Court Upholds Menendez Brothers’ Murder Convictions

The California Supreme Court voted Wednesday to uphold the murder convictions of Lyle and Erik Menendez, the Beverly Hills brothers who shot their wealthy parents to death in 1989.

Cliff Gardner, the appellate lawyer for Lyle Menendez, said the defense now will file appeals in federal court. “It could take years,” he said.

In the meantime, the brothers, who were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the chance for parole, will remain in custody.

Defense lawyers raised several issues on appeal, challenging the admissibility of tape recordings in which the brothers admitted the slayings to a psychotherapist and arguing that the judge was biased against the defendants.

The sensational murder case captivated Los Angeles and much of the nation for several years and raised questions about the adequacy of the jury system and the propriety of televising trials.

The first trial, which was televised, ended in hung jury verdicts in 1994 after the defense argued that the brothers killed their parents in self-defense after years of abuse. The defendants said that they were molested by their father, and Lyle maintained that he was sexually harassed by his mother. The juries deadlocked between murder and lesser manslaughter convictions.

During a 1996 retrial, Superior Court Judge Stanley M. Weisberg limited defense testimony about the brothers’ upbringing and mental states. A jury convicted the brothers of first-degree murder.

“You had two wealthy young men who had everything in the world going for them . . . and they decide to kill their own parents,” said David Conn, who prosecuted the brothers in their retrial. The case “made people wonder--if it could happen to their parents, perhaps our society is in a pretty bad state generally.”

A state Court of Appeal upheld the convictions in February and six of the seven California Supreme Court justices voted Wednesday not to review the case. Chief Justice Ronald M. George did not participate in the closed deliberations.

Defense attorney Leslie Abramson, who represented Erik Menendez, said she was “a little surprised” by the high court’s action “because the Court of Appeal opinion was so bad I thought [the Supreme Court] would be embarrassed” to let it stand.

Her client, whom she spoke to earlier in the day, “is doing remarkably well under the circumstances,” she said.

“We are pleased with the court’s decision,” said Matt Ross, a spokesman for Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren. “They received a fair trial and the jury found them guilty of murder, plain and simple.”