The sister of Kitty Menendez, the mom infamously killed in 1989 by sons Lyle and Erik Menendez, grew emotional on Wednesday as she talked about the “essential context” missing from the trial that found the brothers guilty of murder: that both had been serially molested by their father.
“The whole world was not ready to believe that the boys could be raped,” Joan Andersen VanderMolen, 92, said.
But she said she’s seen societal attitudes change in the decades since the brothers were sentenced to life in prison without parole for gunning down their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion.
Speaking at a news conference Wednesday with more than 20 relatives, VanderMolen called for their convictions and sentencing to be reconsidered in light of new evidence and better public awareness about the effects of child sexual abuse.
“The evidence of their father’s abuse would not only be admitted in court, it would provide essential context for why they acted as they did. No jury today would issue such a harsh sentence without taking their trauma into account,” she said.
The family members announced the launch of a formal initiative, Justice for Erik & Lyle, in response to the recent public outpouring of support and calls for the brothers to be resentenced.
The brothers were once reviled as greedy, arrogant rich kids — Lyle was 21 and Erik 18 at the time of the murders — and ridiculed for their tearful testimony about the abuse they suffered from their father.
However, they have received a tidal wave of support in the wake of the controversial Netflix docudrama series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which Erik decried as “full of lies.”
The series has also introduced the case to a new generation of younger, more sympathetic true crime followers.
The brothers’ first trial, which aired live on CourtTV in 1993-1994, was declared a mistrial after jurors deadlocked. Both brothers admitted to killing Kitty and José Menendez, but testified that they had endured chronic sexual abuse from their father and were afraid he would kill them if they revealed their secret. Their mother knew about the abuse but refused to protect them, the brothers said.
In the second trial, which came on the heels of public outrage over the O.J. Simpson verdict and was not televised, the judge restricted evidence and testimony regarding sexual abuse and removed the option for the jury to consider the young men guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter. They were found guilty in 1996 of first-degree murder, conspiracy to murder and the special circumstance of lying in wait.
They have been in prison for almost 35 years.
Support for the brothers has grown exponentially on TikTok under hashtags like “free the Menendez brothers,” spotlighting the brothers’ “heartbreaking ” trial testimony about their abuse. They have also received the vocal support of celebrities like Rosie O’Donnell, who told Vanity Fair she feels like a “big sister” to the men, as well as reality star-turned-criminal justice reform advocate Kim Kardashian.
Kardashian recently visited the brothers in prison and wrote a personal essay, published by NBC News, advocating for their freedom on the grounds that they were “condemned before [their] trial even began.”
“Back then, there were limited resources for victims of sexual abuse, particularly for boys. There were virtually no systems in place to support survivors, and public awareness of the trauma of male sexual abuse was minimal, often clouded by preconceived judgments and homophobia,” she wrote.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón’s office responded to Wednesday’s news conference later that evening, saying that prosecutors had met with the Menendez brothers’ family “to listen to their concerns and perspectives.” Gascón had previously said his office is reviewing their conviction and said Wednesday it was “working as quickly as justice permits.”
“Our office has developed a more modern understanding of sexual violence since the Menendez brothers first faced prosecution,” the office said in a statement, acknowledging the pervasiveness of sexual violence and that it affects people of all gender identities.
The Menendez brothers’ defense attorney, Mark Geragos, told reporters that Gascón’s office had “engaged with us, productively [and] strongly.”
He also batted down speculation that Gascón, who is up for reelection, was motivated by politics, noting that the district attorney has been “engaged” with the Menendezes for more than a year.
Last May, the brothers’ legal team filed court documents citing two new pieces of evidence in the case and asking for the brothers’ conviction to be overturned.
One was a declaration by former member of the boy band Menudo claiming he had been raped by José Menendez, a record company executive, at the Beverly Hills house; the second was a letter Erik sent his cousin eight months before the killings describing his abuse.
In parallel, attorneys are requesting that the men be resentenced based on their work in prison.
“They’re so accountable and responsible, and they own the crime 100%,” film producer Scott Budnick, founder of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, told HuffPost earlier this month. “They’re the most humble, giving, kind, always giving back, helping people, tutoring people, mentoring people.”
At the press conference on Wednesday, family members agreed the brothers have shown they deserve to have a life beyond prison walls.
“They have grown, they have changed, and they have become better men despite everything that they’ve been through,” VanderMolen said. “It’s time to give them the opportunity to live the rest of their lives free from the shadow of their past.”
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.