Menendez Brothers’ Lawyer Says Ryan Murphy Show Monsters Helped Their Murder Case

Despite Erik Menendez's criticism of Ryan Murphy's series about his and brother Lyle Menendez's murder case, it may end up changing their lives.

As authorities review new evidence that could lead to a new trial, sentence or even the release of the brothers, who are in prison for life for the 1989 killings of their parents Jose Menendez and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez, their lawyer spoke out about the impact of the Glee cocreator's show Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

“When the Ryan Murphy series came out, it was such a caricature of them that the pendulum swing backlash actually created a focus on it," attorney Mark Geragos said at a press conference Oct. 16, almost a month after the program premiered, "and people then took a look."

Erik had slammed Monster over its portrayal of the siblings, while Ryan has dismissed the criticism.

During the televised 1993 trial, prosecutors had said Erik and Lyle's motivation for fatally shooting their mother and father stemmed from their desire to inherit their money. However, the brothers alleged their parents had physically, emotionally and sexually abused them for years and their legal team had argued they killed them in self-defense.

In 1996, following a second trial, Lyle and Eric were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the shooting deaths of their parents.

Geragos said that due to the "younger generation," there has "been a movement."

"I know that I’ve seen some of those videos of the first trial that was televised where the DA’s office was taking the position that men could not be raped, they don’t have the equipment," Geragos, who did not represent the brothers during their trial, said at the press conference. "And you’ve seen all kinds of arguments along those lines."

The attorney continued, "That is unfathomable in today’s age to people who weren't alive back then. So I think that evolution has been, frankly, seismic."

Both brothers have for years filed habeas corpus petitions to try to overturn their convictions, most recently in 2023.

"If the habeas would be granted, you would get a new trial," Geragos said at the press conference. "If they are resentenced, the judge under California law has the ability to recall and sentence them to a wide range of options."

The petition alleges that the shootings of the Menendez brothers' parents "were not murder but manslaughter committed out of an honest though unreasonable belief in the need for self-defense after a lifetime of sexual and physical abuse."

In the document, the siblings' legal team also argue that a letter Erik allegedly wrote months before the killings, in which he accused their father of abuse, and allegations former Menudo band member Ray Rosselló had also made against Jose contradicted the greed motive that prosecutions had argued about in the trial.

Two weeks after the release of Monsters—which saw Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch play Lyle and Erik, respectively, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon said his office would review new evidence that the brothers were allegedly molested.

“After 2005, they didn’t believe, they thought they were going to spend the rest of their lives in prison," Geragos said, "and they had resigned themselves to it."

He added, "I use the term ‘cautiously optimistic.' There is an irony that DA politics played a role in their conviction."

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