Menendez Mistrials

Wow! What a beautiful example of just how weak and out of order is our justice system. Hung juries in both of the Menendez brothers’ cases. We now hear that legal fees (i.e., pay to attorneys) have eaten up all the family estate and that now any additional legal fees will have to be picked up by us--the taxpayers.

But that’s OK. Just listen to the quote from Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, “Be damned with how much money it’s going to cost,” we will try them again. The inefficiency and incompetence of the district attorney coupled with a judicial system staffed by judges who were and are attorneys and seem to delight in seeing attorneys become wealthy have given us trials of absurd length with huge fees to the attorneys.

We need no-fault insurance, strict but reasonable limits on malpractice settlements and--most of all--a court system that can quickly and efficiently dispense justice without all the needless delays. Democracy depends on a fair, functioning judicial system. We are rapidly losing ours.

WILLIAM C. THOMAS

Glendale

Garcetti and his staff seem to be in a slump these days. He can’t get a conviction to save his life or maybe his job for that matter. He claims he needs more money for his budget, but he can’t get a conviction with the manpower he has now.

What I feel brings this issue to a head is the outcome of the Menendez brothers’ trials. Here we have, for all practical purposes, an open and shut case of two adult sons shotgunning their parents to death. The district attorney’s office is supposed to speak in behalf of the dead parents. But they were cheated by the incompetence of the district attorney.

How much longer as taxpayers and residents of this county are we going to put up with the performances of our public servants who, if it were not for plea bargaining, wouldn’t get any convictions at all?

JOSEPH ANGIULI

Glendora

I don’t understand all the media hype about the “millions” the Menendez trial has cost the taxpayers.

Wouldn’t the prosecutors, judge, and the court be paid anyway for whatever trial comes up next? They surely won’t be fired.

BARBARA DECKER

Palm Springs

Re “Jurors’ Rift Emerged Early and Ran Deep,” Jan. 29:

What is to become of us as a society when we have juries that cannot convict murderers because they feel sorry for them? Those jurors who could not find it in their hearts to condemn the Menendez brothers have no common sense or they left it at home. There probably aren’t any murderers past or present (e.g., Hitler et al.) who don’t have a childhood history to explain why they did the terrible things they did. How are we to find juries that know the difference between understanding despicable behavior without excusing it? JACQUELINEDORFMAN

Encino

Am I the only one outraged to see the smirking, smiling Lyle Menendez on your front page (Jan 29). Please, no more of that. Is murder justified in the killing of, not one, but two parents? I think not.

ROSE RUBALCABA

Long Beach

I absolutely concur with your Jan. 31 editorial that doing justice in the Menendez retrial is essential. The facts must determine Garcetti’s pursuit of authentic justice.

Beyond reasonable doubt, intent was motivated by pure fear and self-defense, not murder-one. The lives of appendage trophies (to be used, not loved) are vulnerable to extermination should exposure of sick secrets threaten a psychopathic father and self-obsessed mother.

Lyle and Eric (a classic victim) tried to be good sons and decent persons. They respected their parents’ wishes, tried to please them, and looked up to Jose’s successful attributes (which he perverted into cruelty and unethical avenues).

Murder-one prosecution, erroneously based, wastes “nickels and dimes” and ignores the true facts of the case, which will prevail.

CAROL CORRIGAN

Los Angeles

Doesn’t anyone in this town understand the concepts of “reasonable doubt” and “burden of proof”? I voted for voluntary manslaughter in the case of People vs. Erik Menendez because the prosecution failed to prove that Erik is guilty of first-degree murder, not because I am “so enamored with Abramson and her argument,” as Alan Abrahamson wrote (news analysis, Jan. 30).

If this is the kind of reporting your readers have been relying on these past six months, I doubt there is an unbiased potential juror left in the whole state.

Has anyone bothered to notice that no one on the Erik Menendez jury voted for involuntary manslaughter, much less acquittal? I don’t call up to 11 years in prison for each count of manslaughter “getting away with it.”

HAZEL THORNTON, Juror No. 9

Lake View Terrace