Pop culture rethinking brothers MENENDEZ

It used to be incredible that Lale and Eric Menendez, men who killed their wealthy parents, shooting them 16 times, will receive compassion and forgiveness.

Their claims to sexual abuse in their parents were bullying as a prosecutor’s office and comedian, from TV late night to jokes for the Academy awards.

But 35 years later – partly thanks to Tiktok, Netflix and stars, like Kim Kardashian – the Menendez brothers have a new generation of fans – many who were not even born in 1989, in the year when the brothers planted their parents with the shotgun in their mansion Bverley.

At the time of the trial, the brothers were reflected as greedy, called monsters, which went for $ 700,000 (£ 526,0000), who played a few weeks after the killings. Now, with increasing understanding of injuries and sexual abuse, many are more sympathetic – and it can simply give the brothers the opportunity for freedom.

This week, Judge Los -Angeles reduced the verdict of the brothers to include the possibility of parole, which can be provided at the hearing next month.

Then their fate will be in the hands of the California Council of Parish Liberation and, ultimately, Governor Gavin Newsom, who will weigh a convenient public opinion about the dividing case with its political ambitions.

In 1989, Eric and Lale Menendez stormed the Bverly -Hills living room, both loaded rifles and opened fire on their parents who watched the TV. The crime will remain unresolved for months.

They received the James Bond license tickets to kill the alibi and told law enforcement agencies and the media who covered the shooting of a wealthy, powerful couple in their mansion, which may be the guilty mafia.

Meanwhile, they bought a new Porsche, Jeep, Rolex Watches and other luxury items with the parents’ estate.

They were not caught until the police received the word of the psychologist.

Even at that time, their crime was separate – the first lawsuit ended with the trial after the jury failed to sentence. After the second, they were sentenced to life without parole.

During both trials, the brothers were characterized as bad boys and spoiled to children who were motivated to kill their parents out of hatred and hope to buy a $ 14 million estate.

On Saturday evening, live and other late night showed the defense of the couple in court – including the tearful testimony of their allegedly sexual abuse, which the prosecutor’s office was baptized by the “justification of abuse” – and the documentary titles of this decade included phrases such as “bad sons” and American sons.

The appeal after the appeal was denied, but last year everything seemed to change. New evidence of alleged sexual abuse has emerged, and Netflix released a drama that attracted the attention of the whole new generation. Soon documentaries about the case included headlines with the words “wrongly evaluated” and “boys”.

Tiktokers discussed the case with its followers. The reality star Kim Kardashian, a supporter of criminal justice, who helped release the people who put in jail, wrote his opinion, publicly supporting his application for freedom.

“Then there were limited resources for sexual violence, especially for boys,” Kardashian wrote in NBC’s work.

In the 1990s, society did not have the same understanding that even today about injury, sexual cruelty and persecution, said BBC Whitney Philips, Professor of Oregon University, who studies a true crime. This gap in the understanding was especially expressed for boys who had been violent, she added.

But after the Metoo movement, a more cultural space was created for people to talk about this experience, she said.

“Not only does it create a resolution structure,” said Professor Philips about people who feel, encouraging talking about persecution and abuse, “in some ways it creates a stimulating structure to present stories of trauma.”

This is added to a change in how the public views criminal justice, with a greater emphasis on rehabilitation and reducing the prison population instead of a rigid mentality that dominates Los Angeles in the late 20th century.

“Fortunately,” to lock people forever “the 1990s,” said Robert Rand, a journalist who met and interviewed his brothers before arrested and revealed new evidence in 2018 – Eric’s letter wrote in his teenager to his cousin about his father’s sexual cruel treatment.

In the documentary Mr. Rand, which prepared about the killings, released in 2023, a former member of the Boys group called Menudo, allegedly a man who was the head of RCA Records – raped him when he was 14 years old, which further supported their claims.

The new evidence helped to give a new life the requirements of the brothers and presented the catalyst that Professor Philips called “hurricane”, which is of interest and support. From the drama Netflix to the OP-ED Kardashian.

“Things that really big on the Internet are things that have a lot of energy sources,” she said.

Even Lyle Meendees noted that the change of the sea.

“Followers who are younger than a similar generation of social media tiktok, they really have a huge hope,” Lale Menendez said at the court hearing.

“I am not as hopeless as I was 21-year-old, it is true. Obviously, I feel more hope when society seems to understand these impressions and sexual abuse.”

The fate of the brothers – no matter what social media, courts, or California council on parole ultimately rests with one person: the Governor of Newsom, who has the right to accept or reject the parole.

And many believe that a person is considering the possibility of a Balat for the president in 2028.

Since the latest Newsom elections, there has been a political transformation, moving from the crippite pressing universal medical care to a more moderate, pragmatic approach, recently offering freezing medical care for unregistered immigrants.

Weighing such a separate case may be “risky”, said the Republican Political Strategist based in Pennsylvania Sam Chan.

“You can imagine reality – the MEENDEZ brothers, while Newsom is trying to run for the president? Let’s talk about a free company,” he said. “That would be the worst for him.”

Although no one knows what the way it is inclined, Newsom has repeatedly mentioned the case on social media and in its podcast.

“The question of the council is quite simple,” said Newsom in February on Tiktok. “Do they create a current that we call” unreasonable “risk for public safety”.

Mr. Rand acknowledged that the case was “risky” politically for Newsom.

“You can’t get around the elephant in the room: they harshly killed their parents,” Rand BBC said. “But if you believe they were abused and that they suffered from life – and there is actually evidence confirming their history, this is a completely different situation.”

The brothers did not commit violent crimes while in prison, the fact that their judge was considered, although they had violations in the use of cell phones that smuggled to prison.

They also carried out a productive life while in prison, and Eric founded a hospice program to help the elderly and disabled while Lail was working on a prison.

It is great that every surviving member of their family – from cousins ​​to aunts and uncles – want to release the Meendez brothers, including the surviving brothers and sisters Jose and Kitty Menendez.

“They decided to live their lives with the clarity and purpose of service,” said their cousin anomaria Barlet after the trial after they were outraged.

If the advice recommends parole in June, the governor has 30 days to accept or reject the recommendation. If they are released, the brothers will be released within five months, the California Department of Corrections reports.

The fact that Gov Newsom ordered the State Council of Parish Liberation to conduct a comprehensive risk assessment before the brothers were considered the right to parole, many think that it is open to their release.

“He wants the political cover” the Council of Parish Liberation and the Recommendations of the Court, said Nematy, a former federal prosecutor who monitors the legal saga of the brothers, but does not represent any of the participants.

A year ago, Mr. Now he thinks they will be free for the next few months.

But Gov Newsom would not have been unprecedented to reject a high-profile pre-release recommendation.

He blocked the release of Manson’s family several times. And in 2022, Newsom blocked the exit of Sirhan Sirhan, a man who killed hay Robert F Kennedy.

As for the Meendessa brothers, he said in his podcast that he said in his podcast that he was thinking about the case, and he does not plan to watch either of the documentaries and real criminal dramas in the case.

“I am obviously familiar with the Menendez brothers only through the news for decades, but not to the extent that many others from all these documentaries and all the attention they received,” he said. “So, this is not prejudicing my independent and objective consideration of facts.”