Family members of Erik and Lyle Menendez gathered outside a courthouse in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday to call for their release from prison. The relatives , more than 20, gathered amid ongoing concerns that key evidence was not yet available, or outright suppressed, when the brothers were convicted and sentenced in the shocking shotgun slayings of their parents José and Kitty Menendez more than 30 years ago. At the press conference, Kitty’s 92-year-old sister Joan Andersen VanderMolen said she believes evidence that the brothers were routinely sexually abused by their father would have been accepted and portrayed in a much different light if the trial took place today.
“No jury today would issue such a harsh sentence without taking their trauma into account,” Andersen VanderMolen said, her voice shaking. “Lyle and Erik have already paid a heavy price, discarded by a system that failed to recognize their pain. It’s time to allow them to live the rest of their lives free from the shadow of their past.
” Other relatives said they believe the outcome of the case would have been much different if the siblings were sisters, not brothers. “It’s time for Erik and Lyle to come home,” Kitty’s niece Karen VanderMolen said. “We live in a time now that we understand what trauma does to the brain development of a child.
The evidence of their father’s abuse would have been a central part of their defense.” Anamaria Baralt, a niece of José Menendez, called the.
