Prosecutors said that the brothers’ 1989 shooting at their Beverly Hills estate killed Jose and Kitty Menendez as part of a scheme to acquire their father’s wealth.
On Thursday, LA County district attorney George Gascon said there was “a moral and an ethical obligation” to investigate information filed by the brothers last year, which claimed they were sexually assaulted by their father and acted in self-defence.
Since a Netflix series based on the murders was published in September, there has been a resurgence of interest in the killings among the general public.
Prosecutors claimed during the first trial that the brothers’ killings were driven by greed, and evidence that they had spent a significant portion of their substantial inheritance on expensive vehicles, Rolex watches, and real estate before they were named as suspects helped to make the case well-known in the US.
The Menendez brothers’ claims of abuse over a number of years led to a hung jury in that initial trial.
The abuse claims were mostly dropped at a retrial. In 1996, the brothers were convicted and given a life sentence without the possibility of release.
A 1988 letter from Erik Menendez to his cousin, which purportedly makes mention of his father’s abuse, is one of the new pieces of evidence that is currently being examined.
