Did Hollywood Help the Menendez Brothers’ Case?

LOS ANGELES — Twenty-eight years after Lyle and Eric Menendez were sentenced to life in prison for killing their parents, the brothers may get second chance at liberty

News about their potential indignant comes after the recent release of two Hollywood projects — including a Ryan Murphy-led true crime series on Netflix — has sparked widespread buzz and speculation surrounding the case. Netflix also released a documentary called The Menendez Brothers earlier this month. Celebrities, including Kim Kardashianalso made their own public statements in support of the brothers.

Some legal experts say Hollywood projects, as well as a societal shift in attitudes toward victims of sexual violence, helped bring attention to the Menendez brothers, paving the way for their possible release from prison.

“When the Ryan Murphy series came out, it was such a caricature of them that the swing of the pendulum actually focused attention on it,” Mark Geragos, an attorney for the Menendez brothers, told reporters Thursday. “And people looked afterwards.”

In 1989, Lyle and Eric Menendez fatally shot their parents with shotguns in their Beverly Hills mansion. Lyle was 21 at the time, and Eric was 18. Defense attorneys claimed they were sexually abused by their father, but prosecutors said they lied to help create an alibi.

Their first trial was postponed after the jury failed to reach a verdict. During the second trial, much of the evidence of sexual abuse was excluded, and the brothers were found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Their faces were beamed into the homes of millions during the first televised trial, cementing their celebrity status long before social media.

Last month, fictional versions of the Menendez family hit TV screens again with the release of Murphy’s Monsters: The Lyle and Eric Menendez Story, starring Javier Bardem, Chloe Sevigny, Cooper Koch and Nicolas Alexander Chavez.

While the brothers criticized the show as “devastating” and filled with “outright lies”, the public became enthralled by the case that shook the nation decades ago. The show is the latest example of Hollywood’s fascination with true crime, a genre that has been repeatedly criticized for retraumatizing victims and normalizing horrific acts of violence.

In an interview with NBC News, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said his office is already planning to review the case after receiving two petitions. But the Netflix documentary sparked a new onslaught of interest, and his office started getting a lot of inquiries.

“It became extremely clear to me that we needed to get on with this thing and move forward,” he said. “That’s the reason I decided to move forward.”

The Netflix show follows Peacock’s 2023 documentary Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed, which revealed shocking details about the brothers’ father, Jose Menendez, who was then an RCA executive. This appears to support Lyle and Eric’s claims that they were raped and sexually abused for much of their youth, details of which were omitted from the second trial.

“They should send a big thank you to the people who made the documentary recently,” said Manny Medrano, a Los Angeles-based criminal defense attorney who has followed the case since it began. “There’s no doubt that the brothers took advantage of the Hollywood influence, the documentaries and everything else that came after that.”

Murphy told Variety in September that he considers his show “the best thing that’s happened to the Menendez brothers in 30 years.”

“They’re now being talked about by millions of people around the world,” he said, adding, “I think the most interesting thing about it is that people are being asked to answer the question, ‘Should they start a new trial?’ Should they be released from prison? What is happening in our society? Should people be locked up for life? Is there no chance of rehabilitation?” It’s interesting to me and a lot of people are talking about it. We’re asking really tough questions, and it gives these brothers another trial in the court of public opinion.”

Speaking to reporters at a news conference, Gascon, who is running for re-election but is trailing his opponent by double digits, said the Menendez brothers had returned their debt to society and were model prisoners. Also, they were under 26 when they killed their parents and should be eligible for parole after serving decades in prison.

“When Eric and Lyle Menendez were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1996, their sentences were consistent with what was considered best public safety practice,” Gascon wrote in his appeal. “However, what is considered best public safety practice has changed.”

Criminal defense attorney Anthony Solis said the change of heart would likely influence the judge’s decision to re-sentence, thereby endearing the brothers to millions of people who followed their case.

“It seems that the confirmation of the abuse they suffered is as responsible as any Hollywood effect,” he said, referring to some of the revelations in the Peacock series.

“They have always maintained that it was because of an abusive father and that they were victimized and terrorized,” he continued, adding that the case could have gone in a different direction if the brothers had been allowed to present evidence of sexual abuse. “Attitudes are completely different now than they were then.”

In a personal essay for NBC NewsKardashian expressed a similar view to the attorneys, saying the brothers were “convicted before the trial started.”

“Back then, there were limited resources for victims of sexual abuse, especially for boys,” she wrote in an article earlier this month. “Virtually no support systems existed for survivors, and public awareness of the trauma of male sexual violence was minimal, often clouded by prejudice and homophobia.”

Kardashian, the reality TV star and entrepreneur who used her celebrity platform for prisoners’ rights on issues of criminal justice, met the brothers in September, when she spoke about prison reform at a California prison near San Diego.

“I spent time with Lyle and Eric; they are not monsters,” she wrote. “They are kind, intelligent and honest people.”

Lyle Menendez is now 56 and Eric Menendez is 53 years old.

In her Instagram story on Thursday, Kardashian thanked Gascon “for reviewing the Menendez brothers’ case and correcting a significant mistake.”

She also wrote that “focused media attention, especially after Ryan Murphy’s TV show, helped expose the abuse and injustice in their case.”

As of Friday, a hearing date has not been set.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com