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George Gascon, who is the district attorney in Los Angeles in the United States, says at a press conference on Thursday that he recommends a change in the sentence in a controversial murder case against the brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez, writes Reuters.
The brothers have been in prison for 34 years after they were sentenced to life in 1989 for shooting and killing their parents. The case has received renewed attention after new evidence points to the brothers being sexually abused by their father.
“I believe that a new sentence is appropriate and I am going to recommend this to a court tomorrow (Friday, ed.)”, he says.
“I think they have paid their debt to society”.
More specifically, George Gascon recommends that the brothers’ life sentences be dropped and replaced by sentences of 50 years to life. However, he believes they will both be eligible for parole. This is due to their young age when they carried out the murders. Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18 when the parents were killed.
“Because they were under 26 when these crimes took place, they will be eligible for immediate parole,” Gascon points out.
Jose Menendez was shot in the back of the head, while Kitty Menendez died after being shot 15 times in the family’s Beverly Hills home. At the time, the prosecutors argued that the brothers had committed the murders in order to gain access to an inheritance of 14 million dollars – 96.4 million kroner. Conversely, the brothers’ supporters said that they were victims of sexual and physical abuse, and that this was what they responded to with the killings after several years.
In September, Netflix released the TV series ‘Monstre’, which is about the story of the two brothers. The brothers pleaded guilty in the trial in 1989 to the murders of their parents. However, they also said that they committed the murders out of a fear that their parents would kill them because, according to them, the parents were afraid that the sons would reveal the father’s alleged sexual abuse of Erik.
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Source: politiken.dk
