LOS ANGELES : Menendez Retrial Judge Rules Out Separate Juries
The judge in the Menendez murder trial Friday ruled out the use of separate juries for the brothers’ retrial, saying there were too many logistic problems with that arrangement at the first trial.
But Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Stanley M. Weisberg again put off a decision on whether the brothers will be tried separately. Weisberg said he intends to decide after defense attorneys tell him more about their view of certain evidence in a brief due Nov. 8.
The judge is scheduled to take up other pretrial issues on Monday, primarily whether Jill Lansing, Lyle Menendez’s attorney for the first trial, can come back to the case. She resigned after the first trial, saying she wanted to spend more time with her family, but Lyle Menendez, 26, said recently he wants her back.
The brothers face retrial in the 1989 shotgun slayings of their parents. Their first trial, before separate juries, ended in January with both panels deadlocked between murder and lesser manslaughter verdicts. Lyle and Erik Menendez, 23, remain in jail.
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