Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón will announce a decision on Thursday, Oct. 24, about the potential resentencing of Erik and Lyle Menendez.
A news conference has been scheduled at 1:30 p.m. at L.A.’s Hall of Justice.
Last week, Gascón’s office announced that that the team was actively reviewing the case of the brothers, who were convicted of killing their parents in Beverly Hills in 1989, in light of renewed allegations of sexual abuse by their father, but no decisions have been made about whether the brothers might be entitled to a new trial or re-sentencing.
Attorneys for the Menendez brothers filed court papers last year seeking to have their convictions overturned, and a hearing on the matter was scheduled for Nov. 26. Interest in the case has also been renewed of late thanks to the release of a Netflix documentary.
District Attorney George Gascon (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
At a Thursday afternoon news conference, Gascón said attorneys in his office are reviewing the possibility that the Menendez brothers could be entitled to have their case reheard or to be re-sentenced. He says he is “not leaning in any direction right now. I’m keeping an open mind.” But he insisted, “The final decision will be mine.”
Jose Menendez and his wife, Mary Louise, or “Kitty,” were gunned down by their sons in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. Erik Menendez, now 53, and Lyle Menendez, now 56, never denied carrying out the killings, but contended they were repeatedly sexually assaulted by their father and feared for their lives.
Prosecutors, however, said the killings were financially motivated, pointing to lavish spending sprees by the brothers after the killings and arguing they were guilty of first-degree murder.
The brothers’ first trial ended with jurors unable to reach verdicts, deadlocking between first-degree murder and lesser charges, including manslaughter. The second trial, which began in October 1995 and lacked much of the testimony centered on allegations of sexual abuse by Jose Menendez, ended with both brothers being convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy.
The brothers were both sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. They have repeatedly appealed their convictions to no avail.
But in court papers filed last year, attorneys for the brothers pointed to two new pieces of evidence they contend corroborate the brothers’ allegations of long-term sexual abuse — a letter written by Erik Menendez to one of his cousins in early 1989, eight months before the August 1989 killings, and recent allegations by a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo that he was also sexually abused by Jose Menendez as a teenager.
This is a breaking story; watch for updates.
City News Service contributed to this report