SAUNDERS: There’s a 2024 angle to Menendez brothers’ saga

WASHINGTON

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón is the sort of progressive prosecutor who thinks it is his job to curb mass incarceration. Last week the L.A. D.A. announced he is reviewing the sentencing of Lyle and Erik Menendez who were convicted for the savage shot-gun killing of their parents in 1989 and sentenced to life without parole.

The brothers are the subject of a Netflix series, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” as well as the Netflix documentary, “The Menendez Brothers.”

Gascón told Newsweek his office is reviewing the case in light of a 1988 letter Erik wrote to a cousin about alleged sexual abuse by his father, and a statement from a former Menudo band member who claimed José sexually assaulted him.

Be it noted, Lyle and Erik were 21 and 19 at the time they slaughtered their parents, José and Kitty Menendez.

The sons were adults who could have walked away from their wealthy lifestyle in Beverly Hills, but instead chose to turn two shotguns on their father, who sexually abused them, they said, as well as their mother, using her substance abuse in the face of her husband’s affairs as a reason to put her “out of her misery.”

Then they went on a spending spree — loading up with high-end watches, clothing and cars.

The murders were pre-meditated. They were extremely violent. The brothers killed their parents. So why would the headline-seeking Gascón revisit the sentence?

California has no shortage of gullible journalists and politicians who want to believe that convicted killers, even parricides, are underdogs — even though the brothers admitted they killed their unarmed parents, as José and Kitty were watching TV.

Some family members have pushed for the brothers’ release — as the pair, now in their 50s, have been in prison for decades after enduring a childhood of abuse by their father.

In the Netflix documentary, prosecutor Pamela Bozanich confirmed that she asked around about José Menendez, and she couldn’t find a single person who said anything nice about him except for his secretary. Bozanich called the father a monster whose death presented “an actual plus for mankind.”

“The only reason I’m doing this after 33 years is that this poor woman who gave birth to both of them was treated like a doormat by her husband and her sons and she was slaughtered like a wild animal inside of her own home,” she said of her decision to talk about the case.

Bozanich also believes that there would be no push to reconsider the case if not for TikTok, which has elevated the inmates’ celebrity status.

There’s a political angle to the Menendez brothers’ saga as well.

Gascón’s career in elective office took off after Kamala Harris won the California attorney general’s race in 2010, and then-Mayor Gavin Newsom named him to succeed her as San Francisco D.A. The careers of the two prosecutors from San Francisco have been intertwined for years.

In February 2020, Harris and other progressive Democrats endorsed Gascón as he ran for Los Angeles District Attorney. That 2020 endorsement was not a pro forma statement of support — Harris got behind Gascón during a contested primary in which he challenged incumbent Democrat D.A. Jackie Lacey.

Then U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris stated, “George Gascón is a proven leader of national significance when it comes to reforming our criminal justice system. As D.A. of San Francisco, George led fights to reform the Three Strikes Law, decrease the state prison population and get people convicted of nonviolent offenses greater opportunities to get their lives back on track. As D.A. of L.A. County, I know George Gascón will work every day to keep our communities safe and demand real accountability from our justice system and real justice for every Angeleno.”

In short, Harris, who wants voters to believe she was a hard-nosed prosecutor, endorsed Gascón because he weakened California law on repeat offenders and sent fewer criminals to prison.

But now, according to a recent Los Angeles Times/UC Berkeley poll, the incumbent D.A. has garnered 21 percent of support, 30 points behind lead challenger Nathan Hochman.

Those politics aren’t going to help Harris in 2024. So this go-round, she has not endorsed Gascón.

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.