The question for prosecutors reexamining the murder convictions of Lyle and Erik Menendez is not whether they killed their parents, but how culpable they really are.
“There’s no question that they committed the killing,” Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón told CNN’s Jim Acosta on Saturday. “The question is, to what degree of culpability should they be held accountable to, given the totality of the circumstances?”
The reexamination of the case comes more than 35 years after the fatal shooting of Jose and Kitty Menendez in their Beverly Hills home, leading to a high-profile prosecution of their sons Lyle and Erik, then 21 and 18 years old. The brothers were ultimately convicted of the murders and have admitted to the deed, but they have argued they did so in self-defense after enduring years of their father’s abuse.
The case has taken on new interest in the wake of a docuseries and Netflix drama as well as a growing understanding of and empathy for sexual abuse victims. Prosecutors have said they are reconsidering the brothers’ prison sentence of life without parole.
Here’s a look at the timeline of the case over the decades, from the initial shooting to the recent efforts to alter their sentence.
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