Menendez Brothers’ Second Legal Path to Freedom Shut Down Weeks After Parole Denial

Following last month’s parole board rejections, the Menendez brothers’ second path to freedom after 30-plus years in prison for the double murder of their parents was dashed on Tuesday when a Los Angeles judge opted not to grant them a new trial based on new evidence that they claim backs up their long-held defense of years of physical abuse at the hands of their father. 

On Monday, the habeas corpus petition filed by Erik and Lyle Menendez’s attorneys in May was rejected by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan. In his decision, Judge Ryan wrote that he doesn’t believe that the evidence is all that compelling and would not negate the severity of the crimes. The brothers have admitted to storming their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, and gunning them down in the family’s Beverly Hills home in 1989, 

At the brothers’ second, joint trial, which followed individual trials that ended with hung juries, the brothers were convicted of first-degree murder with the added element of lying in wait, which led to their initial sentence of life without the possibility of parole. The brothers had argued an imperfect self-defense, a legal precedent involving the use of deadly force with an honest but unreasonable belief that it is necessary as a form of self-defense. 

Erik and Lyle Menendez have said they killed their parents while they had a misguided belief that they were about to be killed by Jose Menendez. But this defense was not ultimately allowed to be argued in the retrial because the judge ruled the evidence did not support the claims of imminent danger. Judge Ryan found the new evidence irrelevant to the crime that captured the nation’s attention for years and became one of the most sensational trials of the 1990s. 

“In sum, the purported new evidence that slightly corroborates that petitioners were sexually abused does not negate the finding of premeditation and deliberation and the lying-in-wait special circumstance,” Ryan wrote in his decision. “The evidence alleged here is not so compelling that it would have produced a reasonable doubt in the mind of at least one juror or supportive of an imperfect self-defense instruction.”

The two new pieces of evidence emerged in 2023 when a letter was discovered at the home of the brothers’ cousin, Andy Cano, who had recently died by suicide. The letter, written by Erik months before the double murder, described the abuse he suffered and the fear he felt of his father. The second piece of evidence was a statement from foreign Menudo member Roy Rosselló, who said he was sexually assaulted by José Menendez as an adolescent and when the Menendez patriarch was president of RCA Records, which signed the boy band to a five-album deal. 

Journalist Robert Rand, who has followed the Menendez brothers’ story for decades, was the one who discovered the letter written by Cano in a desk at his home following his death. The internationally best-selling author who also produced the 2023 documentary for Peacock, Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed, in which Rosselló came forward as a victim and survivor, shared his thoughts on the decision and hope for the incarcerated brothers with The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday afternoon.

“Judge Ryan’s decision is disappointing, but it is not the end of the road for Erik and Lyle Menendez. I predict that in two years, they will be set free when they return to the California Parole Board with no infractions on their record,” Rand told THR. He also characterized Rosselló as a hero for coming forward to reveal that he was raped as a teenager by José Menendez.

The Menendez brothers are now hanging their hopes on possible clemency from California Gov. Gavin Newsom. He ordered a risk assessment of the brothers to determine whether they posed an “unreasonable risk to public safety” earlier this year. On his podcast, This Is Gavin Newsom, the governor cautioned that while the review ensures transparency and due diligence, “there’s no guarantee of outcome here.”