Menendez brothers could be released soon after decades in prison

The movement to free Erik and Lyle Menendez is gaining traction. According to a source close to the case, many members of the Menendez brothers' extended family will gather in Los Angeles for a press conference at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center courthouse this Wednesday.

The brothers' aunt, Joan VanderMolen, informed Vanity Fair that LA County district attorney George Gascón invited them. It is uncertain if Gascón will personally attend the press conference, but the family hopes he will recommend that the brothers be re-sentenced after 34 years behind bars. If the DA recommends a new sentence, a judge would oversee a hearing.

Gascón did not respond to Vanity Fair’s request for a comment, but a source familiar with the matter believes the DA may announce a re-sentencing decision in the upcoming weeks.

Erik and Lyle have been imprisoned for decades without parole. In 1996, they were convicted of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, using shotguns in the den of their Beverly Hills residence. The prosecution claimed greed as the motive. However, the defense argued that the brothers killed their parents due to years of sexual abuse by Jose and a fear for their lives. The details of the murders were disturbing, as was the testimony about the alleged molestation they endured.

Expected to attend the press conference on Wednesday are the brothers’ elderly aunt, Joan VanderMolen, along with her children Diane, Arnie, and Kathy VanderMolen, and her grandson Erik VanderMolen. Kitty and Joan’s brothers, Milton Andersen and Brian Andersen, are not expected to attend, as they do not share the belief that Erik and Lyle were abused, unlike the majority of the family.

The Menendez case resurfaced during the pandemic on TikTok, following Court TV’s re-release of footage from the first trial. Public interest soared again in September, after the release of Ryan Murphy’s Netflix show *Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story*, bringing the case back into the cultural spotlight.

Currently, passionate Menendez supporters, who believe Erik and Lyle should not have been charged with first-degree murder, are active on social media, signing petitions, while those in favor of the brothers serving their full sentences are expressing their views in TikTok and Instagram comment sections.