Menendez brothers seek freedom from parole board

LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Lyle and Erik Menendez will appear before California’s parole board to seek freedom this week, more than 35 years after their shotgun murders of their parents in the family’s luxury Beverly Hills home.

The separate hearings — Erik on Thursday, Lyle on Friday — are the latest chapter in a long campaign waged by friends, family and celebrities like Kim Kardashian to get the brothers out of prison.

They come after a Los Angeles judge this year reduced their original open-ended sentence to a term of 50 years, and as the men said, they accepted full responsibility for the grisly 1989 killings.

Now the brothers will be seeking to convince parole panels that they are reformed and pose no danger to the public.

“For more than 35 years, they have shown sustained growth. They have taken full accountability,” said a statement from The Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition, a support group that includes family members.

“They express sincere remorse to our family to this day and have built a meaningful life defined by purpose and service.”

‘Mafia hit’

Blockbuster trials in the 1990s heard how the men killed Jose and Kitty Menendez in what prosecutors said was a cynical attempt to get their hands on a large family fortune.

After setting up alibis and trying to cover their tracks, the men shot Jose Menendez five times with shotguns, including in the kneecaps.

Kitty Menendez died from a shotgun blast as she tried desperately to crawl away from her killers.

The brothers initially blamed the deaths on a mafia hit, but changed their story several times in the ensuing months.

Erik, then 18, confessed to the murders in a session with his therapist.

The pair ultimately claimed they had acted in self-defense after years of emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of a tyrannical father.

During their decades in prison, changing social mores and greater awareness of sexual abuse helped elevate the men to something approaching cultural icons.

This status was nourished by a parade of docudramas and TV shows, including the hit Netflix miniseries “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”