A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Monday rejected a petition for a new trial for Erik and Lyle Menendez, finding newly presented evidence of alleged sexual abuse by their father insufficient to undermine their 1996 convictions for the killings of their parents.
Judge William C. Ryan wrote that the material that “slightly corroborates” the brothers’ allegations of sexual abuse did not negate the finding that they acted with “premeditation and deliberation” when they fatally shot Jose and Kitty Menendez in their Beverly Hills home in August 1989. “The evidence alleged here is not so compelling that it would have produced a reasonable doubt in the mind of at least one juror or supportive of an imperfect self-defense instruction,” Ryan wrote in denying a May 2023 petition seeking review of the convictions.
The ruling comes weeks after separate parole hearings in which both brothers were denied release. Erik Menendez was denied parole on Aug. 21 after commissioners concluded that his disciplinary record and conduct in custody indicated he remained a risk to public safety. A panel of commissioners denied Lyle Menendez parole on Aug. 22 for three years, citing what they described as persistent anti-social personality traits, including deception, minimization and rule-breaking that they said lay under a positive surface.
Defense attorneys have long argued that the brothers acted in self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father. Prosecutors have maintained that the killings were motivated by a desire for a multimillion-dollar inheritance. The brothers were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 1996. A judge reduced their sentences in May, making them immediately eligible for parole and prompting the recent hearings that represented their closest prospect for release since their convictions.
Mark Geragos, an attorney who has represented the brothers, did not immediately comment on Monday’s ruling. The court’s decision denies another legal pathway to challenge the convictions and follows the parole panels’ recent determinations to keep both men in custody.
The killings, which took place on Aug. 20, 1989, and the lengthy, widely publicized trials that followed, have remained a subject of public attention for decades. The latest rulings mean the brothers remain incarcerated while their legal status and any future applications proceed through the courts and parole system.