US prosecutors want Menendez brothers re-sentenced

Trial of the Menendez brothers in Los Angeles - From left to right : Erik Menendez with his attorney : Leslie Abramson and his brother Lyle Menendez. Los Angeles, 9th March 1994. (Photo by Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty Images)

Prosecutors will recommend Erik and Lyle Menendez be re-sentenced for the 1989 killings of their parents in the family’s Beverly Hills home, providing the brothers with a chance at freedom after 34 years behind bars.

An official with knowledge of the decision who was not authorised to speak on the record ahead of a planned press conference confirmed that Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón would recommend re-sentencing for the brothers.

They were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors must now seek court approval for their re-sentencing recommendation.

Lyle Menendez, then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, admitted they fatally shot their entertainment executive father, Jose Menendez, and their mother, Kitty Menendez. The brothers said they feared their parents were about to kill them to stop people from finding out that Jose Menendez had sexually abused Erik Menendez for years.

Trial of the Menendez brothers in Los Angeles - From left to right : Erik Menendez with his attorney : Leslie Abramson and his brother Lyle Menendez. Los Angeles, 9th March 1994. (Photo by Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty Images)

The brothers’ extended family has pleaded for their release, saying they deserve to be free 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.

Multiple members of their extended family, including their aunt Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sat in the first few rows of Thursday’s news conference. VanderMolen was Kitty Menendez’s sister and has publicly supported their release. Mark Geragos, a lawyer for the brothers, was also there.

The Menendez brothers were tried twice for their parents’ murders, with the first trial ending in a hung jury.

Lyle and Erik Menendez sit inCourt where their attorneys delayed making pleas on behalf of the brothers who are suspected in the murders of their millionaire parents. Photo / AP

Prosecutors at the time contended that there was no evidence of molestation, and many details in their story of sexual abuse were not permitted in the second trial. The district attorney’s office also said back then that the brothers were after their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate.

Not all Menendez family members support re-sentencing. Lawyers for Milton Andersen, the 90-year-old brother of Kitty Menendez, filed a legal brief asking the court to keep the brothers’ original punishment.

“They shot their mother, Kitty, reloading to ensure her death,” Anderson’s lawyers said in a statement Thursday.

“The evidence remains overwhelmingly clear: the jury’s verdict was just, and the punishment fits the heinous crime.”

The Menendez case has gained new traction in recent weeks after Netflix began streaming the true-crime drama Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.