LOS ANGELES : Lyle Menendez’s Lawyers Seek Trial in 8 to 12 Months
Lyle Menendez’s newly assigned public defenders said Thursday it may be up to a year before they are ready for his retrial.
Terri Towery and Bill Weiss have filed a memorandum with Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg, asking him to set a trial date that is eight to 12 months from now.
“We need the time to go through the voluminous information,” Towery said.
She and Weiss have been representing Menendez, 26, since last month, when his original attorney left the case to spend more time with her young daughter.
Menendez and his brother, Erik, 23, have admitted using shotguns to kill their parents on Aug. 20, 1989, at the family mansion in Beverly Hills. But they claim they fired in self-defense, believing that their parents were plotting to kill them.
Prosecutors want a jury to convict the siblings and recommend the death penalty. The defense claims the brothers should be found guilty of manslaughter.
Separate juries were unable to reach unanimous decisions in the case of the two young men, who have become household names in America thanks to books, magazine articles, “Saturday Night Live” parodies and national television coverage.
Weisberg is expected to set a retrial date today.
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