Kim Kardashian, a law school graduate and criminal justice advocate, is reconsidering the life sentences given to brothers Eric and Lyle Menendez, who were convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents seven years earlier. California officials have been asked to do so.
“These are kind, intelligent, honest people,” Kardashian wrote in a personal essay she submitted to NBC. The reality star and Skims founder said his brother’s actions were “unforgivable” but he questioned a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
In her essay, Kardashian wrote, “We shouldn’t judge them now that they’re in their 50s.” “Physiologically and psychologically, time changes us. No one would ever claim to be the same person they were when they were 18. I know I am not.
Kardashian’s appeal comes amid renewed interest in the Menendez case. Netflix recently began streaming Ryan Murphy’s true crime drama Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez. The streamer will also release its own documentary on the subject next week.
“If the police had acted, he should have been arrested,” Eric said in the documentary, according to People magazine. “We had no alibi. We had gunpowder residue on our hands. Under normal circumstances, if a gunpowder residue test had been carried out, we would have been arrested immediately. It would have been.”
The brothers claim they killed their parents in self-defense after enduring a lifetime of physical, mental and sexual abuse. The men’s lawyers argue that under today’s understanding of sexual abuse, they should not have been convicted of first-degree murder.
Los Angeles prosecutors announced Friday that they are reviewing new evidence in the case.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said at a news conference that there is no question of the guilt of Eric Menendez, 53, and his brother Lyle Menendez, 56, and that his office will reopen the case. He said the case is being investigated. Considering re-sentence.
Gascon said the new evidence includes a letter written by Eric Menendez that his lawyers say supports his claims that he was sexually abused by his father.
The brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos, said the family always believed they should have been charged with manslaughter rather than murder. However, after a jury trial (the brothers were tried separately) ended in a stalemate, jurors in the third trial were not offered the option of manslaughter.
The brothers, who were 21 and 18 at the time of the murders, admitted to shooting their entertainment executive father Jose Menendez and mother Kitty Menendez in 1989. They said they feared their parents were trying to kill them to prevent them from going public. Records of long-term sexual abuse of Eric by his father.
Prosecutors argued that the murders were motivated by greed and that they were committed out of fear of being separated from their parents’ will. Between the time of the murder and their arrest, they spent lavishly, spending $500,000 on clothes, Rolex watches, and cars, a pattern of behavior detailed in a recent Netflix drama. Ta.
Skip past newsletter promotions
Get the most important US headlines and highlights sent straight to your email every morning
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may include information about charities, online advertising, and content sponsored by external parties. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and are subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
After newsletter promotion
In a statement about the I experience trauma.”
“The media has made the brothers into monsters, sensationalizing two arrogant, wealthy children from Beverly Hills who killed their parents out of greed,” Kardashian wrote in the letter. There was no room.”
Their convictions came shortly after O.J. Simpson’s acquittal, and Kardashian, like others, suggested that Los Angeles prosecutors at the time were unwilling to accept the controversial outcome of the trial. Kardashian’s father, Robert Kardashian, is a member of Simpson’s legal team and has said that Simpson inspired him to study law.
Kardashian’s work on criminal justice reform has helped secure commutations for several inmates. She helped petition Donald Trump to sign the bipartisan First Step Act of 2018, which aims to reduce excessive sentences in the federal prison system and facilitate rehabilitation.
She said her siblings were “robbed of their childhood by their parents, who then seek to punish them without considering the circumstances, without understanding the ‘why’, and without caring whether the punishment is meted out.” “The criminal justice system has robbed me of all opportunities for freedom.” Eric and Lyle were found guilty of the crime and convicted before the trial began. ”
“I spent time with Lyle and Eric. They’re not monsters,” she added. “They are kind, intelligent, honest people.”
