Judge Deals Blow to Defense in Menendez Case

The judge in the retrial of the Menendez brothers dealt a stunning blow to the heart of the defense case Friday, ruling that jurors will not be able to consider the brothers’ assertion that they killed their parents under a misguided fear that the parents were about to kill them.

The so-called “imperfect self-defense” could have been a key consideration in reducing murder charges to manslaughter, offering jurors a possible avenue of compromise in the complex case that resulted in juror deadlock two years ago. That legal impasse sparked national debate and public hostility toward the controversial defense, dubbed the “abuse excuse.”

“Unbelievable,” said UCLA Law School professor Peter Arenella. “This is disastrous for the defense. There’s no other way to read it.”

Defense attorneys always have contended that a lifetime of sexual, physical and psychological abuse conditioned the brothers to fear their parents profoundly--and led them to mistakenly believe that the parents were about to kill them to hush up an incest scandal.

But Judge Stanley M. Weisberg, hanging his decision on a legal footnote from a state Supreme Court decision handed down after the first trial, found that the imperfect self-defense did not apply because the brothers--not the parents--initiated the final physical confrontation in the den of the family’s Beverly Hills mansion.

Erik Menendez appeared stunned by the ruling, while Lyle Menendez lowered his head. The brothers later appeared red-eyed as they returned to the courtroom from a holding cell after a recess.

The rulings came as testimony ended in the retrial after 78 days, 64 witnesses and 441 exhibits. Attorneys are expected to begin their closing arguments Tuesday.

Defense attorney Leslie Abramson has long said she planned to ask the jury to convict Erik Menendez of manslaughter. But Friday she told reporters she would now argue for acquittal.

Weisberg also delivered a second, stunning blow to the defense, ruling that the jury cannot consider convicting the brothers of lesser manslaughter charges in the shotgun slaying of their mother. The judge said he would reconsider his rulings over the holiday weekend.