’t want to get involved in the case
This new evidence was released partway through the production of “Monsters” and “The Menendez Brothers,” which may explain why it wasn’t included.
“The Menendez Brothers” producers Ross Dinerstein and Rebecca Evans told The Hollywood Reporter in early October that they worked on the documentary for four years and wrapped shooting in 2023.
Evans said: “The habeas was filed in 2023, and so for us, when we were making the documentary, we felt like, we’re not here to litigate a case. We’re not here to present evidence, or new evidence in that way, alongside the attorneys. Our feeling was that this was a story that took place then, and this was all of our research on it.”
“Monsters” was also likely written before May 2023, even though the production was delayed due to the writers and actors strike in 2023.
“Monsters” co-creator Ryan Murphy told Variety in September: “I believe in justice, but I don’t believe in being a part of that machine. That’s not my job. My job as an artist was to tell a perspective in a particular story.”
He added that the series was “the best thing that has happened to the Menendez brothers in 30 years” because it rekindled public interest in their case.
But Laurie L. Levenson, a professor of law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, previously told Business Insider that a true crime series must present solid evidence to make a difference in a courtroom.
“In terms of it being the best thing that ever happened, only if it leads to evidence to actually overturn the case, which I still think is a real upward battle,” she said.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney has begun a process to resentence the brothers
On October 3, George Gascón, the Los Angeles County District Attorney, told a press conference that his office was reviewing the brothers’ case.
Later in October, the LA County District Attorney’s office told Business Insider in an email that the “process was already underway” before “Monsters” premiered, and a hearing was set for November 29.
On October 24, Gascón told a press conference that he had moved the decision date because his office was “flooded with requests for information” after “Monsters” premiered.
“I decided to move this forward because, quite frankly, we did not have enough resources to handle all their requests, and one of the things that I thrive to do in this office is to be very transparent in everything that we do,” he said.
Gascón said that he would recommend the brothers be sentenced to 50 years to life and be eligible for parole immediately.
“I came to a place where I believe that under the law, resentencing is appropriate, and I am going to recommend that to a court tomorrow,” Gascon said.
Gascón said it was right the brothers were convicted of murder, but that he believed they had been rehabilitated in prison.
In a resentencing memo filed late on October 24, deputies in the DA office’s resentencing unit wrote that the Menendez brothers “have demonstrated they no longer present a public safety risk” and that their “current sentence is no longer in furtherance of justice.”
The case will be heard in court where a judge will decide whether to follow Gascón’s recommendation. If the brothers are resentenced, they will have to appear before a parole board to argue their case to be freed.
This could see the brothers withdraw the petition and accept the resentencing. Alternatively, they could continue to pursue their case to vacate their sentences entirely.
Gascón told CNN that he disagreed with the petition’s argument and thought resentencing was more appropriate.
“I think that the conviction was appropriate given what was there,” Gascón said.
People involved in both the real-life case and ‘Monsters’ have spoken out on the resentencing news
Cooper Koch, who played Erik Menendez in “Monsters,” told BI: “I am overwhelmed with gratitude and hope for the progress we’ve seen today. Gascón’s recommendation has ignited a renewed sense of possibility that Lyle and Erik could finally be released after decades behind bars.
“But, this journey is not over. There are still critical steps ahead: the judge must endorse the resentencing, and, if that happens, the parole board must recognize the time they have served as fitting for the crime. Our voices, our unwavering support, remain crucial — not just for the brothers to ensure their release, but also for every victim of sexual abuse fighting to be heard. I hope to see Erik and Lyle soon. Free from all of this.”
Family members who have called for the release of the Menendez brothers, including Kitty Menendez’s sister, Joan Andersen Vandermolen, were in attendance during Gascón’s October 24 press conference.
José Menendez’s niece, Anamaria Baralt, told reporters after the press conference: “This step gives us all hope that the truth will finally be heard and that Lyle and Erik can begin to heal from the trauma of their past.”
But not all family members were supportive of the DA’s decision.
Kitty Menendez’s 90-year-old brother, Milton Andersen, said in a recent court filing that he believes “justice was served” when a jury found Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez guilty of murder and a judge sentenced them to life without the possibility of parole.
Andersen’s attorney, Kathleen Cady, slammed Gascón in a statement to BI on October 25 and accused the DA of trying to “rewrite history.”
“It is unconscionable that Gascón, whose ethical obligation is to pursue justice with integrity, has ignored my multiple notifications about individuals coming forward with information that seriously questions the credibility of the so-called ‘new evidence’ in this case,” Cady said. “Yet, Gascón has shown no interest in reviewing or investigating this evidence, turning a blind eye to potential flaws in his pursuit to rewrite history.”
Gascón’s office told BI in a statement that the office invited Cady and Andersen to a meeting earlier in October to gather input on a possible resentencing under California law, but they said they were unavailable.
“The DA does not personally meet with victims’ families. With more than 100,000 cases prosecuted through our office annually, such meetings would not be feasible or fair,” Gascón’s office said. “We have offered to schedule a separate meeting with Ms. Cady and her client, who lives out of state. However, Ms. Cady declined that as well, preferring to meet with the DA or no one.”
