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November 19, 2024 15 mins

It seemed like smooth sailing for the brothers' team. The DA had recommended a resentencing and supported a clemency bid for the brothers to the Governor. But everything has changed. In this episode, we bring you the latest updates.

 

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Appoche production.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
The only reason we're doing this special is because of
the TikTok movement to free the Menende. If that's how
we're going to try cases, now, why don't we just
have a poll. You present the facts, everybody gets to
vote on TikTok, and then we decide if he gets
to go home. Your beliefs are not facts, they're just beliefs.
And by the way, all you TikTok people, I'm armed.

(00:30):
We got guns all over the house, so don't mess
with me.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
We thought the last episode would be the final episode
of Menendez v. Monsters, but there's been some big news.
In early December was another big day for the brothers
and their team, and that was the day that the
case was going back to court with the chance that
the brothers could have their sentence changed to murder with
parole or maybe even Man's.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
Eric vander Molin.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Do you forgive them for what happened?

Speaker 5 (01:09):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:09):
I do. It's not been about forgiveness for me as
much as it's been about understanding and essentially watching what's
happened in the media over the last thirty some years.
I mean I was younger, so it affected me a
little bit. Differently, but watching them be vilified, you know,

(01:30):
through the recent series on Netflix Monsters and also previous ones,
it's been a little bit difficult. So but now that
you know we, I think other more people are sort
of coming around understanding and understanding child trauma around sexual

(01:51):
abuse cases, and I think that we're sort of capturing
a little bit more of the attention of I guess
the public and the people who should be hearing this.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
George Gascon was the district attorney California that not only
recommended that to the court but also sent a letter
to the Governor of California to support the brother's appeal
for clemency. As we've heard in the last episode from
their lawyer, Cliff Gardner, the two bids are very different,
and if the Governor of California supports the clemency bid,
then that would override any further judicial process. You might

(02:26):
remember we also spoke about the current election process for
the district attorney. It was George Gascon as the incumbent
against Nathan Hockman. It was all full steam ahead until
November seventh, twenty twenty four, when mister Hockman defeated George
Gascon in the election to become the new DA for California.

Speaker 6 (02:49):
Back to our election coverage, the race for La County
District Attorney is over, former federal prosecutor Nathan Hakman, defeating
the incumbent George Gascon by a landslide. Hawkman leading by
more than five hundred thousand votes with fifty nine percent
of them.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Mister Hockman takes offer on December two. The hearing for
the Menendez resentencing is due just nine days later. This
could change everything. Mister Hawkman has already been very vocal
about the case. He released a statement shortly after he
won the election.

Speaker 7 (03:21):
So here's my approach. Whether it's the Menendez case in
the media, or quite honestly, any case, even if it's
not in the media, You've got to do the hard work.
You got to look in that case at thousands of
pages of confidential prison files. You got to review thousands
of transcripts, trial transcripts from months long trials. You've got
to speak to the prosecutors, law enforcement, defense counsel, review

(03:43):
the exhibits, speak to the victim families and their members,
and only then can you be in a position to
determine whether resentencing is the appropriate remedy in this situation,
whether or not be what's been asked for in the
resentencing is the appropriate request. I'm not in that position now.
The case may or may not land on my desk,
but I can tell you if I do have to

(04:04):
make that call, I will do the hard work to
make the right decision.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
The new district attorney also appeared on various news channels
across the US.

Speaker 5 (04:13):
Nathan Hockman, welcome back to the issue.

Speaker 7 (04:14):
Is good to see you, great to be on. Thank you.

Speaker 8 (04:16):
District Attorney of lock Nathan Ackman joined us now here
in studio.

Speaker 7 (04:20):
Good morning and congratulations, Thank you, Thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah, so what do we know about mister Hockman and
how could his thoughts change the momentum of the current
Menendez bid for freedom. Nathan Hockman is a formal federal prosecutor.
His campaign to take offers was also about gasconn and
his failure to ensure public safety.

Speaker 7 (04:44):
He adopted extreme pro criminal policies that wouldn't focus on
the facts or the laws, but predetermined that certain crimes
like stealing under nine hundred and fifty dollars if you
were a juvenile engaging in violent conduct, if you were
a gang member. We're not going to be prosecuted no
matter what the facts and the law are. I reject
those extreme policies, but I also reject the extreme mass

(05:05):
incarceration policies. Again, don't care about the facts and the law.
They just want to put people as many people in
jail as possible.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
He also accused his predecessor that his policies led to
a rise in crime. Mister Hawkman beat Gascon with sixty
percent of the vote, and before he won he was
critical of Gascon's decision and the timing of the campaign
to free the Menindez brothers.

Speaker 7 (05:31):
Let's put it this way. On October third, when he
had the first press conference on the Menendez case of
twenty twenty four, that's a year and a half after
the motion was first filed in May of twenty twenty three.
But why October third, Why that particular date, Well, the
front page of the La Times had a caption that
said Team Killer case haunts Gascon, focusing on a seventeen

(05:55):
year old woman who had engaged in a double murder.
Because of Gascon's policies of treating her as a juvenile
rather than an adult, she only got four years in
juvenile hall, that murder got out and murdered again, So
he is timing wise. The time is extraordinarily suspicious that
on the same day that comes out in the La Times,

(06:15):
he holds a press conference to announce that he's thinking
about the Menendez case. Literally, he actually wasted the press's
time to tell you that he was thinking about a
case that he had already had in the office for
a year and a half.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
So what are the differences between the two das well? Firstly,
Hokman wants to return to the death penalty in California.

Speaker 5 (06:36):
You would be open to the death penalty for the
most extreme cases. George Gascon is never open to that.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
He also wants to increase the prosecution of low level
misdemeanors and to use sentencing enhancements to seek longer prison
sentences for cases that involve guns or drugs.

Speaker 7 (06:53):
I was talking to a single mom raising a teenage
boy in South LA recently, and she was telling me
that she's trying to teach her son right from wrong.
Stealing has consequences, and the shun shows her social media
video of his friends stealing and nothing's happening, And she
asked me a very telling question. She said, when did
the laws become suggestions? I said, they're not suggestions, but

(07:17):
I can understand why your son thinks that because there's
no punishment for a suggestion and there's no punishment for
his friends committing these crimes.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
We've heard lots from the supporters and friends and family
that have advocated for the brothers to be resentenced.

Speaker 4 (07:31):
I cannot help but think of how things would be
different if the world had known the truth back then,
or if they had been the menendous sisters.

Speaker 5 (07:42):
Instead of being seen as victims, they were vilified, Their
father's abuse was dismissed, their trauma ignored, and their truth
mocked by millions.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
It's exciting, it's beyond words. We've a woaited thirty five
years for some someone to believe and move forward with
the courage that's been shown in the last few days,
and we are continuing to be optimistic that the Eric

(08:16):
and Lyle will be released soon. And you know, the
best case scenario would be for us to have Eric
and Lyle home for the busy week of Thanksgiving for us,
we have three birthdays, and that would be that would
be just tremendously amazing, and there's just so much love

(08:38):
that we've been wanting to share with them, so it's
very meaningful. The progress has been amazing.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
However, there's a different view from current and former prosecutors
around the Menendez case. In a TV interview in the States,
one of the prosecutors cast out on that new piece
of potential evidence the brothers have presented in court to
challenge their convictions. It's the letter to cousin Andy. She's
the former Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney. Her name

(09:08):
is Pamela Bosnich. She prosecuted the brothers in the first trial.
She said, they killed their parents, they slaughtered their mother,
why should they live amongst us? She also reminded the
viewers of Dateline that Lyle shot their mum in the
face at point blank range after reloading his gun.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
I just know that I was totally has stopped for
the whole thing. Eric and Lyle were not victims. And
they will say, oh, you know, we were scared of dad. Well,
then go to the cops for Chrissie. I mean, come on,
give me a break. All they have to do is
go out and work as baristas, leave the house and
say Dad, we've had it with you. Here's the thing.
I was a sex crimes prosecutor. I knew that people

(09:51):
got buggered by their fathers, and to turn it around
and to use it as an excuse for killing your
parents was just and your mother. I was so angry
at these people.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
Why. Major, now a head deputy for the Los Angeles
County District Attorney's office, raised another concern. He has doubts
about the letter to cousin Andy as well. That's the
letter that the Minettees brother's lawyers say is a lynchpin
in their efforts to challenge their convictions. One Major, who
has not previously spoken out about the matter, said that

(10:25):
his views are his own and don't represent the District
Attorney's office. He was a young deputy district attorney during
the brother's second murder trial and later ran the division
that reviewed the potential evidence, including the letter to cousin Andy.
He said the brothers have a history of fabrication, including
Larles's alleged efforts to have people lie for the defense trial,

(10:47):
and he feared the brothers hadn't changed in the manner
described by George Gascon. He said, are they trying to
pull another fast one on the court.

Speaker 8 (11:00):
It's a generation that is coming doing the new recent
documentary honestly from a lens of a greater understanding and
compassion that all forms of abuse aren't gender specific, and
that you know, looking at the sentence that was handed

(11:22):
down to them in the nineties was unjust because it
was completely biased based on a society at the time
that was fairly did not understand that men could be
victimized just as much as women. And with that understanding,

(11:43):
this new generation is really putting up a fight to
say this is not which should have been handed to them,
and that at this point, after almost thirty five years,
they've served their time, they have served a penance, and

(12:05):
now it's time for them to come home. And you know,
I just want to bring it back to my grandmother,
who has really advocated for them throughout this time, and
I think the new generation seeing her and seeing her
fight has really stirred up a lot of that curiosity
for a generation who has information at their fingertips and

(12:27):
can research the world in an instant and really bring
it back to the fact that they are compassionate for
what Eric and Lyle survived and experienced and are now
trying to give back to the world at this point
throughout all of all of their victimization.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
At the time of publication, the race sentencing trial for
the Menandez brothers is still set down for December eleventh.

Speaker 4 (12:59):
Yeah, they, Loyel and Eric, continue to be cautiously optimistic,
you know, thirty five years So if you get your
hopes up too high, then you can fault, you know,
a little hard if things don't go exactly the way
you want them to. And I know they were hoping
that things might go a little bit quicker than they have.

(13:23):
But ultimately I believe that they will be home and
we'll be able to put our arms around them. And
they've told us, you know, of course that's what they want.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
The Menendez brothers bid for clemency was in front of
the Governor of California and was in full swing until
the eighteenth of November, when the Governor's office released the statement.
It said, the Governor respects the role of the District
Attorney ensuring justice is served and recognizes that voters have
entrusted District Attorney Elect Hokman to carry out this responsibility.

(14:02):
The Governor will defer to the da elect review and
analysis of the Menendez case prior to making any clemency decisions.

Speaker 7 (14:12):
Again, whether it's their play or any play, I would
look at the evidence, because the in a courtroom, it
all comes down to the evidence and the law. So
that's what I would do. I would take their statements.
I would take statements of any type of victim that
wants to weigh in whether it's again certain Menendezes that
think he should they should get out, certain Menendezes that

(14:33):
think they should stay in. But as importantly, all the
facts of the second trial, I'd examined those and expert reports,
and then I'd want to know what the prison file says.
See one of the confidential things that's not being revealed
as it shouldn't, is what the actual prison file says
about how they have acted over the last thirty plus
years in prison.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
After the jubilation of the last four weeks for the
family and supporters of Lall and Eric Menendez, you've but
now seeing the new district attorney holds the key to
see if the brothers will be released.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
I do know that there is no long time to
make the right decision, and this is the right decision
at least to ask the resentencing, since there's

Speaker 4 (15:12):
No long time to do the right thing.
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