Sentence Review of Menendez Brothers Spurs Los Angeles Elections in Motion

On Thursday, October 24, the Los Angeles District Attorney announced almost three decades after Erik and Lyle Menendez were convicted of murdering their parents by blasting them with a shotgun in the bedroom of their Beverly Hills mansion. George Gascon He announced that he would seek a reduced sentence for the brothers. The decision concerns newly emerged evidence confirming allegations that they were sexually abused by their father as children. Their case lay dormant for years but returned to the media spotlight. monsters, Ryan Murphy’s polarizing, hugely popular nine-episode Netflix series about the 1989 murders of José and Kitty Menendez.

For the brothers, now in their 50s, it’s a chance for freedom. For Gascón, remaining as Los Angeles’ top prosecutor is a political Hail Mary — a move that raises eyebrows given criticism that he’s soft on crime.

At the press conference announcing the recommendation, Gascón emphasized the “tremendous public interest” in the case spurred by new content re-examining the crimes, but dismissed speculation that he was trying to use the newly infamous case for political gain. “There is nothing political about this,” the incumbent Prosecutor insisted. “We offended more than 300 people, including 28 for murder.”

Gascón faces major challenges in the race. With less than a week to go before the Nov. 5 election, he trails challenger Nathan Hochman by more than 30 percentage points, according to a poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies.

Enter the Menendez brothers, whose life sentences came to be seen as a reflection of the past culture of silencing accusations of sexual abuse and the biased criminal justice system in which Gascón, a reformist and advocate of reducing mass incarceration, spent his career. A prosecutor is on duty. “There was an implicit bias at the time, and that may have affected the way the case was presented to the jury,” Gascón recently told CNN, noting comments from one of the first trial prosecutors about how “men cannot be raped.” ”

Some experts believe Gascón’s re-election chances are tied to Los Angeles County residents. monstersIt topped the Netflix rankings when it was released in September. The weeks since its publication have seen renewed calls for leniency to the Menendez brothers and to offer Gascón a lifeline.

“He thinks it will help his re-election chances,” says Roy Behr, a Democratic campaign consultant in Los Angeles. “He’s a smart guy who knows his chances are extremely small.”

Before last week’s announcement, Gascón said his office was reviewing the convictions. The reexamination was spurred in part by a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin Andy Cano (in 1988, before the murders), confirming sexual abuse by his father, then president of RCA Records.

The letter was cited in a petition filed by the Menendez brothers, who were granted parole last year, to reconsider their sentences; This was long before they re-entered the national consciousness as victims of a legal process that ignored their defense that they had killed their parents. self defense.

“This conversation wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for October before the election,” says Joshua Ritter, a criminal defense attorney who spent nearly a decade with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. “This habeas petition was filed in May 2023, but it took until now for people to talk about it.”

Ritter adds that Erik and Lyle Menendez’s attorneys “made this public relations effort to put pressure on a friendly prosecutor.” “This is the perfect storm.”

Gascón, in particular, underlined his belief in survivors of sexual abuse and positioned himself against religious extremists in his office who opposed the brothers’ release, in what could be considered another wise move. “There are people who believe very strongly that the Menendez brothers should remain in prison for the rest of their lives and who do not believe they were abused,” he said, adding that they “were subjected to a tremendous amount of dysfunction.” and abuse in their homes.”

Another possibility in Gascón’s support for the brothers’ release: The incumbent president knows he will lose his bid for re-election and is doing what is in his DNA.

Gascón, essentially a lame district attorney who lacked the eleventh-hour incompetence of Hochman, “may have begun to feel a sense of freedom to do what he thought was right,” Behr says. … It’s not like he acted constrained by policy,” he adds. “Maybe he’s considering taking an honest look at this case again, consequences be damned.”

There may be tension between national and local sensitivities regarding tolerance towards siblings. LA County voters are largely concerned about crime. According to a survey by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Research, 96 percent of residents who support Hochman say they do so because they believe he would be more effective in combating violent crime. His supporters include Netflix chief Ted Sarandos and his wife Nicole Avant, whose mother was killed in a 2021 home invasion in Beverly Hills.

Additionally, there is widespread support for Proposition 36, a November ballot measure that imposes stricter penalties for retail theft, among other things. A majority of voters favor harsher penalties for repeat offenders.

Conclusion: Gascón’s defense of the brothers may conflict with voters’ perceptions of the crime. But even if that were the case, he has little to lose.

“We are grateful to the district attorney for his leadership in putting justice before politics,” Karen VanderMolen, the brothers’ cousin, said at the Oct. 24 news conference. “We know it wasn’t an easy decision, but it was the right decision.”

This story appears in the October 30 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.