All language subtitles for Law.and.Order.True.Crime.S01E04.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-NTb_track3_[eng]

.

[dramatic music]

*

- Defendants
Erik and Lyle Menendez,

how do you plead?

- Not guilty.
- Not guilty.

- Jerry told me everything.

- You violated
the doctor-patient privilege.

- She was at risk.
We both were.

As I told you,
Lyle had threatened me.

- There were
a series of sessions

between Dr. Oziel

and the defendants.

I have ruled that none
of these communications

are privileged.

- Erik, what if I could
make the nightmares stop?

- When I was five or six,

Dad would massage my penis
with his mouth.

- Yesterday, he told me
when he turned 11,

his father started raping him.

- As a mother,
and a human being,

I believe it.

As a lawyer, I will believe it

when I can prove it.

*

- I never told anyone.

Dad said
if anyone ever found out,

that something bad
would happen to me.

- How about Dr. Oziel?
Did you tell him?

- No. He reported everything
back to my parents.

That was the arrangement.

- How about after the murders?

- [sighs]

Lyle and I made a deal
not to talk about it.

We didn't--
we didn't want anyone

to have a bad impression
of our parents.

- I thought Dad stopped
after I confronted him.

- That couldn't have been
easy to do.

- No. If I had known he was
still doing that to Erik,

I never would've gone
to Princeton.

Never would've left him alone

in that house.

- Lyle knew about your abuse.

- He figured it out
when I was 12.

That Dad was doing stuff
to me.

Like rough stuff.

[somber music]

And he went up to Dad

and told him to stop, but...

Just made things worse.

- What will happen
if you ever tell anyone again?

- You'll hurt me.

- Wrong!

What will I do?

- You'll kill me.

- That's right.

[dramatic music]

*

[melancholy music]

- I believed him.

I was nothing to him.

- What about you, Lyle?

- What about me, what?

[suspenseful music]

*

[reporters clamoring]

- Listen, we have kids
killing their parents

all the time
in South Central Los Angeles,

and nobody writes about that.

This is just another
domestic murder

with a bit of glitz.

- The signatures don't match.
Even I can see that.

Goodreau did not sign
the gun permit application.

- Well, Les, go to
forensics school

get yourself a degree,

then you can tell the experts

to go screw themselves.

- Ugh.

Feel like the police gods
are laughing at us, Tommy.

12 months and all we've got

is the word of
a complete nutjob.

[phone rings]

- Zoeller.
Go, go, go.

Hey, how's it going?

Yeah? Where is it?

Okay, thanks.

Erik's Ford Escort
has been located.

It's in New Jersey.

- Great. It'll take months
to get an out-of-state warrant.

[ominous music]

- Not my way.

*

[dramatic music]

[sirens wailing]

*

- License and registration,
please.

- Yes, sir, officer.

Did I do something wrong?

- Registration's expired.

I have to take this vehicle
down to the station house.

Step out, please.

*

- [sighs]

- Nothing, huh? He checked.

Tore the car apart,

right, okay, well,

send me the report.

I appreciate the help.

No gunpowder residue,

no blood traces.

- Ticket stubs for "Batman"?
- No.

Police gods are
really kicking our ass, Tommy.

*

- Erik has a natural
acting talent.

I don't know if he could
make a living at it,

but as far as commitment
and enthusiasm go,

he was a star.

- He told me his parents

made him withdraw
from your class.

- His father didn't think
acting was good enough

for his son.

I felt terrible for Erik.

It was like he had the life
knocked out of him.

- Did he ever talk about
his life at home? His dad?

- I never got the sense
he found much joy there.

He had ways of communicating
his unhappiness.

One time, he surprised
the class

with a soliloquy from
"Richard II."

- I have been studying

how I may compare this prison

where I live
unto the world.

And for, because the world
is populous,

and here is not a creature
but myself,

I cannot do it.

Yet I'll hammer it out.

Thoughts tending to ambition,

they do plot unlikely wonders:

How these vain, weak nails

may tear a passage
through the flinty ribs

of this hard world,
my ragged prison walls,

and, for they cannot,

die in their own pride.

[applause]

[melancholy music]

*

- The class was mesmerized.

It's about King Richard's
loneliness in prison.

When I asked him
why he chose that piece,

he said it was because
I'd said

how difficult it was.

Especially for him.

- Why especially?

- He has dyslexia.

- Really?

He never mentioned it.

- The school didn't know,
either.

When I asked his mother,

she said he'd been diagnosed
years earlier.

- His mother never told
the school?

- She acted like his dyslexia
was an embarrassment.

It's too bad.

There was so much
we could've done for Erik.

- Sounds like it would've
been Jose's idea

not to inform the school.

Kitty deferred to him
on all things

that concerned their sons.

- I'm really trying to get
a fix

on what kind of a mother
she was.

So why did she come to see you?

- Depression.

She found out her husband
had multiple affairs.

She blamed her sons for getting
in between her and Jose.

Her whole world
revolved around Jose.

- I didn't get any sleep
last night.

You know I've had insomnia

for weeks now.

[sighs]

Just when I was dozing off,

I hear Erik screaming
in his bedroom.

- What happened?

- [sighs]
I thought, "Jesus Christ,

he's gonna wake up Jose."

So much racket.

So I went in his room.

- Was Erik okay?

[haunting music]

- He was fine.

*

It was just a nightmare.

But from the way
he was shaking...

- What'd you do?

*

- I didn't do anything
to him.

It was just a nightmare.

- I meant, "What did you do
to comfort him?"

*

- I took him to his bathroom

and made him take
a cold shower.

Like my father used to do

with my brothers
when they had nightmares.

*

- How comforting.

Did she ever hint,
or imply,

that Erik was sexually abused
by Mr. Menendez?

- No.

But she once told me there were
"sick secrets" in the house.

She never would explain
what she meant.

- Just talked to Erik's doctor
and his tennis coaches.

They didn't see any evidence
of sex abuse.

And he never said anything
to them.

- It's hard to imagine,
if it went on as long

as Erik says, his mother
wouldn't have noticed

and done something.

- I can't figure Kitty out.

She told her shrink

their family had
"sick secrets,"

but didn't say what.

- Maybe Kitty
didn't understand.

Maybe she was afraid.

- I don't think she had
a maternal bone in her body,

but we need this to make sense
to us,

never mind the jury.

[beeping]

Oh, fantastic.

Diane Sawyer has an interview
with our favorite whack-a-doo.

- Judalon?

- Yeah. Just aired
on the east coast.

It's explosive.
- [sighs]

- Are Lyle and Erik Menendez
guilty?

Did they murder their parents?

- Yes, they did.

- You know this?

- Yes, I heard it
from their own mouths

that they killed
their parents.

- What did she say?
What did she say?

- Mentiras, Mama.
It's just mentiras.

- She says that at
Dr. Oziel's request,

she was right up there
in his fourth-floor office,

listening in the next room

when Erik and Lyle
met with Oziel

on that Halloween night
last year.

- I can't believe
Grandma's watching this.

Aunt Terry, Aunt Marta,

our whole family's watching
this, Lyle.

- Erik said that Lyle
made him take the first shot.

One of the things
that Lyle said

that was really disturbing
to me was

"Well, for once,
my father would have to

congratulate me on
planning the perfect murder."

- Dios mio.
- Carlos.

We don't know it's the truth.

For what would they kill
their parents?

- $14 million.

- Erik and Lyle
had no idea about money.

They thought it grew on trees.

Shame on you

for believing a stranger

over your own nephews.

Family is everything.

That's what Jose would say.

- Why didn't Dr. Oziel
go to the police?

- There was the issue
of doctor-patient privilege

and Jerry made audio notes.

He has tapes of Lyle and Erik
confessing

- And indeed, that tip
from Judalon Smyth

led police to Dr. Oziel's home

and bank vault,

where they confiscated
17 tape recordings.

- That's it.

There's no question
they did it.

- Now, Lyle,
this is a diabolical creature.

Jerry compared him
to Ted Bundy.

- What are they gonna
think of us?

- It's gonna be okay, Erik.

We just need to...

To...

[breathes raggedly]

Just keep it together, Erik.

[somber music]

*

.

- She gave an interview
to Diane Sawyer.

Today she's in "Vanity Fair,"

spewing her lies
to Dominick Dunne,

all with the DA's blessing.

The jury pool is
being poisoned, Your Honor.

- These interviews
are as much a shock to us

as they are to the defense.

- Come on, Pam.
The DA himself appeared

on Diane Sawyer's show.

- Your Honor, Judalon Smyth
has half the county believing

there is a taped confession
by my clients.

Dr. Oziel's tapes
are compromised.

The only fair thing is for you

to reverse your decision

and keep the tapes out.

- Nice try, Ms. Abramson.

Maybe what needs to happen

is for you and Ms. Ferrero

to work out a plea bargain.

- This crime so offends
the district attorney,

I can't imagine anything

Miss Abramson has to offer
would satisfy us.

- Ms. Ferrero has no qualms

making deals with
contract killers

and serial rapists.

Her cynicism
is what's offensive.

- She said I was the worst sex
of her life.

That's defamation, Ross,
not to mention

physically impossible.

- It's not worth it, Jerry.

I'm sorry.
I have to go.

- [sighs]

[grunting]

- My father had this creed
he made us learn.

"Today, I will be master
of my emotions.

"If I feel depressed,
I will sing.

"If I feel sad, I will laugh.

"If I feel fear,
I will plunge ahead.

I will be master
of my emotions."

- And why was mastering
your emotions important?

- Dad thought it was
a sign of weakness

to show emotion.

We had to be strong.

That's why Erik and I
never told anyone

what was happening to us.

To him.

- You said "us."

What was happening
to you?

I'm only here to listen, Lyle.

I know you're in pain.

Vicary thinks
that I can help you,

and I think I can.

But that first step
has to be yours.

- It wasn't right.

Parents aren't supposed to--

She'd make me touch her.

*

- Your mother.

- Yes.

When I was 11,

she'd make me come
into her bed

and do things to her

I knew I shouldn't be doing.

*

- I knew there was
something off about her,

but I never would've
guessed that.

- So Erik was abused
by his father

from the age of six,

and Lyle was abused at...

11 by his mother.

Even in its perversity,
it doesn't make sense.

Like there's a piece missing.

- There is.

Jon and I feel that Lyle
was abused by Jose as well.

- Then why tell us
about his mother?

- Probably testing the waters.

A boy being abused
by his mother

is in some ways
more acceptable to him.

- Devil's advocate:
Maybe the reason

Erik and Lyle's stories
don't line up

is the same reason
we can't find any evidence

to back them up,
because they are not true.

- Inconsistencies don't mean
the boys are lying.

Just means that maybe

they haven't told us
the whole story yet.

- Well, how long
till they do that?

*

- Did you think about it?

- Yeah.

- You okay with it?

- That's it.
Let's go.

[somber music]

*

- We want to tell our family
the truth.

- We don't want them to hear it
from anyone else.

Is that okay?

- I think it's
the right thing to do.

You boys made
the right decision.

- We'll help any way we can.

- Thank you.

*

- This is good.

I needed to know
they would come clean.

- How have you boys been?

Are you getting enough food?

- It's fine, Aunt Marta.

Uh, there's something
Erik and I feel

the family needs to know,

and, uh, we're counting on you
to tell the others.

Erik and I killed our parents.

[dramatic music]

It wasn't for the money.

Dad was molesting my brother.

He molested Erik--
- Why would you say that?

The only thing your father
has left is his name.

Now you want to take that away,
too?

- Mom, too.
She molested me, too.

- [cries] Did things to me t--

- No, no, no.

- Dios mío.

- I don't want to hear it.

- Carlos. Let them speak.

- It is the truth,
Uncle Carlos.

We want to take responsibility
for what we did.

But we want the family to know.

Mom and Dad did things to us

they needed to
take responsibility for, too.

- So that's why
you killed them?

[shouts]

- Carlos...

- That's no excuse
to take a life.

- No, it's not.

But we thought we were fighting
for our lives.

- Enough!

I've heard enough.

- [speaking Spanish]

- Please. [sobs]
We love our parents.

We love you guys,

and please, please forgive us.

[dramatic music]

*

[sobs]

*

- The police have nothing,

your best witnesses,
Oziel and Judalon,

are pieces of crap
on the sea of life,

and once the tapes are out,
Pam, you're--

- There's no plea offer
forthcoming.

Kids killing their parents
is a crime against society.

- You said so yourself,

kids kill their parents
all the time.

- And in California, those kids
don't end up on death row.

What if I told you
there was sexual abuse

in the family?

- Nothing you pull out of
your hat surprises me, Leslie.

Sorry, Jill, there'll be
no deals on this one.

[elevator bell dings]

- Ira...

You are using these boys
as a pawn to get reelected.

It is desperate
and it's unfair.

These are not violent people.

Erik and Lyle
are not career criminals.

Okay, look me in the eye
right now

and tell me you believe
these boys deserve to die.

You know they don't.

- Leslie, I speak on behalf

of every attorney
in this office

when I say
I've had it with you.

Call the deputies.
I need Ms. Abramson

escorted out of here.

- You can't bully me, Ira.

- Let's go.
- Out.

- It's wrong and you know it.

Well, that went well.
- No, it didn't, Leslie.

It didn't go well at all.

We just blew our only chance
for a plea bargain

and now the boys will
go to trial for their lives.

[melancholy music]

.

- Dad told me

if I screamed...

He would hit me so hard

that I would never be able
to cry or scream again.

Imagine that I had a gun
to my head.

[sniffs] That was the fear
that I had.

I live with that fear
every day.

[breathing raggedly]

- How could you?

You lied to me.

- Jamie, please.

- You killed your parents!

And you're still lying.

You're sick.

[ominous music]

*

[rips paper]

- Jamie, I understand.

You have to do
what's right for you.

You've been a part
of this family for so--

Jamie's moving
out of the guest house.

She doesn't want to see Lyle
anymore.

I know this all
must have been very confusing.

- Mom...

What Erik said
about Uncle Jose...

It's true.

[somber music]

*

- Erik made me promise

not to tell my mom
about the massages

that his dad was giving him.

It was a pinky promise,

but I was ten, so I thought--

- We know about pinky promises.

So, when you would visit

your Uncle Jose
and your Aunt Kitty,

did your Uncle Jose
do anything to you?

- No.

- Did you notice anything else?

Thing that might have
made you uncomfortable?

*

- Uh...
[clears throat]

Well, this one time,
before bed,

Uncle Jose took Erik and Lyle
into the bathroom

to take a shower together.

- The three of them?
- Yes.

They had this shower
with three heads.

And after they came out,

Uncle Jose took them
into a room

to "play a game."

- What kind of game?

- I don't know.

He'd lock the door
and wouldn't let me play.

They were in there
for almost an hour.

*

- [crying]
- What'd you play?

*

What do you play?

- [sniffs]

*

[cries]

*

- He went right to bed.

He didn't talk.

- Well, thank you, Andy.
You've been very brave.

And we'll talk more later.

Until then, don't discuss this
with anyone, okay?

Marta, you too.

- Okay.

[somber music]

*

- Here you go.

Ma'am.
- Thank you.

- Are you kidding me?

They upheld
Albracht's decision.

The tapes are in.
All of 'em.

- It gets worse.
They're releasing

Oziel and Judalon's
sealed testimony.

- Well...

I can think of one person
who will be more pissed

about this than we are.

- It is outrageous

that the court released
testimony

given under seal,

so I feel compelled
to address the lies

Judalon Smyth told in court.

First of all...

I never asked her
to eavesdrop on my patients.

I never disclosed to her
the contents of any session.

I never hypnotized her
or gave her drugs.

None of her accusations
are true.

She wasn't even my patient.

That's all we have to say.

Before I leave,

I'd like to send a message

to Erik and Lyle,

tell them I'm thinking of them,

I care for them a great deal,

and I wish Leslie Abramson

the best of luck
in defending them.

- If Dr. Oziel wants to be
helpful to the boys,

tell him to go kill himself.

- You have messages from

Soble at the "Times,"

Brand from the "Miami Herald"--

- Has Tim called?
- No,

but your brother did.

- 717?
That's not his area code.

- He said that's the number
you asked him for.

[dramatic music]

*

[phone rings]

- Hello?

- Uh, hi.

This is Leslie Abramson.

Is this Sol?

- Because Jose died first,

the estate passed to Kitty,

before she was killed.

Now, those boys can't profit
from their crime,

so the estate

goes to Kitty's
immediate family.

To us.

- Those boys get nothing.

- But they haven't
been convicted.

- They confessed.
See, that's why

we have to file the lawsuit

as soon as possible.

So they don't waste it all.

- They need to pay
for their sins.

- They are our nephews, Milton!

Kids who I believe
were terribly abused.

- That's all a bunch of crap.

We're done with these brats.

- So you can be
that cold-blooded?

- Who you calling cold-blooded?

- I want you out of my house.

Both of you.

[dramatic music]

*

It's unbelievable,
what money can do.

*

- Uncle Brian doesn't know
what he's talking about.

- What do you mean?

*

- I spent the summer
at Uncle Jose

and Aunt Kitty's house

when I was 15.
Lyle was eight.

He told me what Uncle Jose
was doing to him.

I told Aunt Kitty.
She called me a little liar

and dragged him upstairs
and shut the door.

We never talked
about it again.

- Did you tell anyone else?

- No.
I didn't know what to do.

I was only 15.

I was confused.

- Okay, Diane.
Thank you.

This has been very helpful.

We'll be in touch.

[somber music]

- It's hearsay evidence

about what an eight-year-old
may have said

15 years ago.

- It's not gonna
convince a jury.

Not if Lyle won't admit
that Jose abused him.

- Not even then.

Our show-and-tell for
the jury's going to be

all tell and no show.

All that abuse.

There's gotta be
something tangible

that Jose or Kitty left behind.

*

.

- So who bought the house?

- A sheik, from Saudi Arabia.

You have the directions
to Calabasas?

- Yeah, got 'em.
- The house looks

under construction,
but it's okay.

You can put everything inside.

- That's it.

Everything is gone.

- [speaking Spanish]

- It's gonna be okay, Nana.

- [speaking Spanish]

He worked his whole--
his whole life for this.

- I know.

- All right, I got it.

- I'm just a reporter,
Donovan.

I don't have a dog
in this fight.

- The cops say I'll have to
testify at the trial.

[upbeat music over speakers]

I'm not looking forward to it.

Me and Lyle
really shared a lot.

- Like what, for example?

- [sighs]
Like, um...

Four months before the murders,

we were talking, and...

I told Lyle
I was sexually abused

when I was a kid.

*

And he told me
he was molested, too.

By his dad.

Erik was, too.

I don't know.
Maybe he was just saying that

to make me feel better.
I don't know.

- I'm sorry.
Uh...

You know if he told
anyone else?

- No.

But I told Glenn Stevens
what Lyle said.

[haunting music]

*

But I told Glenn Stevens
what Lyle said.

- I spoke to Stevens.
He wouldn't let me tape him,

but I took notes,

and he confirmed that
Goodreau told him

about Lyle and his father.

- Do you think Stevens
would testify?

- He was pretty clear
he wouldn't

unless he was forced to.

- All right.
Thank you, Mr. Rand.

- Mm-hmm.

- I'll fly to New York
and talk to

Goodreau and Stevens.

- I'll go with you.

- Well, it's Lyle's business.
I can handle it.

- There's someone
I need to see.

*

- [quietly snoring]

*

[quiet piano music]

Is that you?

- I'm me.
Are you you?

- Damn it, you still
have my nose.

I thought you'd outgrow it
by now.

*

- Nice to see you, Daddy.

- The chicken pot pie
is good here.

*

Come on, honey.

- And what if Lyle goes free?

Hmm?

Gotta think about that.

- Are you afraid of him?
Is that why

you wanted to meet
in a public place?

- He knows I know things.

- I already spoke to Goodreau,
and he's willing to testify.

I just need you
to go on the record

about what he told you
about Lyle being molested.

Don't you want to help Lyle?
You were friends.

- I thought he was my friend.

And then I realized
he was using me.

- He gave you a job, Glenn.

- Running a chicken wing shack.

Look, I've got a good job now,
on Wall Street.

I'm not about to give that up
for him.

I mean, besides,

how can I help someone
who did that to his parents?

- * Happy birthday
dear Erik *

* Happy birthday to you

- Thank you, Leslie.

It's just another birthday.

- Oh, there's no such thing.

I saw my dad last week.

Hadn't seen him
since I was 14.

You know how many birthdays
he missed?

But that didn't stop me.

I got you a present.

We just found out today.

California Supreme Court

agreed to review the ruling
on Oziel's tapes.

- Wow.

Do you think we have a chance?
- I do.

They know the issues
at stake here

are bigger than just your case.

- [exhales heavily]

- So, Erik...

I need to understand why

what happened happened.

Maybe if you tell me

the last time your father
abused you...

[dramatic music]

*

- It was two weeks
before everything.

I got accepted to UCLA.

*

I told my parents
I wanted to live on-campus.

And Dad said no.

And that he wouldn't
pay for it

unless I spent
four nights a week at home.

*

And that's when I knew
it was never gonna end.

And that's when things
started to get out of control.

- How do you mean?

- [sighs]

*

We thought our parents
were gonna kill us.

*

[mysterious music]

*

- Lyle looks to be
about eight.

Erik's six.

- How do we know it's them?

We can't see their faces,
just their bodies.

- I compared them with photos
of them from the swimming pool.

Birthmarks match.
The floor matches

other pictures from
the Princeton house,

and the handwriting
on the outside of the envelope

matches Kitty's.

- Well, I've taken pictures
of my daughter

in the bathtub,
but these are...

- It's kiddie porn.

Pictures of their genitals?

Like, what kind of parent
takes photos like these?

- Someone could argue
these were taken by accident.

- These photos were carefully
saved and catalogued.

This is no accident.

Leslie, I doubted their story,
but not anymore.

- So, this is it?
You've searched

the rest of the boxes?

- I turned the house
upside down.

Same as the house on Elm Drive.

- Erik told me

that he and Lyle thought
their parents would kill them.

They were afraid
for their lives.

- That fits
with what I've been reading.

Kids who are sexually abused
have no sense of safety.

The two people who are supposed
to protect them

are the ones hurting them.

- It would be better
if the murders

were a direct response

to an act of abuse.

- Erik said his father
last abused him

two weeks before the murders.

It's too much time elapsed.

So how are we gonna fit this

into a narrative
the jury is gonna understand?

We have to find a way
through this,

'cause we owe it to these boys.

[ominous music]

- The verdict was announced
just hours ago:

Four officers acquitted
in the beating of Rodney King.

Many blame the verdicts
on Judge Weisberg's decision

to move the trial
to Simi Valley,

where many police officers
reside.

And right now,
we're getting images

of the reaction
in South Central Los Angeles.

Let's go immediately live
to the scene.

- The situation here is
getting more

and more dangerous by the
minute, as reports come in

of buildings being set on fire
and looting.

Merchants in Koreatown
just north of here

are reportedly forming
armed patrols.

*

- Oh, my God, Tim.

What kind of world is this
for our kid?

All this hate and cruelty.

This baby we're adopting,

what if we can't protect him?

[sirens wailing]

[ominous music]

*

.

- People of Los Angeles
have sent a message.

No more disasters
like McMartin and Rodney King.

No mistakes on my watch.
Is that clear?

- Mr. Garcetti,
I have no intention

of losing Menendez.

- Winning is a given,
Ms. Ferrero.

- Bozanich.

I got married recently.

- Bozanich.

You grew up in Palos Verdes,
didn't you?

Went to Wellesley,
all that fancy upbringing?

I need to know
if you can go for the jugular.

- I was born to be
a prosecutor, Mr. Garcetti.

Tomorrow, we'll hear from
the Supreme Court

on the Oziel tapes--
- I need you to get the trial

moved downtown.

A majority black jury

will see the Menendez brothers

for the entitled, rich punks
that they are.

They won't cut them any slack.

- Leslie Abramson's office...

- [exhales sharply]

They ruled out
the December tape

of Erik and Lyle.

Am I nuts, or did we
just win something?

- Don't count your chickens.

They're allowing Oziel's
audio notes

of Erik's confession.

- Well, it's half a victory.
I'll take it.

That was the last chance
Texaco.

There's no court left
to appeal to.

So now we know
what the prosecution's

gonna do at trial.
We gotta build our case.

- Sexual abuse led to
the murders.

- That will explain Erik
killing his father,

but until Lyle says
Jose molested him too,

the jury won't see
the connection.

- Well, he acted to protect
his brother from abuse,

just as he tried to
do when Erik was 12.

- There are other ways
of protecting your brother

short of killing your parents.

The jury needs to see
the whole picture.

Both parents
abused both brothers.

If the jury senses
that there's a piece missing,

that Jose molested Lyle too,

they're gonna think
we're trying to hide something.

So we can build our defense,

but it's not gonna hold up

until Lyle comes clean.

[sighs]

- The grand jury has returned
two counts each

of first-degree murder,

and a charge of conspiracy,

against Lyle and Erik Menendez.

The district attorney
will seek the death penalty.

- Judge Ito,

this is extreme
and unwarranted.

The DA is overreaching.

- Noted, Ms. Abramson.

Let's talk venue.

- Your Honor, this case
needs to come downtown,

so that justice can be serve--

- I know what you want,
Ms. Bozanich,

but the downtown calendar
is full

and this portends to be a long

and complicated trial.

I am therefore calendaring it

for Judge Weisberg's court

in Van Nuys.
Have a nice drive.

[bangs gavel]

[dramatic music]

- [whispering]
That's good for us, honey.

*

- I know it's a burden on you
to come here.

If you can only manage
once a week,

I won't mind.

- I'm sorry, Erik.

[sniffs]

[crying]

I tried.

I really tried.
I just

can't stop picturing you

holding that shotgun.

- Please don't do that.

It wasn't me.

I mean, I did it,
but it's not who I am.

- Part of me knows that.
I just--

I can't forget.

[melancholy music]

*

- It's okay, Noelle.
I understand.

- I hope everything
turns out well for you, Erik.

*

- It was so stupid of me

to say that to Oziel.

I wasn't threatening him,

but sometimes I say things
like my dad.

I just couldn't believe
Erik told him.

I love my brother,
and this all started

because I was trying
to protect him.

- From your father.

- Yes. He told me Dad was still
doing that stuff to him.

I d--I didn't know.
I--

And he was such
an intelligent man.

He was--he was a great man.

Why couldn't he just stop it?

*

- When Erik told you,
what did you do?

- I confronted Dad,

and then things
just went crazy.

We knew
they were gonna kill us.

Dad always threatened that--

that he could kill us
and get a new family.

He had guns upstairs.
He was capable of that.

[music intensifies]

But I thought for sure

after I confronted him
when Erik was 12,

he stopped hurting him,

because that's about
how old I was

when he stopped molesting me.

*

- And it all came out
after that.

The abuse started
when Lyle was six

and ended when he was 10,

and then Jose turned
all of his attention to Erik.

- And 11 years later,
he kills his father.

- Eleven years of scar tissue
building up over his anger.

It's like a volcano dome

building up
over boiling lava.

One day, that volcano
blows its top.

- And yet he keeps saying

what a great man
his father was.

- Right, he's idealizing
his abuser.

It's a coping mechanism
when the victim

is in an ongoing relationship
with his abuser.

I mean, in many ways, he's--

he's patterned himself
after his dad.

- Lyle said

he thought his parents
would kill them,

and Erik said the same thing.

Do you believe them?

- I believe
they genuinely thought

their lives were in danger.

Long-term abuse victims

are often hypervigilant

to the smallest threat.

They exaggerate them
in their own minds.

- Thanks, Jon.

- So now we have
our last piece.

What are you thinking?

- Imperfect self-defense.

These boys were abused

from the age of six.

They grew up with no sense

of feeling protected
by their parents.

- This is what
a little faggot does.

- Beaten into submission...

- Fear me.

- Terrified into
keeping secrets,

sick secrets.

- Wrong!
What will I do?

- You'll kill me.
- That's right.

- When they finally
stood up to their parents

and threatened to spill
those secrets,

they were made to believe

that their parents
would kill them.

A genuine

but unreasonable belief

that their lives

were in imminent danger.

[ominous music]

*

- So they shot their parents
in self-defense?

Imperfect self-defense?

I believe that.

Do you?

- Yes.

- And do you believe them?
The abuse?

- [sighs]

[somber music]

Yes, I believe them.

*

I believe in our case.

*

.

[dramatic music]

*

[wolf howls]