Music executive Jose Menedez and his wife Kitty Mendez were shot with gunshots in their home located in Beverly Hills, California. Their family was fairly wealthy and good in business. The question is, though, how was their home life when no one else was around? After being found dead in their home, their two sons Lyle Menedez and Erick Menendez reported the death.
It took about seven months after the death of Jose and Kitty for their sons to be arrested after finding out they were actually the murders of their parents. According to CBS NEWS, “They say they killed out of fear and in self-defense after a lifetime of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse suffered at the hands of their parents.” The brothers say they did it out of self-defense. This is what has the world questioning why the brothers couldn’t find other resources.
Since the boys’ arrest in March of 1990, they have been in jail for over 34 years now. After “Monsters” the Netflix series about the murder of Jose and Kitty Menedez and the sons, this case has much of the world questioning their jail time. EHS student Kayla Niswender (27) said, “They’ve done their time and didn’t deserve what happened to them. I feel as if you shouldn’t kill someone but they had no choice knowing the circumstance.” Lots of people’s ideas of the case reflected on the new Netflix series and had people diving deeper into what happened and why.
The boys were sentenced to life without parole. According to NBC NEWS, “L.A. County District Attorney-elect Nathan Hochman (who defeated Gascon in November and is set to take office Dec. 2) has said he will review the facts, evidence, and law before deciding on the requests to resentence the brothers.” Without the requests of the world, this probably wouldn’t have been able to happen.
Along with all the arguments of whether the brothers should be freed or not, there are many different opinions but the decision will soon be finalized. EHS student Kaiya Corban (28) said, “The Menendez brothers were in a very tough situation. They were being sexually abused, physically abused, and mentally abused. They could’ve handled the situation differently but you can’t change the past. It was wrong of them to do, but they were also just kids and did not know what to do in this situation because in the 80s this kind of behavior from parents was abnormal. They didn’t have anyone to reach out to and they didn’t have other family they could’ve run to.” Many people argue whether or not it’s self defence in the brothers’ case but at the time and spot they were in, they figured it was their only option.
The brothers are still currently in jail but their case will be reopened and investigated. There are many different opinions on the whole case but the world still wonders what truly did happen that night and if they did the crime because of the reasoning they gave.
