Lyle and Erik Menendez were in prison on Tuesday with the possibility of conditional release, so that the stage was set for their possible release after more than three decades behind bars for killing their parents in their mansion in Beverly Hills.
The decision, by judge Michael V. Jesic of Los Angeles Superior Court, came after a day of testimony by family members, who said that the brothers had turned their lives in prison through education and self -help groups. They insisted in the court to reduce the penalties of the brothers for the murders in 1989.
Although the decision of judge Jesic was the most important legal step so far in the long attempt by the brothers to win release, this is not the last step. When reducing the sentences of the brothers, the court allowed them to immediately qualify for conditional release.
Now the attention will be on the parole board of the state. The brothers were already planned to appear before the board on 13 June as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s consideration of Clemency, a separate process that has folded into parallel to the resentment.
The decision to arouse the brothers is a remarkable turn in a saga that has caught the attention of the nation for decades. In 1989, the story of sexual abuse and murder in one of the Ritziest cities of America was irresistible for the media and the audience, and the in advance shaded an even greater obsession with a different story in Los Angeles – the murder case against OJ Simpson.
The brothers said that on a Sunday evening in 1989 they killed in the pit of their mansion in Beverly Hills and killed their parents with shotguns because they had endured their father’s sexual abuse for years. They said they feared that their parents would kill them to keep the abuse secret. At the time, Lyle 21 and Erik, 18.
Now two men of middle age, the brothers appeared remotely during the hearing on Tuesday from their prison near San Diego, stoically in blue jumpsuits, while witnessed after witnessed on their behalf.
They both spoke on Tuesday afternoon through a video crew, took responsibility for their crimes and apologized to their family members, who gently sob in court.
While the sentences of the brothers were reconsidered, the matter took place as a kind of settlement of the policy and culture of the 1990s: the tough measures that overflowed with the prisons of California; The social attitude about sexual abuse that the story of the brothers with skepticism viewed; the coverage of the gavel-to-count television trial; And the comics late in the evening that regularly mock the brothers as a privileged dilettantes.
Their first test, in 1993, landed in Los Angeles for a tumultuous time. Officers in the beating of Rodney King were acquitted of mistreatment and catalyzed deadly riots.
After their first trial ended in Mistrials – the brothers were tried together with individual juries – they went a second time after Mr Simpson’s acquittal.
This time the brothers were confronted with different rules in the courtroom. Cameras were forbidden and the judge limited testimony and evidence about sexual abuse. The jury condemned the brothers of murder and they were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of conditional release.
In recent years, the brothers have drawn sympathy of many young people who did not live at the time of the crimes. Learning about the case online, they started to believe that the brothers have been abused by the criminal justice system and the media and have gathered on social media.
This is a developing story. Come back for updates.
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