New Menendez trial rejected – but resentencing bid could see brothers walk free
A new trial for Lyle and Erik Menendez, after 35 years in prison for the shotgun murder of their parents, has been turned down by the Los Angeles County District Attorney.
However, Nathan Hochman said a decision had not been made on a resentencing bid that could lead to their release.
The brothers were found guilty in the 1989 murders of their entertainment executive father, Jose, and their mother, Kitty Menendez, and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Their latest bid for freedom focuses on new evidence of their father’s sexual abuse.
Read more:
The real case behind the Netflix drama
Monsters star ‘stands with’ Menendez brothers
When could the Menendez brothers be freed?
However, Mr Hochman cast doubt on the evidence and said it was not pertinent to the case.
“Sexual abuse in this situation may have been a motivation for Erik and Lyle to do what they did, but it does not constitute self-defence.”
He also said the brothers’ own testimony of sexual abuse was untrustworthy because they had told five different explanations for why they committed the murder.
Lyle, left, and Erik Menendez in court in 1990. Pic: AP
The Menendez family called the decision “abhorrent” and said he “discredited the trauma” experienced by the brothers.
“Abuse does not exist in a vacuum. It leaves lasting scars, rewires the brain, and traps victims in cycles of fear and trauma,” they said in a statement.
“To say it played no role in Erik and Lyle’s action is to ignore decades of psychological research and basic human understanding.”
The family said new evidence should not be needed, as the justice system failed the brothers back then and “continues to fail them now”.
Lyle and Erik Menendez admitted they killed their parents with a shotgun, but said they feared they were about to kill them due to details of their father’s long-term molestation of Erik being made public.
Prosecutors said at the time there was no evidence of molestation, and many details in the brothers’ story of sexual abuse were not permitted in the trial that led to their conviction in 1996.
Prosecutors accused the brothers of killing their parents for money.
The proposed resentencing for the brothers is still set to be taken up at a March hearing and would make them immediately eligible for parole.
The Menendez case was thrust back into the limelight after Monsters, a Netflix drama telling of their story, and a documentary were recently released.
Elon Musk says he has created a new political party – the America Party –
after asking his followers if he should do so in an online poll.
It follows his public falling out with Republican President Donald Trump.
On Friday, the billionaire had asked his followers on X whether a new US political party should be created.
On Saturday evening he wrote on the same platform: “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!
“When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy.
“Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”
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Trump threatens to ‘put DOGE’ on Musk
The world’s richest man made the announcement just one day after President Trump signed a tax-cut and spending bill into law on Friday, which Musk had fiercely opposed.
Musk had previously said we would form and fund a new political party to unseat lawmakers who supported the bill.
From bromance to bust-up
The Tesla boss backed Trump’s election campaign with more than a quarter of a billion dollars, later rewarded with a high profile role running the newly created department of government efficiency (DOGE).
But observers of the two men, both with huge wealth and reputations, wondered how long the bromance would last.
Donald Trump gave Musk a warm send-off in the Oval Office in May. Pic: Reuters
In May Musk left the role, still on good terms with Trump but criticising key parts of his legislative agenda.
After that, the attacks ramped up, with Musk slamming the sweeping tax and spending bill as a “disgusting abomination” and Trump hitting back in a barbed tit-for-tat.
Trump earlier this week threatened to cut off the billion-dollar federal subsidies that flow to Musk’s companies, and said he would even consider deporting him.
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