Recently at Morgan, the Menendez case has been growing in conversations and the series about these brothers is becoming a trend. Throughout Ms. Shook’s time at Morgan, she has been teaching the Intro to Criminal Law class. This class discusses laws and rights criminals and everyday citizens get and have the privilege of using. Some specific topics include types of crimes, roles of crimes, and drug use. Every Friday, Ms. Shook likes to watch Law and Order. She calls these “Law and Order Fridays.” She likes to do this because “it reinforces the curriculum so that [the students] can pick out the different things that [they] are studying.”
Every year, she likes to start by watching a series of episodes on the Menendez case. According to senior Ariana Farr, she “first learned about [the Menendez case] in Ms. Shook’s class, her sophomore year,” but hearing about it on social media and the different opinions people had, got her interested. Ms. Shook likes to start with the Menendez case because “it is a good overview of the whole case. It is more accurate and classroom-appropriate than some other Netflix Originals.” She starts with this case because it has a lot of aspects that we talked about in class, such as roles of crimes, punishments, and fair punishment, so it is good for the student to put their knowledge to the test. She believes that the show has helped many students understand the process and the pace of the justice system the way it works, compared to the way Law and Order shows the process usually in one to two episodes.
The Menendez Brothers case is about 18-year-old Erik and 20-year-old Lyle Menendez, often referred to as the Menendez brothers, being convicted for the murders of their parents, José and Kitty Menendez on August 20, 1989, in their Beverly Hills home. Based on court documents, the brothers claimed that they had suffered years of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse at the hands of their parents, which led them to commit the murders in fear for their lives. Both brothers were seen as innocent until a verbal confession was made to their therapist, Dr. Oziel, on October 31, 1989.
Dr. Oziel, the psychologist who treated Erik after the murders, played an important role in this trial. Dr. Oziel would record each session to look back on their conversations and learn how to help all of his clients. These tapes were never released to the public nor allowed to be. According to the psychology handbook, when a patient sees a doctor, it is “a confidential communication between the doctor and the patient that receives protection from disclosure.”
So, knowing this, Erik told the secret about him and his brother killing their parents. This being the case, his confession was not out there and on tape but without any motive or details. Lyle and Erik kept their reasoning private for as long as they could until their attorney, Leslie Abrams, got it out of them to help with their case.
It was not until Judalon Smyth, who was in a one-sided relationship with Dr. Oziel, reported to the police that Dr. Oziel had the brother’s confession on tape after they had gotten into an argument, that the boys were then found guilty. Lyle was then arrested on March 8th and Erik on March 11th. Both boys were put in Los Angeles County Jail until their court date on July 20, 1993, where they were being charged with the death penalty.
During the trial, the boys fought for their lives with their attorney, Leslie Abrams. A lot of evidence was used against them from their own home and their spending pattern after the murder. Family members and citizens thought the brothers killed their parents for their fortune after they were taken out of their father’s will. But the boys were fighting back, saying that they had a motive and were sexually abused for the majority of their lives. When the tape recordings were brought to court, they were prioritized in the case. These recordings led to a mistrial, due to the doctor-patient privilege, keeping the boys in the Los Angeles County Jail until their next trial took place.
Lyle and Erik’s next trial was on July 23, 1995. The tapes were removed from this trial, and the boys used their personal information to help them lower their sentences and keep their own lives. The boys released information on their sexually abused history and the abusive relationship they had with their parents. They used the claim of self-defense because if they didn’t kill their parents, their parents were going to kill them. After a hard fight by Leslie Abrams and the Menendez brothers, they were convicted of two counts of first-degree murder on March 21, 1996. Later that year, on July 2nd, Judge Weisberg sentenced the brothers to two counts of life in prison with no parole.
Discussion amongst Morgan students about this trial has been increasing over the past two months. Shows and documentaries such as “Monsters” and “The Menendez Brothers” coming out on Netflix have been top picks for students. According to Forbes Magazine, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” was the most-watched series on Netflix for two weeks in a row before falling to second, third, and fourth places in the subsequent weeks for a total of 506.5 million viewing hours from Sept. 23 to Oct. 20.”
When asking senior, Ariana Farr about her experience watching these series, she said that without the shows coming out she “definitely would not” have gotten as deep into it as she is. Farr thinks “social media has done a lot for this case.” She explains that she often sees posts updating viewers on changes in the trial and new findings in the case. On Instagram, there are 18.9K posts with the hashtag #menendez and 31.3K posts with the hashtag #menendezbrothers. This being said, these series were created with the purpose of building support for Lyle and Erik from a new generation. It has seemed to work as we can see from the apps that appeal to the younger generations’ statistics. When Lyle and Erik were growing up, it was difficult for other people to see boys and men in general being sexually abused by another man. However, today, people see this as a bigger possibility and bring awareness to it. So, when the brothers were calling for the country’s support, people responded and brought more awareness to their case. Erik Menendez shared a statement to X through his wife Tammi’s account that accused Murphy of “bad intent,” slammed the show as a step backward in accurately portraying male sexual abuse, and said it included “vile and appalling character portrayals of Lyle and me.”
So, although the show helped them lower their sentence, it also harmed their character and the way they were perceived by the public.
