Can you really be forgiven for executing your parents in cold blood? Lyle and Erik Menendez did just that and have spent the last 35 years behind bars. The prosecution said they were pure evil, seeing the deaths of their wealthy parents as their ticket to a huge inheritance. The brothers claimed they’d been psychologically and physically abused by their tyrannical father and felt in danger of their lives.
Ultimately, the prosecution won the argument. But, whatever the reality, the Menendez brothers have been hopeful that there’s light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a release on parole. In May, California judge Michael Jesic ruled that their sentences be reduced from life without the possibility of parole to 50 years to life. As the two committed their crime under the age of 26, that meant they’d be eligible for California’s “youthful offender law”.
