The Los Angeles Prosecutor’s Office will oppose an attempt by Erik and Lyle Menéndez to get a new trial for the murder of their millionaire parents in Beverly Hills in 1989, announced the office this Friday.
The brothers were sentenced in 1994 to life imprisonment for the murder of José and Kitty Menéndez.
But in the midst of a campaign in favor of his release, which has won steam thanks to a documentary and a Netflix miniseries, his legal team seeks to get them out of prison, either with a new trial, another sentence or through a clemency request.
The Menéndez defense had presented a “habeas corpus” arguing to have new evidence that merited another process.
The Los Angeles Prosecutor’s Office, in charge of the case, was initially receptive, however the incoming prosecutor, Nathan Hochman, opposed this Friday.
“We conclude, in our informal response, that the Court must deny the request of ‘habeas’ of the Menéndez brothers,” said Hochman, who assumed the position in December.
In a press conference, Hochman detailed the position of his department after reviewing the 50,000 pages of the file.
The prosecutor explained that the petition does not support because the evidence does not meet the conditions required by law to approve such an appeal, including truthfulness and relevance.
Lyle, 57, and Erik, 54, have spent more than three decades in prison.
During a trial that shook the United States in 1993 and was widely televised, the defense characterized the brothers as victims of sexual and psychological abuse at the hands of a violent father and a negligent mother.
But the prosecution pointed them out of being murderers in cold blood motivated by an inheritance of 14 million dollars.
The jury did not reach a verdict and a second trial was summoned, in which the brothers ended up being guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Clemency
As new probative elements, the defense presented a letter that Erik would have written to a cousin, around 1988, in which he detailed his father’s sexual abuse, and the testimony of the former band of the band often Roy Roselló, who also says there is also been bothered by José Menéndez, a successful musical entrepreneur of Cuban origin.
Hochman argued that the brothers offered five versions of the bloody murder, since their first pronouncement in which they hinted that it was an attack of the mafia, until the last one in which they assumed the responsibility arguing arguing self -defense.
“The key to this trial is basically what happened that night, which crossed his heads that night. Sexual abuse is abominable (…), but, on this occasion, although it could be a motivation for Erik and Lyle, no He constitutes his own defense, “said Hochman, who recalled that this was the position of his previous team of lawyers.
“I also understand that when it came to any information that corroborate that sex Our father sexually abused us. ‘”
The decision to accept or not the request for “habeas corpus” falls to the Court, said Hochman.
The prosecutor added that he will rule in the coming weeks about the request of a new sentence, for which the Court scheduled hearings on March 20 and 21.
On the third route, Hochman recalled that the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, “has the clementia request on his desk, and he can do what he wants, whenever he wants.”
