Jonathan Kearsley: US Correspondent discusses Eric Menendez’s rejected parole request

Erik Menendez has been denied parole 36 years after he confessed to killing his parents. 

He and his brother Lyle were sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for murdering their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez. 

Since then, further details around abuse from their father have surfaced, leading to public debate over their sentencing.  

US Correspondent Jonathan Kearsley told Heather duPlessis-Allan that Eric Menendez will have to wait another three years before requesting parole again.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jonathan Cursley, US correspondence with US. Hello Jonathan, Heather.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Happy Friday to you and everybody across.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Newszeal mate you two. So what's it been up to
in jail?

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yeah? Well, exactly right. I mean, this is thirty six
years in a day after Eric Mendez and his brother
killed their parents, Jose and Kiddy Menendez, in a crime
that really rocked Beverly Hills, it rocked Los Angeles, it
rocked the United States, and three and a half decades
on it became a fascination for true crime, the obsessives,

(00:31):
if you like, subject of a couple of documentaries. And
now Eric Menendez, we've seen the first image for him,
have quite some time released publicly, and he has been
denied parole. So look here you are with a situation
where Lyle Menendez now faces a parole hearing tomorrow, and
you would have to say, if Eric Mendez is not
getting parole, then neither is Lyle. The commissioners have essentially said, look,

(00:55):
the killing of your mother, especially shod a lack of empathy,
Robert Barton said. He went on to say, we recognize
and understand that there were assault victims who find it
hard to come forward that they had claimed that their
their father had sexually abused them, had assaulted them, that
this had come out in the second trial, it had
come out in later documentaries. It wasn't believed by the

(01:16):
jury in the first instance. And they became this great,
big push a couple of years ago after the Netflix
series and other series became so incredibly popular. But now
you've got this situation where Eric Menendez now can't apply
for parole for another three years, and Lymanndez, if your
Lyman end is tonight going to sleep in your San
Diego correctional facility. You're thinking, well, while they even bother

(01:38):
turning up to the to the parole board hearing tomorrow,
because if my brother's capt that whack, then I'm likely
to get the same thing because they're essentially accused of
the same crime.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah, there will be many Netflix viewers who are incredibly disappointed,
like some members of our team today. Now there will
be Yeah, but you know, this is the how do
you say this without being impolite? This is the This
is when you turn murderers into some sort of pop
culture status symbols. I suppose you could say you just

(02:07):
kind of lose your bearings on things, don't you.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, And they became political prawns too, because essentially what
you had was a district attorney fight, which they are
elected individuals here in the United States of America. You
had a Democrat arguing that because of the popularity, largely
of the Netflix series, he was an unpopular district attorney.
He decided he would release them or move to release them.
Then you had a Republican district attorney. He was coming

(02:30):
here and saying, no, that's not right. They killed their parents,
they should stay in prison. So it became a hugely
political issue, and it was a political issue that voters
sided with Republicans oneah on this very issue. So look, essentially,
this has been a massive public fight from Eric and
Laho Menendez, from their family members, from their supporters, from
their celebrity attorneys, to the point now where you look

(02:53):
at it the case now and you're going, well, it's
going to be another three years before they're eving up
for parole, even though they got that reduced sentencing from
life to fifty years.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, Jonathan, listen, really quickly, tell me what's going on
with this half a billion dollar penalty that Donald Trump
now doesn't have to pay. You'll be having a good day.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah. I mean he's essentially said it's a great day
for America. He took the Truth's ocal not long after
this judgment came out. It really was kind of a
slit judgment in one sense. But this was a financial
penalty that was imposed on the Trump organization by New
York court last year after they were accused of essentially
inflating their own value. Now what you've had is an
appeals court to come back today and essentially say, look,

(03:29):
what Donald Trump is not going to have to do
is to pay that money. However, there is a split
decision on whether there is actually sort of criminality involved.
There are some judges on this appeals court who have
said yes, there is corruption involved. So it's not the
end of the road. I mean, Donald Trump is not
going to have to pay the half a billion dollars.
So it's a massive financial win for his organization and

(03:50):
ultimately for his legacy. But this will be dragged out.
There's going to be other appeals court processes. This appeals
court that decided on this today is really just a
sort of media interim mid range appeals court. It goes
to another appellate court they are looking at trying to
throw at the entire conviction against him. The judges today said, look,
that is unlikely. They essentially still stand by the ruling.

(04:12):
What they are essentially saying, though, is that he should
not have to pay the penalty. The organization should not
have to pay the penalty. But here you have this
fascinating situation where you have a president of the United
States of America who has been handed this huge financial
penalty over this issue. And you've got to remember too,
he still has his criminal conviction in New York over

(04:34):
the Stormy Daniels case that still remains in the appeals
process if you like. So you've got this extraordinary situation
America has not been in before, where a sitting president
of the United States of America has huge civil cases
and criminal cases against him. And now there is very
much plenty of attention on the appeals process from here.

(04:55):
But at least today he's celebrating some sort of a
financial win.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, Jonathan, always got to talk to you. Thank you
so much, Bete. That's Jonathan Curzley, our US correspondent. For
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