Family members of Erik and Lyle Menendez, the two brothers serving a life sentence for fatally shooting their parents—Jose and Kitty Menendez—in their Beverly Hills home in 1989, called for the pair’s release and resentencing at a Wednesday news conference in Los Angeles.
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00:00I have to tell you unequivocally that we don't have a universal agreement.
00:04There are people in the office that strongly believe that the Menendez brothers should
00:13stay in prison the rest of their life.
00:16And they do not believe that they were molested.
00:20And there are people in the office that strongly believe that they should be released immediately
00:25and that they were in fact molested.
00:28I have to tell you that after a very careful review of all the arguments that were made
00:34for people on both sides of this equation, I came to a place where I believe that under
00:43the law resentencing is appropriate and I am going to recommend that to a court tomorrow.
00:50We are going to recommend to the court that the life without the possibility of parole
00:55be removed and that they will be sentenced for murder, which because there are two murders
01:02involved, there will be 50 years to life.
01:05However, because of their age under the law, since they were under 26 years of age at the
01:13time that these crimes occurred, they will be eligible for parole immediately.
01:21When you look at the case of the Menendez brothers, you see two very young people, one
01:27was 19 and the other one was 21, when they committed this horrible acts and I want to
01:33underline they were horrible acts.
01:36There is no excuse for murder and I will never imply that what we are doing here is to excuse
01:45that behavior because even if you get abused, the right path is to call the police, seek
01:53help, but I understand also how sometimes people get desperate.
01:58We often see women, for instance, that have been battered for years and sometimes they
02:03will murder their abuser out of desperation.
02:10I do believe that the brothers were subjected to a tremendous amount of dysfunction in the
02:16home and molestation.
02:19Even though they didn't think that they would ever be let free, they engaged in a different
02:26journey, a journey of redemption and a journey of rehabilitation.
02:33They have been in prison for nearly 35 years.
02:39I believe that they have paid their debt to society and the system provides a vehicle
02:50for their case to be reviewed by a parole board and if the parole concurs with my assessment
02:59and it will be their decision, they will be released accordingly.
03:04This step gives us all hope that the truth will finally be heard and that Lyle and Eric
03:08can begin to heal from the trauma of their past.
03:12Thank you so much for your time.
03:14We're just very, very hopeful, very hopeful that we get them released.
03:19I said it the other day when we were all at the criminal courts building, nothing would
03:26make me more happy than to celebrate Thanksgiving with them, with Joan, and have them out.
03:33I believe that they have gotten word.
03:35I believe that they are 100% on board with what we're doing.
03:40I don't know why they wouldn't.
03:42They've waited, like I say, they lost the last appellate argument roughly 2005.
03:51We have already put together a reentry plan.
03:55If we do the hearing and it's not by stipulation, that will be what we will provide to the court.
04:02We would not be revealing any of that right now for security reasons, but we have a robust
04:08reentry plan that we have already previewed with the district attorney, which went into
04:14their calculation as to recommending resentence.