In the wake of the success of Netflix’s Monsters series, the Menendez brothers have been granted a new court hearing.
Erik and Lyle Menendez may have their criticisms about the latest season of Ryan Murphy’s Monsters, but the Netflix series has certainly generated renewed interest in their case. To that end, a new court hearing has been set for November 29th, which will determine whether the Menendez brothers should be resentenced in light of new evidence.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón made the announcement. “We have been given evidence. We have been given a photocopy of a letter that allegedly was sent by one of the brothers to another family member talking about him being the victim of molestation. We’ve also got evidence that was provided by the defense, by his lawyers, that one of the members of the Menudo band alleged that he was molested by the father. None of this information has been confirmed,” Gascón said. “We are not at this point ready to say that we either believe or do not believe that information, but we’re here to tell you is that we have a moral and an ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us and make a determination based on a resentencing side, whether they deserve to be resentenced, even though they were clearly the murderers, because they have been in prison for 35 years and they have paid back their dues to society, or whether behaviors is appropriate. If there was evidence that was not presented to the court at that time, and had that evidence been presented, perhaps a jury would have come to a different conclusion.“
It remains to be seen if this new hearing will bring about a change in the sentencing for the Menendez brothers, but we haven’t heard the last of this case.
Erik Menendez took to social media (through his wife Tammi) to slam Monsters co-creator Ryan Murphy for including “ruinous character portrayals” of both him and his brother. Murphy hit back, saying that they should be sending him flowers for giving them so much attention again. “I’ll tell you my thoughts about the Menendez brothers. The Menendez brothers should be sending me flowers. They haven’t had so much attention in 30 years. And it’s gotten the attention of not only this country, but all over the world. There’s sort of an outpouring of interest in their lives and in the case,” Murphy said. “I know for a fact that many people have offered to help them because of the interest of my show and what we did. There is no world that we live in where the Menendez brothers or their wives or lawyers would say, ‘You know what, that was a wonderful, accurate depiction of our clients.’ That was never going to happen, and I wasn’t interested in that happening.“
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is currently streaming on Netflix and you can check out a review from our own Alex Maidy right here.
