LOS ANGELES : Menendez Judge Orders Hearing on Abuse Testimony
The judge in the Menendez murder case Wednesday ordered a hearing next week on the key issue of whether the highly technical rules of evidence allow expert testimony regarding the brothers’ claim that they killed their parents in fear after years of abuse.
Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Stanley M. Weisberg ordered the prosecution and defense back to court Wednesday.
Earlier this week, the judge said he was not convinced that there were legal grounds in California to permit such expert testimony.
But he said that attorneys for brothers Lyle Menendez, 27, and Erik Menendez, 24, were entitled to argue at a hearing that the rules of evidence do permit it.
The brothers are accused of first-degree murder in the Aug. 20, 1989, shotgun slayings of their wealthy parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez.
Meanwhile, Weisberg ruled Wednesday that attorney Michael Burt, who was one of Lyle Menendez’s lawyers in the brothers’ first trial, could not now help Leslie Abramson take on the defense of Erik Menendez. That would be a conflict of interest, Weisberg ruled.
The brothers’ first trial ended in January, 1994, with juries deadlocked between murder and lesser manslaughter charges. The retrial is due to begin June 12.
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