Menendez Brothers, Do They Deserve to be Free?

In the last few weeks, the Menendez brothers have been a hot topic due to a new Netflix documentary, “Monsters”. However, this case has been around for nearly 4 decades, and here’s why. Lyle and Erik Menendez suffered for over a decade of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse from their parents Jose and Mary Menendez, after said abuse Lyle and Erik murdered both their parents. 

At first, they claimed someone else had killed their parents, and they were not caught until later when Lyle confessed to his psychologist who told his mistress. The case became a sensation and many tuned into the live trial on Court TV. They went on trial but had separate juries, facing 1st-degree murder meaning life in prison. After they confronted their parents at ages 21 and 18, they told jurors they were convinced they would kill them to prevent their family secret from ever coming out. 

The defense stated they deserved a lesser punishment claiming that their lives were at risk and it was self-defense, many of their family members testified in their defense saying their claims of abuse were true. Other jurors claimed their motivator for killing them was for their money based on their lavish spending mere hours after the event of the crime, and even if they were abused, killing them wasn’t justified. Both juries couldn’t decide if they should be sentenced to manslaughter (murder with a cause) or murder, eventually, it ended as a mistrial. At their second trial, they were together, however, they were not met with the same empathy as previously. Prosecutors referred to their defense as the “abuse excuse” and they were at first found guilty of 1st-degree murder and later sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. 

Nearly 3 decades later new evidence has come out in defense of Lyle and Erik, a letter was found sent to their cousin Erik eight months before the murders. In the letter, Erik tells his cousin how crazy his dad is, and how he threatens him to never tell anyone about the abuse. Cliff Gardner, one of the brothers’ appellate attorneys, stated, “The boys were abused as children. They were abused their whole life… And this is a manslaughter case, not a murder case. It’s just that simple.” In the case of manslaughter, the brothers would’ve gotten a much less severe trial and would have been released years ago. The other new piece of evidence is that a member of Menudo, the boy band José was formerly in, claimed he was also assaulted by Jose when he was only 14. This new evidence has made prosecutors wonder if they had this evidence when they were sentenced, would the outcome of the trial have been different? Due to the popularity of the series on Netflix people all around the world are weighing in, this is what people in Waukee are thinking. AP Lang, Publications, and Mass Media teacher, Mrs. Hogan stated, “I think the show is fictionalized compared to the real-life events”. An anonymous student states, “In my opinion, I think both brothers should be freed. Especially since it should’ve been a manslaughter case”. What do you think about this case?  

Graphic by Bayla Boyce using Canva