Joseph Lyle Menendez and Erik Galen Menendez, known collectively as the Menendez brothers, are American siblings who were convicted in 1996 of the brutal murders of their parents, Jose Menendez and Mary ‘Kitty’. Investigators did not initially consider the brothers suspicious, but the lavish lifestyles Lyle and Erik adopted drew attention to the ‘boys’, as their lawyer called them.
The Menendez brothers did not deny committing the murders, but insisted that their sexually and emotionally abusive father led them to the heinous act. Initially, the brothers were tried separately, leading to deadlocked juries and mistrials. They were then tried together and found guilty.
The Menendez brothers will most likely never leave the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Center in California.
On July 2, 1996, Lyle and Erik were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Correctional authorities assigned the couple to different prisons: Lyle to Mule Creek State Prison and Erik to the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California.
The couple couldn’t talk on the phone, but they wrote letters to each other and played chess by mailing each other moves. Both brothers married after their imprisonment. Lyle married model Anna Eriksson in 1996, but the couple divorced in 2001 after Anna discovered that he had been writing to other women.
In 2003, Lyle married journalist Rebecca Sneed in a ceremony held in the visiting area of Mule Creek State Prison. The couple had known each other for almost a decade before getting married. Erik married his pen pal, Tammi Saccoman, at Folsom State Prison in a waiting room. erik said People that his relationship with Tammi keeps him going:
“Tammi is what helps me. I can’t think of the phrase. When I do it, I do it with great sadness and primitive fear. I start to break out in a cold sweat. It’s so scary that I just haven’t come to accept it.”
The brothers finally met at the Richard J. Donovan facility in 2018. By ABC News, the brothers broke down in tears after seeing each other for the first time in decades. “They just hugged for a few minutes without saying anything to each other,” Robert Rand, a journalist who has covered the case since 1989, told the publication.
“Then the prison officials allowed them to spend an hour together in a room.” Having exhausted most of their appeals, it is unlikely that the Menendez brothers will ever leave the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Center. The brothers have expressed their regret over the decision they made to murder their parents.
“If I could take my conscience now and go back, I would have gone to the police and risked exposing what was happening,” Lyle told ABC News in 2018. Erik shared a similar message in a 2005 interview with People:
“I do not deserve it [this sentence]. I am not saying that what I did was correct or justifiable. But put another child in my life and you’ll see what happens. The way I reacted was so destructive to everyone. It was the most terrible devastation. I killed the two people I loved the most.”
A group of Gen Z TikTokers believe that the sentence imposed on the Menéndez brothers was too harsh
The Menendez brothers may have completed their appeal process, but some TikTokers believe they have sufficient grounds to mitigate their sentences. ‘The New Defenders of Menéndez’, this is how he describes them The New York Timesthey are an army of internet defenders who believe that the justice system did not pay enough attention to allegations of sibling abuse at the hands of their parents.
The media also played a role, as they ignored the brothers’ accusations and portrayed them as greedy killers who killed for money. TikTok defenders, however, refuse to ignore the stories of sexual abuse told by the Menéndez brothers.
Janne, a TikToker from Germany, posted a TikTok video of the brothers testifying about sexual abuse while somber music played in the background, garnering over a million likes. It is one of a myriad of videos attempting to draw attention to another motive for the killings, a motive that would receive more attention today than thirty years ago.
“Seeing someone describe these kinds of experiences is always very sad and very compelling,” Janne said. ABC News. TikTokers are perhaps more objective as they did not experience the sensational coverage of the test. All they have are footage of the trial and interviews given by the brothers.
Based on the evidence available to them, the Menendez brothers’ accusations should have carried more weight at trial.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn