By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-14 12:41:49 | Updated at 2024-11-22 06:20:21
1 week ago
The star witnesses in Erik and Lyle Menendez’s upcoming re-sentencing hearing are two people who work inside their prison, according to a report.
The brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos, is set to call six key witnesses to the stand at their hearing, set to take place Dec. 11, TMZ reports.
All six are employed by the California Department of Corrections, including two correctional officers, one education officer, a prison guard, a correctional lieutenant and another employee.
All staffers have had encounters with the brothers, who have been locked up for more than 30 years, and will testify that they have been changed significantly since being handed a life sentence at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility back in 1996, the outlet said.
In supporting evidence, Geragos has included a letter supporting the brothers’ release from prison. The letter was written by several relatives of their deceased parents.
He will also be vying to change their convictions from murder to manslaughter.
The Menendez brothers, now in their 50s, will not be physically present for the hearing, but will tune in via video link from prison, the outlet adds.
The Post has reached out to reps for the Menendez brothers for comment.
It comes as Los Angeles County district attorney George Gascón announced last month that his office was recommending the two brothers should be eligible for parole.
He proclaimed the highly-publicized parent killers had paid their debt to society and were no longer a threat to society.
If a judge agrees with Gascón’s recommendation next month, the brothers would immediately be eligible for parole under California’s youthful offender law if re-sentenced.
The two brothers were sentenced to life without parole in 1996 for the brutal killings of their parents, Jose and Kitty, in 1989.
Erik and Lyle, who were then 21 and 18, respectively, murdered the pair with a shotgun while they were watching TV at their Beverly Hills mansion.
The highly publicized trial that followed made them household names.
The attorneys argued at trial that they had acted in self-defense following years of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of their father, with testimony supporting the accusations from other family members.
Prosecutors argued they were after their parents’ $15 million fortune. The trial ended in a hung jury in 1994.
A second trial in 1995 ended with both brothers’ convictions on two counts of first-degree murder.
The case has largely fallen out of the spotlight during their prison sentence, but a recent Netflix series, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” brought renewed interest into the case.
