Taylor Hill/FilmMagic/Getty; Los Angeles Times
Kim Kardashian penned an essay calling for the release of Erik and Lyle Menendez after visiting them in prison.
“I have spent time with Lyle and Erik; they are not monsters. They are kind, intelligent, and honest men. In prison, they both have exemplary disciplinary records. They have earned multiple college degrees, worked as caregivers for elderly incarcerated individuals in hospice, and been mentors in college programs — committed to giving back to others,” Kardashian wrote in an essay shared by NBC News. “When I visited the prison three weeks ago, one of the wardens told me he would feel comfortable having them as neighbors. Twenty-four family members, including their parents’ siblings, have released statements fully supporting Lyle and Erik and have respectfully requested that the justice system free them.”
“We are all products of our experiences. They shape who we were, who we are, and who we will be,” her essay continues. “Physiologically and psychologically, time changes us, and I doubt anyone would claim to be the same person they were at 18. I know I’m not!”
Erik and Lyle were 18 and 21, respectively, when their parents were fatally shot in their Beverly Hills home in 1989.
“In 1996, after two trials, they were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole,” Kardashian wrote. “As is often the case, this story is much more complex than it appears on the surface.”
“Both brothers said they had been sexually, physically and emotionally abused for years by their parents,” she continued. “According to Lyle, the abuse started when he was just 6 years old, and Erik said he was raped by his father for more than a decade. Following years of abuse and a real fear for their lives, Erik and Lyle chose what they thought at the time was their only way out — an unimaginable way to escape their living nightmare.”
Erik Menendez’s daughter Talia shared on Instagram earlier this week that the brothers were awaiting word on their appeal upon the discovery “proving the abuse endured after decades of not being believed and that evidence had been excluded from the retrial.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, L.A. district attorney George Gascón said on Thursday that the Menendez brothers’ case will be reviewed. “We have a moral and ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us,” Gascón said.
“With their case back in the spotlight — and considering the revelation of a 1988 letter from Erik to his cousin describing the abuse — my hope is that Erik and Lyle Menendez’s life sentences are reconsidered,” Kardashian wrote. “We owe it to those little boys who lost their childhoods, who never had a chance to be heard, helped or saved.”
The Menendez brothers re-entered the spotlight following the launch of Netflix series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
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