Kim Kardashian is expressing her faith in the justice system — and in Ryan Murphy — after L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón pushed the Menendez brothers one step closer to freedom.
Gascón on Thursday asked a judge to resentence Erik and Lyle Menendez, two brothers serving life terms for the 1989 murders of their parents, Kitty and Jose Menendez. The request could lead to their early release: If resentenced to 50 years to life with possibility of parole, as the D.A. advised, the brothers could be eligible for youthful-offender parole immediately, because they committed the crimes when they were younger than 26 and have already served nearly 35 years.
“The Menendez brothers were granted a second chance at life,” Kardashian said Thursday in an Instagram story praising the D.A.’s decision. “Thank you, George Gascón, for revisiting the Menendez brothers’ case and righting a significant wrong. Your commitment to truth and fairness is commendable.”
Gascón announced earlier this month that his office was reviewing the Menendez case after the brothers’ attorneys filed a habeas motion last year arguing that new evidence backed the brothers’ longstanding claim that they had been sexually abused by their father for years before the slayings. At the time of the high-profile 1995 trial, the presiding judge strongly restricted testimony that would have supported an “abuse excuse,” clearing the way for the brothers’ 1996 conviction and sentencing to life without parole.
The Skims founder went on in her post to tell the “millions who have been vocal supporters” of the case’s reexamination that their voices “were heard.
“The media’s focus, especially on the heels of Ryan Murphy’s TV show, helped expose the abuse and injustices in their case,” she wrote. “Society’s understanding of child abuse has evolved, and social media empowers us to question the systems in place.”
Netflix last month dropped Ryan Murphy’s “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” a dramatized take on the murders that Murphy called “the best thing that has happened to the Menendez brothers in 30 years because it’s getting people to talk about it, and it’s getting people to ask the questions that are important.” It was part of a slew of Menendez-inspired media.
The Menendez case “highlights the importance of challenging decisions and seeking truth, even when guilt is not in question,” Kardashian wrote.
“I believe in the justice system’s ability to evolve, and I am grateful for a society where we can challenge decisions and seek justice,” she wrote. “Never stop questioning.”
“The Kardashians” star earlier this month penned a personal essay in favor of the brothers’ life sentences being “reconsidered.”
In the piece, she argued that the brothers — whom she said the media turned into “monsters and sensationalized eye candy” — “had no chance of a fair trial” at the time of their criminal proceedings, when resources were scarce for victims of sexual abuse, especially those who were male. The public had little “empathy, let alone sympathy,” she said, for a pair of wealthy teens from Beverly Hills.
The Menendez brothers were treated more like “serial killers,” the criminal justice reform advocate and aspiring lawyer said, than “two individuals who endured years of sexual abuse by the very people they loved and trusted.”
“I don’t believe that spending their entire natural lives incarcerated was the right punishment for this complex case. Had this crime been committed and trialed today, I believe the outcome would have been dramatically different,” she said.
Gascón echoed Kardashian’s comments in a Tuesday interview with CNN, saying, “There was certainly implicit bias that took place at that time that perhaps may have had an impact in the way the case was perceived and presented to the jury.”
On top of that, the D.A. said Thursday that the brothers have been engaged for years in prison programs to help inmates deal with trauma and to assist those who have physical disabilities.
Kardashian, who last month visited the brothers in jail, also vouched for their “exemplary disciplinary records,” saying the pair have “earned multiple college degrees, worked as caregivers for elderly incarcerated individuals in hospice, and been mentors in college programs — committed to giving back to others.”
“The killings are not excusable,” she said. “But we should not deny who they are today in their 50s.”
Contrary to Kardashian’s suggestion in a subsequent Instagram story that the Menendez brothers were “immediately eligible for parole now that their sentence has been reduced to 50 years to life,” their new sentence remains undecided.
If Gascón’s recommendation is approved by a judge, the brothers’ fate would still rest with the parole board, which will decide whether to release them. Gov. Gavin Newsom could also veto the parole board’s decision.