Why The Menendez Brothers Wouldn’t Have Received Such A Severe Sentence If Their Case Happened Today

If you belong to the minority group of people who have not binge-watched this show and gone to the innumerable Reddit threads, TikToks, and all other search engine and discussion groups, here is a brief rundown of what happened on that fateful night of August 20, 1989: It was a Saturday night when brothers Erik, 18, and Lyle, 21, opened fire against their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their home’s TV room. For weeks, the murder remained a mystery as the police focused their investigation on the mafia and Jose Menendez’s business associates, while the brothers stayed at the iconic Beverly Hills Hotel and spent $700,000 on all sorts of things: cars, clothes, watches, imprudent businesses, more food they could eat, and more.

They almost got away with it, but eventually, Erik’s conscience caved in. He started suffering from depression and suicidal ideation, and during a therapy session, he confessed to committing the crime to his therapist, Dr. Jerome Oziel. This resulted in a complicated patient/doctor relationship, as the therapist started to fear that he would be killed by the brothers in an attempt to cover up their crime. For his own protection, he began recording the therapy sessions, and these records became one of the main pieces of evidence used during the trial. He also told his mistress/girlfriend/ex-girlfriend (who are we to define that?), who later tipped the police about the brothers. Shortly after, the brothers were brought in for interrogation. After a televised trial, in which they were facing death in the gas chamber, the brothers were sentenced to life in prison.  

The new Netflix show Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story has brought the story back into the spotlight, and Gen Z and millennials are reliving the drama their parents experienced on live TV. While the story itself has not changed much, the public perception has changed 180 degrees. Ryan Murphy’s adaptation has been highly praised for portraying every angle of the story and keeping the script close to the trial records. On the other hand, it has been criticized for questioning the sexual abuse Jose Menendez perpetrated while simultaneously over-emphasizing it to the point in which the audience may feel uncomfortable watching. Either way, Murphy’s approach to the story is more artistic than investigative, and in the interview below, he defends his approach:

The brothers aren’t fans of Murphy’s work since some of his creative liberties aren’t true to their story. The suggestion that the brothers were romantic with each other, or that they were snorting cocaine, or even that they were uncaring family members were among the claims that the brothers did not take kindly. Can we blame them? Let’s not forget that aside from being a Netflix drama, this story is also a family’s personal and painful tragedy. 

The Public’s Understanding of Abuse Has Evolved

We must take into account all the shock factors involved with this case. Crimes like this did not happen to nice families living in nice neighborhoods, and people don’t get shot to death in their own TV room. This was also one of the first-ever televised trials, and America was just adjusting to live courtroom dramas. In many ways, this tragedy prepared Americans for O.J. Simpson, but in many more ways, I strongly believe that Americans were not ready for this drama. At first glance, this quickly became a story of wealthy, attractive, and spoiled men getting away with everything they wanted, even crime. At a second glance, this tragedy was the sad and inevitable breaking point from years of mental and sexual abuse. 

The grand difference is the way we understand and approach abuse these days is radically different than what it was in the ‘90s. When asked why they would commit this crime? the brothers struggled to answer but eventually shared about all the sexual and mental abuse they experienced starting at age 6. Monsters goes into incredible detail on all the abuse, and perhaps with our 2024 societal conditioning, we can better understand the kinds of damage this causes in a person with no need to be an expert, but in the ‘90s, when this trial was taking place, people never got to wrap their heads around it fully. There was a slogan saying, “Abuse is not an excuse,” and others thought it was a flat-out lie the brothers had made up in order to get away with murder. While there is truth in abuse not being an excuse and there is certainly a chance that this could have been a lie, with time, more evidence, and our own knowledge of how abuse works, it has been made clear that abuse did happen and the court failed to protect these two suffering young men. 

In an ideal world, the brothers would’ve asked for help sooner, and the tragedy that followed might have been avoided, but even after being arrested, the brothers struggled to talk about the abuse they experienced. This delay was part of what led many to believe that the abuse claims were fake. Nonetheless, I think it’s important to point out that many of the reasons why they feared to share about the abuse were realized: They were ridiculed, they were treated as liars, Erik was even constantly portrayed as gay even though he is a straight married man and has denied being gay for decades now. The public and legal response to their abuse is, in a way, evidence as to why they did not speak up and seek help sooner.  

Many, including the brothers themselves, have argued that this trial would’ve gone much differently had it revolved around sisters instead of brothers. This is a strong point, since, in cases in which the abuse is visible and more evident, people and the courts themselves have shown more compassion. I believe a fair comparison is to the case of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who murdered her own mother in 2015 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Similar to the Menendez brothers, Gypsy killed her mom due to abuse, specifically her mom’s Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy, a condition in which her mother would intentionally either cause Gypsy to be sick or force her to pretend she was in order to gain attention and sympathy. Gypsy was unable to envision a way out of her abuse other than killing her mom, so in the summer of 2015, she convinced her then online boyfriend to murder her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. Gypsy served 85% of her sentence and was released in December 2023 after 8 and a half years in prison. Less than a year after her release, Gypsy Rose has her own reality TV show Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up, documenting her journey back into society, and she has appeared in multiple popular TV shows such as Dr. Phil and The Kardashians. The support for Gypsy after her abuse and its traumatic consequences is undeniable, but how does it compare to the Menendez brothers? I believe the real difference is in the fact that Gypsy is a young woman with visible scars resulting from her suffering, while the Menendez brothers were at the time perceived as attractive, healthy, and wealthy young men.

The visuals matter here. While there is no denying that the brothers did wrong in killing their parents, why was there such little compassion for their trauma? Even after their cousins testified about the abuse, many ruled that the cousins were biased and just wanted to save their relatives from the death penalty. Around 50 people testified to the abuse, and by today’s standards, there was enough evidence of the abuse to make it valid and very relevant in the case, but the public still questioned if this was a phony attempt to escape prison. Even after experts spoke about the evident stunted maturity levels and psychological damage, both resulting from their abuse trauma, which would’ve made Erik mentally a minor at the time of the trial, this seemed to have very little consideration from the court. The abuse claims helped them dodge the gas chamber, but still left them with life sentences. In simpler words, there was no compassion for their suffering and there was a strong drive to not let rich, handsome, privileged men get away with crime for the sake of accessing a fortune. 

Was It All for Money? 

Many argued that the true motive of the crime was to access their father’s $14 million dollar fortune. The main basis for this argument was the fact the brothers confessed during a therapy session that they started to think about murdering their parents after Jose Menendez told his sons he had removed them from his will. The therapy recording was played in court as the main proof of the brothers’ greed and selfishness, but this was continuously questioned since if they knew they were already out of the will, money could not be a motivation. 

You could also argue that this exercise of power, manipulation, and fear over the sons was again crossing the line into a situation of abuse control. Keep in mind the matter of the will was not the only situation of abusive control. Now we know that Jose Menendez paid off Lyle’s girlfriend to have an abortion and tried to coerce her into breaking up with Lyle, even though Lyle wanted to marry her and raise his child. We also know that Erik was continuously sexually abused from age 6 up to the murder, and when Lyle found out and confronted his father, his father threatened him if he told anyone. During the trial, this threat was dismissed since there was no concrete evidence that either Jose Menendez or his wife Kitty were planning to kill their children, and while this is true (thank goodness!), this does not deny the fact that Jose led his sons to believe there was a big punishment ahead if they fell out of line. And let's keep in mind that these boys had already suffered big punishments for challenging their parents in smaller ways and speaking their minds, so I personally have no doubt that they had real reasons to be in fear.

This is an important point to consider because while we can all agree that shooting their own parents was not the solution, giving them life sentences (and almost the gas chamber) was not a fair outcome either. All the evidence points out that Erik and Lyle are not cold-blooded murderers, they are not a threat to society, and their bad choice was made under incredibly damaging psychological pressure. In other court cases, such as Gypsy Rose, this has been taken into consideration, and it has impacted the kind of sentencing and psychological support they received, but this has come as a result of advancements in research on how abuse impacts people, especially children. For example, many thought that the fact that the brothers went on an insane shopping spree right after murdering their parents was a sign they only cared about the money and were showing little remorse, but more recent studies explain this kind of behavior showcases the mental liberation the brothers experienced – like a pressure cooker that suddenly explodes, or a water dam that suddenly cracks. 

Would a Retrial Have Different Results? 

Nothing significant about the case itself has changed, but we as a society have changed. Furthermore, two elements of evidence have unexpectedly come forward since the initial trial. First, Roy Rosello, a member of the boy band Menudo, came forward and shared he was a victim of sexual abuse inflicted by Jose Menendez, and his experiences were very similar to what the Menendez brothers reported. In an interview, Rosello admits he regrets not giving testimony at the brothers’ trial and clarifies he simply wasn’t ready or aware (Rosello lived outside the U.S. at the time and was about the same age as the brothers). He added he is looking forward to testifying and helping the brothers in a retrial as he completely understands the pain and struggle they’ve been through. Secondly, a member of the Menendez family found a letter in which Erik mentions the ongoing abuse, which served to prove that this was not made up while preparing for the trial. Perhaps, people in the ‘90s were not ready to fully understand abuse the way we do today, and that is the main change in this case.

Leslie Abramson, the original lawyer to the Menendez brothers, is now retired and living a quiet life. She rarely talks about the case anymore but has shown support in an appeal and petition for a retrial. Here are the details if you are interested! And I personally wonder if Ryan Murphy’s show, the soon to be released Netflix documentary, and the Peacock investigative piece Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed are all a united effort to bring attention to the case and rewrite the ending of this story? It certainly could. On top of it all, Kim Kardashian recently got involved in the case and is in support of releasing the brothers. There is no doubt that the brothers now have the public support and empathy that they lacked in their initial trial. 

While no retrial can rewrite all the wrongs that occurred in this case and all the suffering this family went through, I do think there is plenty of opportunity for the brothers to experience life outside the state prison and the mental prison they once lived in. Even though they did commit a heinous crime, the more than 30 years of prison they’ve served are more than what similar cases required (again, Gypsy Rose did 8.5 years). I am very curious to see what a new judge and jury would say about the brothers, and there is no doubt that all these shows and documentaries have helped their cause. Could this be our next televised crime? This is a live courtroom full circle story as this case was one of the first to be televised, and now it might be reshown to a society that has evolved to become juries from the comfort of our homes.