Lyle and Erik Menendez in 1989, the year they murdered their parents.
Ronald L. Soble / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Ryan Murphy’s latest true crime drama is about two brothers who killed their parents in 1986.He said the show was the best thing to happen to Erik Menendez and Lyle Menendez in 30 years.But a law expert told Business Insider that the show will need to unearth new evidence to help the brothers.
Ryan Murphy thinks “Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story” is the best thing to happen for years to the brothers who are serving life sentences for killing their parents. Legal experts told Business Insider the show could indeed help their case — but only if it helps to unearth compelling evidence.
Lyle Menendez and Erik Menendez killed José Menendez and Kitty Menendez in their family home in 1989. While the prosecution argued they murdered their parents for money, the brothers and other family members said it was an act of self-defense after the pair suffered years of abuse at the hands of their father and mother. They were convicted of murder in 1996, and multiple attempts to appeal their case have been unsuccessful.
Murphy’s latest iteration of his true crime anthology series “Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story” turned the spotlight on the brothers once again when it was released on Netflix in September.
After “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” became one of Netflix’s most-watched series, the second season was also an instant hit, wracking up over 30 million views in the last two weeks and topping its streaming chart.
That was little comfort to the Menendez brothers and their extended family, who claimed Netflix didn’t consult them about the show or ask them for their side of the story. They also took offense to a number of plot points including suggestions that the brothers were in an incestuous relationship. Netflix did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
In a statement shared on X last month, the family called the show: “a phobic, gross, anachronistic, serial episodic nightmare that is not only riddled with mistruths and outright falsehoods but ignores the most recent exculpatory revelations.”
But Murphy has defended it. He told Variety in September that it is “the best thing that has happened to the Menendez brothers in 30 years.”
Days later, Murphy doubled down on his comments and told the Hollywood Reporter: “The Menendez brothers should be sending me flowers. They haven’t had so much attention in 30 years. And it’s gotten the attention of not only this country, but all over the world.
“There’s sort of an outpouring of interest in their lives and in the case. I know for a fact that many people have offered to help them because of the interest of my show and what we did.”
Netflix’s documentary, “The Menendez Brothers,” which is out on October 7 promises to tell the brothers’ side of the story, is sure to only attract further interest in their case.
But could this new attention help the brothers be freed?
True crime has helped to exonerate people
Ryan Murphy at “Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story” premiere.
Steve Granitz/Getty Images
Shima Baughman, a professor of law at BYU Law School in Utah, said media attention has the potential to help defendants, pointing to Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey, the subjects of the 2010s Emmy-winning Netflix docuseries “Making a Murderer” — one of the first big true crime hits of the streaming era.
The series focused on Avery’s 2007 conviction for the murder of Wisconsin photographer Teresa Halbach and Dassey’s 2007 conviction of accessory to the murder. The show cast such convincing doubts over whether the pair were guilty that viewers unsuccessfully petitioned then-President Barack Obama to pardon them both.
Kathleen Zellner, Avery and Dassey’s current attorney, told the Guardian in 2018 that she took them on as clients after watching the first season.
“Watching his facial expressions during the trial, I thought there was a strong possibility he was innocent,” Zellner said of Avery.
Baughman said the petition and Zellner’s decision to represent Avery and Dassey shows the potential impact of true crime.
“If the Menendez brothers documentary shows a potential miscarriage of justice it could have a similar positive effect,” she said.
But the fact that Avery and Dassey are still serving life sentences shows how little public support means in a court of law.
Netflix’s Menendez brothers shows wouldn’t achieve much in court
Lyle Menendez and Erik Menendez during their trial in 1994.
Ted Soqui / Sygma via Getty Images
Laurie L. Levenson, a professor of law and David W. Burcham Chair in ethical advocacy at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, told Business Insider that true crime media must provide new, solid evidence that defendants can use in court to sway a judge.
In 2020, Netflix’s docuseries “Who Killed Malcolm X?” unearthed new evidence that provided an alibi for two men convicted of murdering the civil rights activist, leading to their exoneration a year later. Multiple true crime podcasts have similarly led to arrests or charges being overturned.
“I think judges, in general, are a bit suspicious of what’s on television. They draw a line between real facts and entertainment facts,” Levenson said.
Referring to Netflix’s Menendez offerings, she added: “I think if the media found some really hard evidence, true evidence that would withstand a courtroom presentation, that always helps. And sometimes, the media does. But absent of that, I think it’s just going to be an interesting show for people to watch.”
Levenson said increased public support for the brothers thanks to “Monsters” may go some way toward boosting their morale, and that of their attorneys as they fight for an appeal. But more importantly, it could persuade people to come forward with new information that could help their case.
Levenson added that Netflix’s upcoming documentary, which features new interviews with the Menendez brothers, will likely not help their appeal.
“I think that from the court’s perspective, that’s not evidence. They can’t just walk into court with that because they’re not being cross examined on what they’re saying in the documentary,” Levenson said. “They’re given softball questions and they’re saying what they want. That’s really not the same as evidence and testimony in the courtroom.”
Cooper Koch playing Erik Menendez and Nicholas Chavez playing Lyle Menendez in “Monsters.”
Miles Crist/Netflix
The brothers’ next hearing is on November 26 after petitioning for a new appeal in May 2023.
The LA Times reported last year that the petition includes two new pieces of evidence: a letter written by Erik Menendez to his cousin a year before the murder and Roy Roselló‘s 2023 allegation that José Menendez drugged and raped him as a teenager. Roselló was part of the boy band Menudo, whom Menendez helped sign a deal with at RCA records in 1983.
The Menendez brothers’ attorneys plans to use this evidence to argue the brothers were abused, in an attempt to change their conviction to manslaughter and reduce their sentence.
Levenson said the brothers have “great lawyers,” but an appeal is a long process.
Referring to Murphy’s comments about “Monsters,” Levenson added: “In terms of it being the best thing that ever happened, only if it leads to evidence to actually overturn case, which I still think is a real upward battle.”
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