Dozens of relatives of Erik and Lyle Menendez gathered outside a Los Angeles courthouse Wednesday to call for the release of the brothers, who were sentenced to life in prison with no hope of parole almost 30 years ago. People reports that family members described the brothers as victims, not murderers, citing the sexual abuse the brothers said they suffered at the hands of their father. The news conference was the largest gathering of the extended family since the brothers were sentenced in 1996 for the 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, the AP reports. Erik was 18 and Lyle was 21 when they shot their parents in their Beverly Hills home.
The brothers "were failed by the very people who should have protected them—by their parents, by the system, by society at large," said Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sister of Kitty Menendez. "Their actions, while tragic, were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive the unspeakable cruelty of their father," she said, per ABC News. "As their aunt, I had no idea of the extent of the abuse they suffered." The brothers were found guilty of first-degree murder three years after their first trial ended in a deadlock. Many details of their accounts of sexual abuse were not permitted at the trial. "The whole world was not ready to hear that boys could be raped," VanderMolen said, per the AP, adding "today we know better."
"If Lyle and Erik's case were heard today, with the understanding we now have about abuse and PTSD, there is no doubt in my mind that their sentencing would have been very different," said Anamaria Baralt, niece of José Menendez, per CNN. The brothers have said they feared their parents planned to kill them before they could expose the long-term sexual abuse of Eric.
- Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon is considering a recommendation for resentencing the brothers based on new evidence, including a letter Erik wrote months before the killings. CNN reports that Gascon posted an image of the letter on social media Sunday, then took it down. "I've been trying to avoid dad. Its still happening Andy but its worse for me now," Erik wrote. "I never know when its going to happen and its driving me crazy. Every night I stay up thinking he might come in. I need to put it out of my mind."
- At least one relative opposes releasing the brothers. Milton Anderson, Kitty Menendez's 90-year-old brother, said in a statement issued through an attorney that he believes life without parole is the "appropriate" punishment, the AP reports, "He believes that there was no molestation that occurred. He believes that the motive was pure greed, because they had just learned that they were going to be taken out of the will," attorney Kathy Cady said.
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