He California judge that studies the case of Menendez brothersconvicted in 1996 for the murder of their parents committed in 1989, has delayed the hearing of Erik and Lyle Menéndez to the end of January in order to consider a new sentence in the case. “The judge has now set the January 30 and 31 as days for a plenary or Folsom hearing on the new sentence,” one of the brothers’ lawyers, Mark Geragos, told the press at the exit of the Van Nuys Courthouse, in the district of Los Angeles. This delay of the hearing, previously agreed for January 11, is due to the fact that magistrate Michael Jesic requires more time to evaluate the case.
During the session held this Monday, Erik and Lyle Menéndez’s aunts have testified on their behalf. Joan Andersen VanderMolen, Kitty Menéndez’s sister, and Teresita Baralt, José’s older sister, have called for his release, saying 35 years was a long time for the siblings after suffering abuse. “We miss those who are gone very much,” Baralt said through tears after taking the stand. “But we also miss the kids.”
The hearing ended after less than an hour, when Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic stated that he needs time to review documents and for the new Los Angeles County district attorney to evaluate the case.
The brothers They were due to appear in court for the first time in decadesbut technical problems prevented them from testifying virtually from a San Diego prison. They were convicted of murdering José and Kitty Menéndez in 1989 and sentenced to life sentence without parole. Although his defense attorneys argued at trial that They had suffered sexual abuse from their fatherprosecutors denied it and accused them of killing their parents for money. In the years that followed, they repeatedly appealed their convictions without success.
‘Overwhelmingly clear’ evidence
The recent releases of true crime Netflix and a documentary in 2004 have renewed attention on the case causing it to be reopened, so the Prosecutors recommended a new sentence for the brothers last monthsince they consider that the brothers have worked on their redemption and rehabilitation and have demonstrated good behavior inside prison.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón held a press conference less than two weeks before Election Day, calling for new sentences of 50 years to life in prison. This could allow them to be immediately paroled because they were under 26 when their parents were killed.
The brothers’ family has said that They deserve to be freed after decades behind bars. Several family members have said that in today’s world, which is more aware of the impact of sexual abuse, the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Not all members of the Menéndez family are in favor of a new sentence. The lawyers of Milton Andersen, Kitty Menéndez’s 90-year-old brotherfiled a legal brief asking the court to uphold the brothers’ original sentence. “They shot their mother, Kitty, reloading the gun to ensure her death“Andersen’s attorneys said in a statement last month. “The evidence remains overwhelmingly clear: the jury’s verdict was fair and the punishment fits the heinous crime.”
Jesic has indicated that he will consider the request for a new sentence on January 30 instead of December 11, as originally planned. The judge has stated that he has 17 boxes of documents to review. This includes evidence of abuse raised in the petition habeas corpus.
The new test includes a letter that Erik Menéndez wrote in 1988 to his cousin Andy Canoin which she described the sexual abuse she had suffered from her father. The brothers asked their lawyers about it after it was mentioned on a Barbara Walters television special in 2015. The lawyers were unaware of the letter’s existence and realized that he had not appeared at his trialsmaking it new evidence that they say corroborates the accusations that Erik was sexually abused by his father.
Also presented as new evidence is the testimony of Roy Rosselló, a former member of the Latin pop group Menudowho appeared in a documentary and said he had been drugged and raped by José Menéndez when he was a teenager in the 1980s. If these two pieces of evidence had been available during the brothers’ trial, prosecutors would not have been able to argue that there was no corroboration of sexual abuse, or that their father, José Menéndez, was not the “kind of man who” would abuse children, the petition argues.
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