Claims that brothers were sexually abused didn’t supersede ‘premeditation and deliberation’ of killings, says judge
A California judge has rejected a request for a new trial for Erik and Lyle Menendez, saying the allegations that the brothers were sexually abused did not supersede their “premeditation and deliberation” when they killed their parents more than 35 years ago.
The ruling Monday by Los Angeles superior court judge William C Ryan comes just weeks after the brothers were denied parole, and shuts down another possible path to freedom for the pair, who have served nearly 30 years in prison. Ryan denied a May 2023 petition seeking a review of their convictions based on new evidence supporting their claims of sexual abuse by their father.
Erik and Lyle Menendez were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison for fatally shooting their father, José Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. They were 18 and 21 at the time. While defense attorneys argued the brothers acted out of self defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
The parole hearings in August – coming after a judge reduced their sentences in May – marked the closest the two have come to winning freedom since their convictions almost 30 years ago.
