A judge has ordered Los Angeles prosecutors to explain why Erik and Lyle Menendez’s murder convictions should not be re-examined in light of new evidence supporting their claims of sexual abuse by their father.
The July 7 order by LA County Superior Court Judge William Ryan was in response to a habeas corpus petition filed by the Menendez brothers in May 2023 seeking a review of their 1996 convictions for the killings of their parents based on new evidence.
The brothers were convicted of murdering their father, Jose Menendez — a powerful record executive — and their mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home in 1989. While defense attorneys argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance…