Original subtitles

In the criminal justice system,

detectives and prosecutors face daunting challenges

when money is the motive for murder.

[dramatic sting]

Never thought 32-plus years later,

we'd still be talking about the Menendez brothers.

It was a case that captivated the nation.

They've committed a heinous crime.

This case was a phenomenon.

A crime many believed had a clear-cut motive.

They wanted the money and the lifestyle.

It's as simple as that.

My friend's going to spend the rest of his life in jail.

A trial that recaptured the attention of millions

across social media during the pandemic,

which sparked a renewed call for justice.

This younger generation is learning

about the Menendez case.

They believe this was an improper prosecution.

They got what they deserve for a vicious crime.

These men and women dedicate their lives to law and order.

It's the toughest thing I've ever done.

These are their true stories.

♪ ♪

On August 20, 1989, José and Kitty Menendez

were brutally murdered.

The Menendez brothers were convicted

of first-degree murder.

At the time, crime was this, like, black-and-white thing.

They were sentenced to life without parole,

and they've been in prison for more than 30 years now.

Because these are highly notorious defendants,

they think it's a free-for-all for inhumanity.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

In 2021, I wrote a story about the Menendez brothers

and the rise of a social media fanbase for them.

It's pretty shocking, just the amount of engagement.

I mean, some of these videos alone have

2, 3, 4 million views on them.

♪ ♪

It can just really upend things

that we might consider set in stone.

What happened?

[voice breaking] My dad--

- Can you answer the question? - Yes.

OK.

The young people that are making posts about this

and talking about it online--

they're trying to, in their eyes,

overturn a miscarriage of justice.

[dramatic sting]

[eerie music]

[man shouts]

[sobbing]

[siren wailing]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

I remember it was just before midnight.

We were patrolling up in the north end

and we got a call of a shooting at a residence,

and the whole shift showed up.

It was dark out.

They had the house lights on.

The brothers were ordered from their front door

to the driveway area,

where they were told to lay face down and were searched.

Then once they were deemed to be not a threat,

then we tried to figure out what was going on.

♪ ♪

People took turns going in to look at the crime scene,

which was horrific.

♪ ♪

I saw what appeared to be the mom, on all fours

between the couch and the coffee table with her hair

slung over in front of her.

I saw the father sitting on the couch,

slumped back.

♪ ♪

It looked like they had been repeatedly shot

with a shotgun.

I'd never seen anything like that before.

And then I'm back outside dealing with the two brothers.

They seem to be very distraught.

As a police officer, you're very compassionate.

It was a horrible scene.

Officer Angel learned that the victims were

José and Kitty Menendez,

and it was their sons,

18-year-old Erik and 21-year-old Lyle,

who had called 911.

And I was detailed to find out who they were,

who the people in the house were,

and to report back to the supervisor inside.

♪ ♪

The detective sergeant told me to bring the two brothers

down to the station to be interviewed

by the detectives-- in this case, Tom Edmonds.

He was just known as the ultimate

in detectives, very dedicated to his craft.

I got called after midnight to come in.

I got a 20-minute briefing as to what we knew,

and then went to talk to the boys

to see if I could get more information

so we could start putting an investigation together.

I got Erik in there first.

He was extremely distraught, crying, acting very fidgety.

He said he had been to a movie and to the Taste of LA,

which is an event in Santa Monica.

They went home to get Erik's false identification

that he had so they could go to a bar.

That's when they discovered the murder.

The interview was relatively short.

I approached him with kid gloves

and tried to be kind, because I know how

I would have felt if I walked in

and found both parents gunned down.

His brother, Lyle Menendez,

reiterated their whereabouts that evening.

Investigators then asked

who had motive to kill their parents.

They said their father was in a video business

where there was unsavory characters

that he worked with.

I had never heard of José or Kitty Menendez.

I later learned that he was a self-made millionaire

kind of guy.

Investigators delved into the couple's past

to determine how they could have made enemies

on their rise to riches.

José Menendez came to Miami when he was 15 years old,

a Cuban immigrant.

[soft piano music]

Kitty and Josie met at Southern Illinois University.

And she was pretty and bright,

and fell in love.

José and Kitty had two sons, Erik and Lyle,

who they raised in New Jersey.

Uh, this is a Princeton Day School

yearbook from 1983.

Sixth grade.

You can see here, there's Erik, and me next to him

in our class picture.

I was raised in Princeton, New Jersey,

and I grew up with Erik Menendez.

Erik was focused on tennis and we jokingly

gave each other's autographs, because we had decided

that we were both going to be competitors

and win the gold medal in the '92 Olympics.

Lyle had aspirations of going into politics.

I'd been there for the dinner conversations where

José had made the comments about, well, you know,

if you want to be a senator, this is how you got to think

about this, this, and this.

José struck me as a typical immigrant father.

You've come to this country to make a better life

for yourself, for your family.

You've got to do everything to the best of your ability.

José Menendez ended up working at RCA Records,

and then he got this job out here on the West Coast

with Live Entertainment.

[upbeat music]

Erik called me and said, hey, guess what?

I'm moving to LA.

In the fall of 1986, 15-year-old Erik

moved west with his parents, while 18-year-old Lyle

stayed to attend Princeton University.

It was all very positive.

Like, there was nothing negative

that he and I, in our conversation,

saw in their family moving to California.

By all accounts,

the Menendez family found success--

until tragedy struck.

The city of Beverly Hills has been rocked by

a drama at once riveting and chilling.

[tense music]

Company might have been doing business

with people in the mafia.

One of this town's most ambitious, charming,

promising new executives and his wife

were savagely murdered in their home.

I come home, and my mom and dad

had this look on their face.

And they were just like, "John..."

♪ ♪

"Erik's parents are dead."

[breathes shakily]

♪ ♪

I couldn't process it.

I--I could not wrap my mind around

what could have happened.

♪ ♪

Throughout the house, there were no shotgun rounds,

no bloody clothes, no bloody footprints.

The detectives conducted a search looking for a shotgun,

and we didn't find what we were looking for.

We had policemen all over the place

trying to find witnesses.

They found a girl down the street

that said she saw a car pull up,

and two individuals get out and go to the trunk,

and then go in the house.

There was no evidence that

this was a residential robbery.

So it was strictly a hit.

Kill José, kill Kitty.

♪ ♪

It came my way because there were allegations

that it was a mob hit.

It had me questioning a lot things,

my awareness of people around me.

Perfect family to the outside world.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

In 1989, as I was driving to work,

I heard about a murder that had taken place

in Beverly Hills.

And then I got to work, and they said, it's yours.

♪ ♪

And at the time, I was working in

the organized crime unit of the district attorney's office.

Most murder cases are put together by the police

and given to the DA to prosecute.

Occasionally, when you're in a special unit,

you get a murder case at the get-go.

It came my way because there were allegations

that it was a mob hit,

and I met with the detectives pretty early on.

♪ ♪

One of the questions we asked the family

was for enemies.

And they mentioned a man named Noel Bloom,

and a business deal that went sour with José.

Noel Bloom was president of Live Entertainment.

He preceded José Menendez in that job,

and who did have some mafia connections in his life.

And so his name was put out there

early on in the investigation, probably within days.

Noel Bloom had a pretty good alibi,

and that didn't go anywhere once they looked into it.

Once Noel Bloom was ruled out,

investigators continued to explore

José's business dealings.

I had heard that he was just a nightmare to work with.

He yelled and screamed a lot. He was brutal to people.

I had been told that right after his murder,

people were pretty pleased that he was no longer on the Earth.

He was brutal in business.

And we found out that José had bought

a pornographic film operation

from some people that were connected to the mafia

back in New York, New Jersey area.

We found out who he had purchased it from,

and we were able to locate this man

in a hospital in Newark.

When I interviewed him,

he admitted being connected to the underworld.

We told him about this murder scene, and he said,

we would have not made it so messy.

♪ ♪

We wouldn't have killed the wife.

And he said José and them did a standard business operation.

José made money, they made money,

and they parted as great friends.

While detectives hadn't fully eliminated the mafia,

they began looking into Menendez family connections

while in New Jersey and made an unexpected discovery

about Erik and Lyle.

There were rumors throughout--among the family,

the whole Menendez family--

that the boys were going to be disinherited.

This was a red flag all the way.

According to family members, José had grown wary

of his inheritance ending up in the hands

of his sons' girlfriends.

He was also disappointed in his sons' recent brush

with criminal behavior.

We did a background check on them

and learned that they had had a problem out in Calabasas,

doing residential burglaries of their friends.

They stole, like, $100,000 in cash and jewelry,

and they got caught doing that.

That's weird.

I mean, that's a weird thing to do when your father is making

the kind of money he was.

José Menendez, he was embarrassed that his sons

were involved in this-- these burglaries,

and he made a deal with the district attorney's office.

He fixed it so that Erik would plead guilty

to these burglaries,

and then Erik would only face juvenile charges.

And he ended up getting probation

and had to see a psychologist for six months,

and Lyle was not mentioned in it at all.

Lyle was supposed to be the golden child.

And it was protect Lyle,

which I'm sure was hard on Erik.

♪ ♪

Investigators also learned that José had

a $650,000 life insurance policy

that the brothers inherited right after his death.

They just went shopping immediately.

They bought a Porsche Carrera motorcar,

and they bought Rolexes.

They bought a Jeep.

Erik hired a tennis coach.

He was going to go to UCLA,

but then he decided, well, he wouldn't go to UCLA.

He was this hot tennis player, and he hired a guy

for $60,000 a year to be his coach.

This didn't show signs of very deep sadness,

in our mind.

People were trying to make a big deal about

when they went on this big spending spree.

They were spending money before,

but just somebody else was signing the check.

Lyle went to Princeton,

and Lyle bought a restaurant there after the murders,

a Buffalo wings restaurant.

He spent half a million dollars

and he thought this would be the beginning

of him being a big businessman like his father.

Erik and Lyle were never people to just

sit there and do nothing.

It was, you've got to stay active.

You've got to be productive.

♪ ♪

They wanted away from their parents,

but they wanted the money and the lifestyle.

It's as simple as that.

And I kept saying to the cops, find me those guns.

Because once we can hook them up with any guns,

we can prove that they're the killers,

and not somebody else.

Investigators pushed together evidence

to implicate the brothers.

But seven months after the murders,

no new leads had been released by police,

creating more questions than answers

for the public and the media.

It was just in the news constantly.

I couldn't escape it.

I don't know who killed them,

but I know it wasn't Erik and Lyle.

Erik stopped by my parents' house,

and he was like, I just wanted to say hi to you

and let you know I'm OK.

And my dad told me when he, you know--

when he talked to Erik, he was like, all he wanted to do

was give him a hug 'cause he just felt so horrible.

Um...

♪ ♪

During the investigation,

the case was on the back burner

because we didn't have any good information going.

This investigation wasn't easy at all,

up until the point where a young lady

by the name of Judalon Smyth

appeared in the detective bureau

While investigators hit a dead end

trying to build a case against the Menendez brothers

in March 1990,

a woman named Judalon Smyth came forward

with explosive information.

She said that she was the girlfriend of a psychologist

named Dr. Jerome Oziel, and she had been dating him,

and she did not like him anymore.

But he had told her that the boys had confessed

that they had murdered their parents.

And not only had they confessed to it,

he had it on audiotape.

[dramatic music]

When the brothers did the burglary in Calabasas,

their attorney said, go talk to Oziel,

and it will be better for you that you're

trying to deal with your problems

in a therapeutic setting.

So that's what they did.

And then after the murders, Erik went back.

Because Erik, emotionally, had a lot tougher time

with what he'd done than his brother,

or at least he felt the need to go see Dr. Oziel.

Dr. Oziel actually violated client-doctor relationships,

but I also knew there was good potential

that it would help our case.

And the key, in my book, was Judalon Smyth

told us that the shotguns were bought in San Diego.

♪ ♪

There's only so many gun stores in San Diego.

Les and I went to the Big Five as our second store,

and when you buy a gun, it's in a big ledger.

And we went to the proper date sequence,

and we noticed the name Donovan Goodreau.

We knew Donovan Goodreau was Lyle's friend from Princeton.

He didn't go there,

but he hung out with the Princeton kids.

Goodreau had called police right after the murders

to ask what had happened,

which is when they learned who he was.

Donovan Goodreau was interviewed by the police

and quickly ruled out as the purchaser of the guns.

He was back east when the guns were purchased.

So no, he was not in San Diego that day.

We learned that Donovan Goodreau lost his ID,

or it was stolen.

Goodreau said he had last seen his ID

in Lyle's dorm room that spring

and suspected the brothers still had it.

The Menendez boys had bought two shotguns,

two Mossberg 12-gauges,

and a box of ammunition

using Donovan Goodreau's stolen or found identification.

That's enough to file the case.

♪ ♪

[dramatic sting]

♪ ♪

The day of the arrest, Lyle and his pals

were going to lunch in the Jeep,

and they were southbound from his house.

But we had a radio car pull them over

and take him into custody in a full felony pullover--

face down on the pavement and the whole number.

[sirens whoop, wail]

My immediate response was, this is bogus.

And how are they accusing, you know,

my buddy and his brother for this?

This is ridiculous.

I tried to call Erik after I got the news.

[phone ringing] I got voicemail.

Erik is a world-class tennis player

and had been playing in tournaments.

And in this present tournament,

we'd learned that he was, in fact, in Israel,

from his attorney,

and the attorney set it up for him to come back.

Erik Menendez was taken into custody on the tarmac at LAX

by our detectives.

People kill their parents all the time.

Rich people from Beverly Hills don't.

And that's why this case was a phenomenon.

[energetic music]

I've heard of very few murders that were

more savage than this one was.

[tense music]

We had to have two juries because

if defendant number one confesses

and implicates defendant number two,

you can't put that statement on unless you can clean it up,

or he has his own jury.

So both Lyle and Erik had made

all these statements that implicated the other,

so we had two juries.

Leslie Abramson was the lead counsel for Erik.

A lot of people in LA that will tell you that, I mean--

that Leslie Abramson was one of the best attorneys to have

if you have a homicide case.

When modern audiences are encountering

the footage of the trial,

one of the main stars of that footage

is Leslie Abramson.

You owe us as jurors one thing only--

that you must entertain the possibility

that we're telling the truth.

Jill Lansing was the lead counsel for Lyle.

She was a well-respected public defender

and went into private practice.

And the first line out of the mouth of Jill Lansing was...

Lyle and Erik Menendez

killed their parents.

You don't hear that much from a defense attorney.

We're not disputing where it happened,

how it happened, who did it.

The only thing that you are going

to have to focus on in this trial is why it happened.

What we will prove to you is it was done out of fear.

When the defense made their opening statement,

you could hear the judge breathing.

It was that quiet in the courtroom.

And I thought, oops, we're in trouble.

On July 20, 1993, the Menendez trial began.

There was so much public interest in this trial

because of all the elements-- rich kids

killing their parents, Beverly Hills.

You know, there was an unbelievable amount

of interest, much more than a normal murder trial.

[dramatic music]

In this particular case, they had already confessed.

But I said, I will go in with an open mind

and listen to what they present and be fair.

Certain incidents happened right before the parents died

which led these children to believe

that they were about to be killed.

And they acted.

The argument on why the Menendez brothers

did what they did was quite likely the first time

that many Americans had ever heard

this sort of argument being made.

This trial will take you behind the façade

of the rich houses, the fancy cars,

the wealthy friends,

and impressive social engagements.

It will take you to the life

that was experienced by Lyle Menendez

and his brother as they grew up.

Perfect family to the outside world.

But inside that home, it was a disaster.

Lyle's father grabbed him and socked him square in the face,

and said, if you ever embarrass me again, I will kill you.

There is a jury instruction that says that if you have

an honest but unreasonable belief

and the need for self-defense,

you get a voluntary manslaughter.

♪ ♪

You're not convicted of either first or second-degree murder.

So I knew that's what they were going for.

♪ ♪

What do you believe was the originating cause

of you and your brother ultimately winding up

shooting your parents?

Um, me telling...

You telling what?

Me telling Lyle that, uh...

[breathes shakily]

- OK. - [crying]

My dad...

- Can you answer the question? - Yes.

OK. It was you telling Lyle what?

That my dad had been molesting me.

♪ ♪

I was completely caught off guard.

Um, I was devastated.

Were you seeking help from your brother?

Yes.

I didn't doubt that. Families keep dark secrets,

and there are secrets that every family has.

But it had me questioning a lot of things about myself,

my awareness of people around me.

I went all the way down that path of, like,

could I have done something?

Should I have noticed something to have prevented this?

I believed every word he said.

Lyle said that he was sexually assaulted

and even raped by his father

between the ages of four and six.

[crying] I just told him, I don't--

I don't...

I just told him that I didn't want to do this,

and that it hurt me.

And he said that he didn't mean to hurt me,

that he loved me.

And that was astounding because Lyle was, you know,

presented as kind of a hard guy, the tough guy,

the guy who wouldn't break down.

Now you had tears flowing down his eyes,

and I thought, you know, it was believable.

It stopped for you with your dad when you were eight.

When you were about 13,

did you think that it might be happening to someone else?

Yes.

And who did you think it was happening to?

Erik.

I told him that I knew what was going on with him and Erik,

and that I heard noises,

and that I wanted him to leave Erik alone.

Did he tell you it stopped?

He did.

[pensive music]

On August 15, 1989,

Lyle learned the abuse had never stopped.

When Lyle came home that summer,

Erik confessed to Lyle that the molestation

was still going on.

And Lyle got infuriated, and he--

very protective with his younger brother.

So he confronted José.

He said, um,

"What I do with my son is none of your business."

Then he--he said that, uh,

"Let me tell you what's going to happen.

He said, "You're going back to Princeton

"and your brother's going to UCLA, like we planned.

And we're going to forget this conversation ever took place."

And, uh, I swore and told him he was a----ing sick person.

And I told him no, and that he wasn't going

to touch my brother again, and I threatened him.

How did you threaten him?

I told him that I would tell everybody

everything about him.

And, uh, that was a mistake.

When the Menendez brothers took the stand,

they testified that fear and tension

exploded in the household

after José was threatened about the abuse.

[dramatic sting]

You were confronted by your father in your bedroom?

Yes.

Uh, he was banging on my door saying,

open the goddamn door now.

He was saying that he had told me never to tell Lyle,

and that he had warned me not to do that.

And now Lyle was going to tell everyone,

and he was not going to let that happen.

And did he ever tell you what the consequence

would be of telling anyone?

He would kill me.

The brothers testified that on Friday, August 18,

they bought two shotguns for protection.

In the subsequent days, they planned

to stay out of the house as much as possible.

But on Sunday, August 20, everything came to a head.

They were going to go to a movie that night,

and they were told they couldn't go out, which--

they always went out different places,

but they were told they had to stay home.

Mom said something like, you ruined this family.

It was clear that something was going to happen.

Why? What did you see?

Just from my mom's face, if you know her different looks.

And she has many different looks.

What was this look, Mr. Menendez?

It was just a stone, resolved look.

And I just freaked out.

Did you go get your gun?

I did.

What did you do?

I got my gun.

They broke in the doors to the den,

and Erik went first.

What do you remember happened?

I just remember firing.

And then Lyle went in.

You could hear things breaking,

and you could hear the ringing noises from the booms,

and there was the smoke from the guns.

And, uh, it was basically just chaos.

The brothers testified that after the shooting,

they thought the police would come because of the noise--

but no one showed up.

We talked about the fact that nobody had come,

so then we started to talk about what we wanted to do.

The brothers decided to hide the truth,

not wanting to reveal what prompted the killings

or what they had done.

They started thinking about fingerprints on the shells,

so they picked them all up.

And the weapons, they had ditched them

on a hill up in Mulholland.

They weren't overly sophisticated,

so they got caught.

♪ ♪

[stereo clicks]

The cross-examination dealt a lot

with their preparation, which shows premeditation,

and the lies they told to people.

[stereo clicks]

Yes.

Um, yes.

You emphasize that they are pathological, practiced liars.

And therefore, ladies and gentlemen of the jury,

they're lying to you, too.

I didn't believe the prosecution.

I believed the testimony of all the people

that were connected to the family.

And Lyle would have been about

- five years old at this time? - Yes, yes.

José stood up, uh, grab him.

How did he hit Lyle?

With his closed fist.

[somber music]

There was an avalanche of family members and coaches

and family acquaintances on the stand

who all pushed this fact

that the boys were molested and mistreated

their whole life.

- He was afraid. - Why?

Because he and his dad had been touching each other,

and he indicated that it was in his genital area.

And it drew great sympathy, I think,

from people watching the trial, and a lot of emotion.

He told me his father was massaging his (BLEEP).

- He used that word? - Yes, he did.

How could that many people

give the same synopsis of what was going on in that household?

He was saying it very seriously,

and I took it very seriously.

♪ ♪

The uncertainty of their youth

that came across, because of what a monster

that their father was-- I believed it.

But that said, you know, you talk to Pam Bozanich,

and she didn't believe it from the get-go.

One of the relatives came to me before the trial started.

And this relative said that she had been to visit Lyle

in the county jail, and that Lyle had told her

what the defense was going to be.

And she said, "But, Lyle, you know that's not true."

And he says to her, "Well, that's how it's going to be."

So she looks at me, and I said,

"Well, I can't call you as a witness, right?"

And she said, "No, I won't testify to that,

but that's what he told me."

♪ ♪

They didn't get together and make this story up.

And the main thing that convinced me

was the grandmother.

Grandmother Maria Menendez sat in the courtroom every day

for the whole time we were there,

and she was there to support the boys 100%.

If one of my grandchildren did that to one of my children,

I would disown them.

Why would that woman be so supportive?

She knew they were telling the truth.

In December of 1993,

after five months of trial and 101 witnesses,

jury deliberations began.

We took a first vote.

Six women, manslaughter.

Six men, first-degree.

The men said the boys were lying.

Women believed totally different.

I think Erik's jury went 16 days of deliberation

and Lyle's went, like, 25 days,

which was the longest deliberation

in the history of a jury in California.

We were so far apart.

One man pounded on the table and called me a white bitch.

We were hopelessly deadlocked.

♪ ♪

It came down that they have a hung jury,

and so it's being declared a mistrial.

We didn't have a chance to talk to the jurors

at any length at all.

They merely told us that at one point

it was nine for voluntary manslaughter

and three for second-degree murder,

and it switched and ended up as it did.

And Erik's jury broke not entirely on gender lines,

but all five first-degree votes were men.

I just couldn't process that.

How was it a hung jury?

I believed the defense.

There was a lot of criticism of the fact

that the jury hadn't convicted.

I'm angered and frustrated and all of that at the outcome

of the last, uh, two juries.

An awful lot of people, when they heard the abuse excuse,

they did not buy it, they did not at all.

There was a lot of money to conjure up

a very fancy defense.

[dramatic sting]

[pensive music]

Second trial, which was totally different

from the first trial, was not televised.

There were no cameras. They had one jury.

There were very few witnesses called

in the prosecution case, and then a number of motions

were filed by the other DAs

to limit the scope of the defense case.

For one thing, the judge is already making

indications he's going to severely limit the defense.

He's going to limit our right to put on the facts,

which is quite extraordinary.

While the brothers remained in jail

the year and a half between trials,

aspects of the justice system changed.

In between trial number one and trial number two,

the chief justice of the California Supreme Court

issued a decision that your fear

and your use of self-defense has to be immediate.

Like, right now.

Not, we went to the car and loaded the guns.

There was no self-defense

that was really applicable in this case.

Given the effectiveness of the defense

in the initial trial,

the prosecutors were able to kind of plan for that.

One thing that we have asked the judge to do is to limit

the so-called abuse excuse, to limit evidence

that has nothing to do with this case.

From what I understand and what I heard,

the jurors on the second trial

didn't hear half of what we heard on the first trial.

The second trial wasn't covered heavily

like the first trial.

But there were 30 or 40 cameras outside in Van Nuys

waiting that day when they announced the verdict.

[tense music]

On March 20, 1996,

the verdict for the second trial of the Menendez brothers

was announced.

I really can't comment upon, uh--

Excuse us. Move out of the way, please.

Lyle and Erik Menendez, both guilty

of the first-degree murders of their mother and father.

The jury recommended life in prison

without parole for gunning down their parents

6 and 1/2 years ago.

People throughout this country wondered why

the defendants were not convicted in the first trial.

It's very gratifying to see to it

that justice was done in this case.

♪ ♪

I was--I was devastated.

[somber music]

All I kept thinking was,

my friend's going to spend the rest of his life in jail.

He and I are never going to hang ever again.

The probation department recommends

that they can be kept together,

and that they will be an asset to any institution they are in.

Whether you agreed with the verdict

and the sentence or not,

the bottom line is they did murder their parents.

I still believe that the Menendez brothers

did what they did out of fear,

because they felt that they were going to be killed.

I certainly never felt that what I did

was justified or right.

It was just a question of, how wrong was it?

While opinions remained divided

after the Menendez brothers' conviction,

their story was far from over.

In 2017,

a television network runs a tell-all documentary

with Erik Menendez describing the case

from his point of view in prison.

And then that ends up on a major streaming service

a few years later, and it really started catching on

for a lot of younger viewers,

especially in the wake of the MeToo movement

and the notion that sexual abuse victims

had not been treated fairly by culture,

and by the criminal justice system.

As Millennials and Gen Z were introduced

to the Menendez murders during the COVID pandemic,

the brothers were catapulted

into the social media limelight.

And when this younger generation

is learning about the Menendez case,

they're able to draw on

a very kind of vivid primary source,

which is the recording of this trial.

All right. You may proceed.

Thank you.

Court TV put the trial on their streaming service

during the pandemic.

The Menendez TikTok defenders believe that

even though this case has been adjudicated

and they've been through appeals,

they should have been convicted of manslaughter

rather than first-degree murder.

Because if they had been convicted of manslaughter,

they would be out of prison by now.

A problem at the trial was the gender bias.

That because we were dealing with males

in an incest family, that--

the sort of perception is that, well, maybe

it was, uh, something that he wanted,

something that he allowed to happen.

Um, that he shouldn't be allowed to feel afraid.

There are letter-writing campaigns

to California politicians and prosecutors

to revisit their sentence.

Supporters also bring attention

to the good the brothers are doing

as cause for their release.

They are leading therapy groups in prison

for, you know, their fellow inmates,

trying their best to make amends

and to do some good in the world.

In the world of prisons and life without parole,

we've learned that life without parole

certainly does not necessarily mean that.

Uh, things get changed, you know, down the line.

As far as I understand, the Menendez brothers

do know about the support and continue to make various moves

in the criminal justice system, and their supporters

see some sliver of hope for having

a real, actionable outcome.

I believe as a society,

we need to continue moving forward in our understanding

of human nature, and I applaud the TikTokers

for their desire for that.

I'm not afraid of the Menendez brothers,

but my sense of justice would be offended if they got out.

They've committed a heinous crime

and they don't, in my opinion,

deserve to be released on parole.

Justice was served.

They got what they deserve for a vicious crime

where two people got murdered.

I don't think they'll get out.

They've tried appeals several times.

But it would be nice if they had a little good part

of this life we're in.

My hope is that Erik and Lyle find peace,

in whatever that means for them.