Menendez brothers had no chance at ‘circus’ trial after OJ Simpson got off – there was no desire for truth, cousin says
WHEN Erik and Lyle Menendez headed into their second trial in October 1995, the Los Angeles legal system was in a spin.
Just eight days before the opening statements were delivered in the case of the murder of their parents in their Beverly Hills home, OJ Simpson’s global headline-grabbing acquittal stunned the watching world.
The LA District Attorney, Gil Garcetti, was under massive pressure following the incredible fallout of the Simpson verdict, which saw him roundly criticized for the NFL legend being cleared of charges for the murder of his wife, Nicole Brown.
Furthermore, the same judge who handed the brothers a double murder charge and a life sentence also presided over the case of the beating of Rodney King three years earlier by four Los Angeles Police Department officers.
Members of the Menendez family and Mark Geragos, the current attorney of the brothers who is pushing for their release by the end of this year, are convinced this polluted backstory ultimately consigned Erik, 53, and Lyle, 56, to over three decades behind bars.
Interest in the case has exploded in the last few weeks following a Netflix dramatization and documentary about the double murder case.
Following the shooting of their parents, Jose and Kitty, Erik and Lyle were charged with first-degree murder, which prosecutors maintained was for financial gain.
Both argued they were forced into their shocking actions following years of sexual, mental, and physical abuse meted out by their father.
However, the two juries were deadlocked, and a mistrial was called in January 1994 before a retrial began at the end of 1995.
They were tried together, unlike the first, where they appeared individually, and were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
“They didn’t get a fair second trial, and the reason for that is between the two trials, OJ was convicted,” Geragos told The U.S. Sun.
“The perception during those five years was that the LA DA office couldn’t win the big ones.”
The brothers’ cousin, Anamaria Baralt, couldn’t agree more.
The Seattle-based yoga instructor spoke exclusively to The U.S. Sun about the pain suffered by her beloved late father, who was close to brother-in-law Jose Menendez, the multi-millionaire TV executive, who was killed along with his wife amid claims from his sons of sexual and mental abuse.
She also revealed almost all of the family have signed a petition to free the boys.
At the time, Anamaria was just 18 years old and recalls the “circus” that engulfed one of the most infamous court cases ever and how people were “losing their minds” over the Simpson verdict.
“It was seen as a huge failure for the state of California, so when the not guilty verdict came in, people’s attention immediately shifted to the Menendez trial,” she said.
“The feeling was they would get a conviction no matter what.”
Timeline of the Menendez brothers case
Erik and Lyle Menendez are serving life sentences in prison after being found guilty of shooting their parents to death over 30 years ago.
August 20, 1989 – José and Kitty Menendez are shot to death
March 8, 1990 – Lyle is arrested for the murders
March 11, 1990 – Erik turns himself in
July 20, 1993 – Highly publicized trial begins and ends weeks later in a mistrial
October 11, 1995 – Second trial begins
March 20, 1996 – Menendez brothers are convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder
July 2, 1996 – Menendez brothers are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and sent to separate prisons
February 2018 – Lyle is transferred to the San Diego prison where Erik is held
April 4, 2018 – Erik and Lyle are reunited
May 2023 – Attorney representing the Menendez brothers files a habeas petition
September 19, 2024 – Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story comes out on Netflix
October 3, 2024: Los Angeles authorities reviewing new evidence in connection with the brothers’ convictions
October 7, 2024 – The Menendez Brothers documentary film comes out on Netflix
The second trial, which started on October 11, 1995, saw the presiding Judge Weisberg withdraw some of the domestic abuse evidence used by the defense, one element Anamaria believes sealed their cousins’ fate.
Weisberg also ruled that the trial would not be televised, unlike the first, and limited the number of witnesses the defense was allowed to call upon.
The tally was reduced from 101 to 64 for the second trial.
“There was a perception surrounding them being male. If this were the Menendez sisters we talked about, they would have been out by now.
Mark Geragos, attorney for Erik and Lyle Menendez
She maintains allegations of wrongdoing from Jose, who has since been accused of molesting a boy band member which will be used in the push by Geragos to end the brothers’ prison hell, were “completely denied.”
“It was difficult for people to understand that boys could be abused,” she said.
“Those allegations were simply not accepted on a societal level. There wasn’t an openness to understanding this kind of situation like there is today.
“There was less desire to even get to the truth anymore. It was like, we need to nail this.”
Highly experienced lawmaker Geragos also points to other inconsistencies, including his own case from 1994.
The LA-based attorney said that against the backdrop of the Menendez case, he represented a woman who avoided a murder charge and instead received manslaughter and probation.
He recoils that the brothers were denied a similar defense in the second trial “because it didn’t apply to children.”
“Can you imagine that happening today?” he asked.
“There was a perception surrounding them being male. If this were the Menendez sisters we talked about, they would have been out by now.”