Prosecutors recommend resentencing in Menendez brothers’ murder case

Let me begin by telling you that this is ***, *** case uh where we've had many people in this office spend *** great deal of time uh review on the case. I have to tell you unequivocally that we don't have *** universal agreement. Uh There are people in the office uh that strongly believe that the Menendez brothers should stay in prison the rest of their life and they do not believe that they were molested and there are people in the office that strongly believe that they should be released immediately and that they were in fact molested. I have to tell you that after *** very careful review of all the arguments that were made for people on both sides of this uh equation, I came to *** place where I believe that under the law resentencing is appropriate. And I am going to recommend that to *** court tomorrow. What that means in this particular case is that we're gonna recommend to the court that the life without the possibility of parole be removed and that they will be sentenced for murder, which because there are two murders involved, that would be 50 years to life. However, because of their age under the law, since they were under 26 years of age, at the time that these crimes occurred, they would be eligible for parole immediately. The teams that have worked in this on the resenting inside of it have spent literally probably hundreds of hours by now. Looking at this case, these cases were originally presented on the heavier side of it, which I'll explain in *** moment what that is last year. And then the request for *** prosecutor initiated resentencing occurred earlier this year. And there have been people in this office working in those cases from the very beginning as well as many other cases that we have. The reason why I'm here today and why I came in front of all of you about 10 days ago is because there was *** more recent documentary about the case that again brought *** tremendous amount of public attention. And we know there have been other documentaries. So this is not the first, this is the more recent one. And frankly, our office got flooded with requests for information. And even though this case was already scheduled to be heard in late November, I decided to move this forward because quite frankly, we did not have enough resources to handle all the requests. And one of the things that I thrive to do in this office is to be very transparent in everything that we do. In this case, we review the prison files. You have to understand that the way the process works. When you're talking about *** sentence and resentencing under the law, it really focuses not necessarily on what the original crimes were, but it focuses on as the person then rehabilitate it. Number one and number two, can they be released safely into the community under that rubric, since I've been in office, we have resentenced over 300 people including 28 for murder. Only four have reoffended if that was *** regular service and rate in this country, we would be the safest nation in the world. But we know that it's not, in fact, somewhere between 40 50% of the people that go to prison reoffend and get rearrested. And that's why we have so many problems. However, when you look at the case of the Menendez brothers, you see two very young people, one was 19 and the other one was 21 when they committed this horrible act. And I want to underline, they were horrible acts. There is no excuse for murder. And I will never imply that what we're doing here is to excuse that behavior because even if you get abused, the right path is to call the police seek help. But I understand also how sometimes people get desperate. We often see women for instance, that have been battered for years and sometimes they will murder their abuser out of desperation. And I do believe that the brother was subjected to *** tremendous amount of dysfunction in the home in Mola Sushi, but they went to prison for life without the possibility of parole, which meant that certainly under the law at that time, they had no hopes of ever getting out. They could have done what many other people do, which is basically said, you know what, I'm here for the rest of my life. So I'm going to do whatever I'm gonna misbehave. I'm gonna join gangs. Uh I'm going to live the life of the person, but they never did that. To the contrary, even though they didn't think that they would ever be let free. They engage in *** different journey, *** journey of redemption and *** journey of rehabilitation. And often the people that begin their journey of rehabilitation and redemption in prison is often very internal and what they do. And, and one of our lawyers pointed out this today is usually the path as people try to further their education, do things for self improvement, which the brothers have done by the way. But it's more unique or more less usual, I guess when people not only do that, but they also begin to engage in ways to make life for others better. And in this case, the brothers have been doing so for *** very long time, creating groups to deal with how to address untreated trauma, creating groups to deal with other inmates that have physical disabilities and may be treated differently. Even in one case, lie on negotiating for other inmates as to the conditions that they live under during prison. And all this was done by two young people. No, they're not as young. They had no hopes of ever getting out of prison. They have been in prison for nearly 35 years. I believe that they have paid their debt to society and the system provides *** vehicle for their case to be reviewed by *** parole board. And if the parole concurs with my assessment and it will be their decision, they will be released accordingly. I must underline. However, this case will be filed in court tomorrow. The final decision will be made by the judge. The court has to agree with my conclusion that they deserve to be resentenced. It is very possible that they may be members of this office that will be present in court opposing the resentencing and they have *** right to do so and we encourage those that disagree with us to speak and the court is the appropriate place to do it. We certainly feel very, we're very sure. Mm Not only that the brothers have rehabilitated and that they will be safe to be reintegrated in our society, but they have paid their dues, not only for the crimes that they committed because of all the other things they have done to improve the life of so many others. So again, we will be filing for resentencing tomorrow. We're seeking that they would be sentenced to life with the possibility of parole as opposed to life without the possibility of parole, which is there currently have, that means that they would I have 50 years to life because there were two murders, but because of the age upon which they were convicted under 26 under current law, that means they're eligible for youthful parole. I think there is also important to have some introspection today cause I think that often for cultural reasons, we don't believe victims of sexual assault, whether they are women or whether they are men we saw in our first trial, which by the way, they were tried twice, the first trial hung. I mean, the jury could not come to *** conclusion. And in fact, about half of the jury wanted to convict them of manslaughter, which if that would have been the case, they would have been off prison *** long time ago. And then there was *** second trial and then they were convicted of murder with special circumstances, which led to the life without the possibility of parole. But it is salient to understand that are all implicit and sometimes explicit bias around sexual abuse. And sexual assault often leads us to severe injustices in our community. And I want to speak to those that are victims of sexual assault. Now, whether you're *** man or *** woman, no, that we're here for you. If you're *** victim of sexual assault in this community and by that, we're talking about L *** county, not just L *** city, you can come for help whether you're prepared to prosecute or not, we will be here for you. We have services for you. And if you're prepared to move forward with the prosecution, we will evaluate it as we do any other case. And if we believe that the evidence is there to present *** credible case in front of *** jury that can be proven beyond *** reasonable doubt, we would proceed her coordinately. You do not have to suffer alone. You don't have to keep it to yourself and help is here unconditionally.