After months of delays, Erik and Lyle Menéndez can be one step closer to learning if they will be free.
The brothers have spent more than three decades in prison for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents, and have been waiting since October to be heard on the recommendation of a prosecutor that their life sentences without the possibility of probation are reduced to 50 years to life.
That recommendation, if approved by the superior judge of the Los Angeles County, Michael Jesus, after what is expected to be two days of hearings as of Tuesday, would make Erik, 54, and Lyle, 57, be eligible for probation immediately.
A decision on the matter has been hindered by forces inside and outside the courtroom. These delays have helped feed an increasingly bitter debate about a question in the heart of the criminal justice system: what does someone have to do for first degree murder to demonstrate that they have been rehabilitated?
George Gascón, the former District Prosecutor of the Los Angeles County who recommended that men be renounced, believed that the brothers had been exceptional inmates. In an interview last year with “Datelline” and in judicial presentations, Gascón and his deputies pointed out the university courses that the brothers have completed; For the “Embels” project of the Green Space that established in southern prison of California, where they are imprisoned; and the assistance they have provided to inmates with severe disabilities.
Gascón also pointed out the state law that requires the authorities to consider how old the inmates were when they committed their crimes. If they were over 26 years old, the age at which the part of the brain responsible for behavior control is considered completely mature, the California law requires that inmates receive a “significant opportunity for probation during their natural life.”
When the brothers fatally shot José and Kitty Menéndez on August 20, 1989, Lyle Menéndez was 21 years old. Erik Menéndez was 18 years old.
Gascon’s position has been defended by some high -profile celebrities and relatives of José and Kitty who have continued speaking on behalf of the brothers.
“I know Lyle and Eric,” said Anamaria Baralt, Prima, outside a Los Angeles court last week. “I have seen their trips, and they are absolutely suitable for this process, to resort, and I have no doubt that if we stay fair throughout these procedures, we will see them.”
But Gascón was voted in November, and his predecessor, Nathan Hochman, has had a very different vision of the case.
After looking for a delay for a resentment hearing that had originally been scheduled in December, Hochman has said that he and his deputies spent months reviewing thousands of pages of trial transcripts, prison records and other documents associated with the case.
In March, Hochman revealed that he did not believe that Erik and Lyle Menéndez had assumed all the responsibility of their crimes and moved to withdraw the recommendation of Gascón. The district prosecutor cited a list of 16 “unrecognized lies” that said the brothers had told about the murders, including their claim that they killed their parents in self -defense. (Jesus has denied Hochman’s attempt to retire).
When the brothers were tried in the early 1990s, Lyle testified that he was fatally shot at his parents after he faced his father for sexually abusing Erik and José seemed to threaten him.
They affirmed a legal doctrine known as “imperfect self -defense.”
The prosecutors described the murders as cold blood, Lyle recharged his shotgun before shooting his mother in his face, and financially motivated. The procedures ended with a null trial when the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict.
During his second judgment, Lyle refused to testify after the authorities intercepted letters that showed him to love people to lie for defense, including a girlfriend who asked him to falsely claim that his father had sexually assaulted her, according to a decision of the Court of Appeals. A decision of the California Supreme Court also prohibited the brothers from claiming imperfect self -defense.
On March 20, 1996, they were convicted of first degree murder.
In addition to his claim for self -defense, Hochman has also included Lyle’s apparent deception that involves the bride in his list of 16 unrecognized lies. During a hearing last month, the deputy district prosecutor who manages resentment argued that the brothers have offered a variety of excuses for their actions.
“What did you not hear once?” The prosecutor said, Habib Balian. “We lie.”
A brothers lawyer, Mark Geragos, described Balian’s presentation as a “dog and pony show” and accused him of relating the first trial.
This audience was supposed to determine if Erik and Lyle Menéndez should be forwarded. But the procedures ended with Geragos accusing the prosecution of partiality and saying that it would seek that the district prosecutor withdraw from the case.
During a hearing last week, Geragos withdrew that motion and prosecutors pointed out a new development that they said they supported their statement that the brothers have not been sufficiently rehabilitated. Recent evaluations carried out by psychologists found that the brothers represent a risk of “moderate” violence if it is released from prison.
The evaluations, known as comprehensive risk assessments, are confidential and were carried out as part of a separate clemency application that the brothers made to the governor of California Gavin Newsom.
Speaking after the hearing last week, Geragos said that the violations cited in the evaluations do not constitute the type of serious crimes necessary to deny their resentment offer. And he said that the prosecution’s claims have tried to “undermine what is 35 years of notable work of both brothers.”
If Jesus denies resentment, the brothers still have two other paths towards freedom: their application for clemency and a separate request that challenges their convictions and seeks a new trial.
