The Menendez brothers, who shocked the United States with the murder of their parents in 1989 and who returned to the spotlight thanks to a very popular Netflix series, are due to appear in a California court on Monday.
Sentenced to life imprisonment and behind bars for thirty-four years, Lyle and Erik Menendez must attend this technical hearing by videoconference, their lawyer explained to local media. This should serve as a staging point for the defense of the two brothers, seeking to have them released via three separate procedures.
A vast online mobilization
Prosecutors had accused the two young men, aged 18 and 21 at the time of the events, of having murdered their parents to inherit their fortune of 14 million dollars. The two brothers presented the murder as a desperate attempt at self-defense, claiming to have been raped for years by their father. The assassination in 1989 of José and Mary Louise Menendez in their posh home in Beverly Hills hit the headlines in the United States. The trial of their sons Lyle and Erik was broadcast daily on television.
The case came back into the spotlight thanks to widespread online mobilization, including celebrities like Kim Kardashian, to have them released. “Release them before the holiday season,” implored Tammi Menendez, Erik’s wife, on social media last Tuesday. The fiction series “Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez” as well as a documentary produced by Netflix, have recently revived interest in this case, in a world where the #MeToo movement has changed the perception of victims of sexual violence.
