Prosecutors who tried Erik and Lyle Menendez believe the killer siblings should remain locked up, as their potential release from prison nearly 30 years after murdering their wealthy parents nears.
Former Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Pamela Bozanich, who prosecuted the murderous brothers in their first trial, doesn’t believe new evidence indicating the pair had been routinely sexually abused by their father while growing up should warrant their release from prison.
“They killed their parents,” Bozanich, who casted doubts over the alleged abuse, told Dateline.
“They slaughtered their mother. Why should they live among us?”
Los Angeles County district attorney George Gascón announced last month that his office was recommending the two brothers, now in their 50s, should be eligible for parole after spending more than 30 years behind bars for gunning down their parents in 1989.
He proclaimed the highly-publicized parent-killers had paid their debt to society and were no longer a threat to society.
If a judge agrees with Gascón’s recommendation next month, the brothers would immediately be eligible for parole under California’s youthful offender law if re-sentenced.
“Are they trying to pull another fast one on the court?” said Juan Mejia, who was a young deputy district attorney during the brother’s second murder trial, according to NBC.
Firmly opposing the brothers’ release, Mejia questioned the legitimacy of the new evidence, explaining how the pair has a history of lying.
The two brothers killed their parents, Jose and Kitty, with a shotgun while they were watching TV in August 1989 at their Beverly Hills mansion.
They were sentenced to life without parole in 1996 for the brutal killings following a highly publicized trial that made Erik and Lyle – who were then 21 and 18, respectively – household names.
The brothers’ attorneys argued at trial that they had acted in self-defense following years of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of their father, with testimony supporting the accusations from other family members. Prosecutors argued they were after their parents’ $15 million fortune.
The trial ended in a hung jury in 1994.
A second trial in 1995 ended with both brothers’ convictions on two counts of first-degree murder after a judge ruled the jury could not hear most of the testimony about the alleged sexual abuse.
The case has largely fallen out of the spotlight as the two brothers served time in prison, but a new Netflix series, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” brought renewed interest into the brothers and the murders.
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