When Courtroom TV started re-airing the primary trial of Erik and Lyle Menendez through the pandemic, a wholly new technology turned conscious of the Nineteen Nineties homicide case that was a media sensation years earlier than they have been born.
The Beverly Hills brothers have been 18 and 21, respectively, after they shot and killed their mother and father, José and Kitty Menendez, in 1989. Their preliminary 1993 trial, the place they have been tried collectively and with separate juries, resulted in a hung jury. The feminine jurors sided with their self-defense argument, that each boys had been sexually, bodily and emotionally abused by their father since they have been youngsters and that, with their mom within the know, they feared for his or her lives; however the male jurors didn’t.
“It really kickstarted interest again,” echoed his Campfire Studios associate on the doc, Rebecca Evans. “Today, people are looking at cases like this, cases of abuse, in a different way. So [our documentary] was an opportunity to tell their story, both for us and for them, in a different time when people are thinking about things differently.”
The producers mentioned the incarcerated brothers — who’re serving life in jail with out parole after their second trial verdict and sentencing in 1996 (the choose barred the protection from together with testimony concerning the abuse, and took manslaughter off the desk; they have been convicted of first-degree homicide) — had gotten wind of the shift in cultural assist, and that’s partly what motivated them to collectively converse out for the primary time in many years for the Campfire Studios undertaking.
The 2-hour The Menendez Brothers documentary launched on Netflix Monday and now, the three-episode companion podcast, Introducing The Menendez Brothers, options audio from Erik and Lyle opening as much as director Alejandro Hartmann, by way of telephone interviews that have been performed in 15-minute increments resulting from jail communication restraints from the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, the place they have been reunited in 2018.
The timeline round this push to “free the Menendi” has grown louder in latest weeks, following Netflix first releasing Ryan Murphy’s scripted collection, Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story, which shortly shot to No. 1 on the streamer (and now could be No. 2 behind rom-com No one Desires This). In between the discharge of Monsters and The Menendez Brothers doc, the Los Angeles District Lawyer’s workplace introduced the brothers’ habeas corpus petition, which they filed in 2023, was now below evaluation and that they may decide on whether or not it warrants a resentencing. A listening to is about for Nov. 29. (Learn extra concerning the steps that led to the petition right here.)
Evans, when chatting with THR, mentioned they have been conscious of that replace after they wrapped their documentary, which has been within the works for 4 years and within the edit phases over the past yr. The petition, which may very well be the brothers’ final alternative for a evaluation since they’re out of appeals, incorporates new proof that features a letter written by a younger Erik that his attorneys say corroborates the allegations that he was sexually abused by his father. They filed their petition after one other individual got here ahead in 2023, Menudo band member Rosselló, with abuse allegations in opposition to their father.
When talking to Hartmann in newly launched conversations for the podcast, Erik and Lyle addressed the newfound hope they’ve from their supporters, however cautioned on two issues. First, that the brand new technology of case followers not lose sight of the seriousness of their crime and second, that having hope for the brothers at this level of their lives, now of their 50s, is usually a treacherous factor.
“I think the problem with TikTok is that you will find a black-and-white view of the story. Where they are like heroes, or they are like victims. The complexity is very hard to tell in 30 seconds, that’s the problem,” says Hartmann, acknowledging the thriller and skepticism that also exists across the case, on condition that the 2 victims usually are not right here to inform their facet, and organising Erik and Lyle weighing in.
“I really appreciate the support of the people that have written me and are supporting me — by supporting me, [people who] believe that I shouldn’t spend the rest of my life in prison,” says Erik. “I’ve heard about a lot of the videos, I’m sure there are very serious TikTok videos, but then I also know there are ones that are not. I only get to see what’s on TV and the stories about them. I do worry, and I think it’s important, that the seriousness of my crime not be minimized or diminished.”
He continues, “This tragedy has been deep, and every member of my family has been impacted. And sometimes I think a lot of that pain and tragedy gets lost in translation in some of the TikTok videos. So I think that it is important that we remember that two people are no longer alive and families have been devastated by this tragedy, and that I am at the center of it. I am the one responsible. I don’t want that to be diminished or minimized in any way by people that support me and believe in me.”
Lyle says he feels “lifted by collective hope,” which is one thing he has felt from the brand new generations now following their case. “The followers who are younger that are on that sort of TikTok social media generation, they really have tremendous hope. I’m willing to float along on their hope and we’ll see what happens,” he says. “I’m not as hopeless as I was as a 21 year old, that’s for sure. Obviously, I feel more hope when society seems to be understanding these experiences and sex abuse better. So I do have hope and I also see a lot of people paroling who have life sentences, and still going home and paroling because they’ve rehabilitated, and I certainly feel like my brother and I have rehabilitated.”
However Erik shares his reservations round holding out hope. “I’ve been through so many disappointments when it comes to appeals of people rallying around trying to get signatures of the governor or attorneys believing that because the case law is evolving to understand the impact of childhood trauma, developmental trauma and how that now impacts us as adults, that laws are changing,” he says. “But I am so leery of getting my hopes up because the court system has not given us any evidence that they will overturn the case. And so while I am hopeful and pray, I am worried about getting my hopes up about any appeal. Every time I get hopeful, the letdown is even more intense and profound and personal.”
He provides, “There’s a saying that hope is a good thing, but hope can be torturous. And it has been torturous in my life.”
Up to now month, which counts the discharge of each Netflix choices, two Change.org petitions calling for a retrial based mostly on new proof and authorized reforms gained greater than 150,000 new signatures, bringing the full quantity as much as almost half 1,000,000. Kim Kardashian has visited the brothers in jail, and then advocated for his or her launch in a viral op-ed, and Dinerstein and Evans mentioned they plan to reconnect with the brothers forward of the Nov. 29 listening to. “We believe this story is far from over and we would want to keep going,” Dinerstein advised THR.
“I think that they probably deserve their time in court, at least with some of this new evidence,” Murphy additionally lately advised THR. “And then it’s up for the courts to decide. I hope that they do get fairness. And that’s the way the courts are supposed to work, right?”
