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    • Menendez brothers’ case shows true crime shows can impact real life
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    Menendez brothers’ case shows true crime shows can impact real life

    Harry Posted on

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    35 years after Erik and Lyle Menendez shot and killed their parents in their Southern California home. Siblings can be given the right to get angry again in what advocates call a move toward justice. This is thanks in large part to an increase in media attention and the country’s appetite for true crime content.

    The Menendez couple were found guilty of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in 1989 in a retrial after the first murder trial ended with an indecisive jury. Their lawyers argued that crucial evidence about the abuse the siblings say they suffered at the hands of their parents was excluded to ensure a second conviction.

    But support for the brothers, who are currently serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, surged after the release of the Netflix documentary about the case, “The Menendez Brothers,” earlier this month. Another Netflix offering, a dramatized depiction, was released in September.

    What you need to know: Will the Menendez brothers be released?

    Popular true crime content that explores and often re-explores elements of real murder and other criminal cases in documentaries, podcasts, and books often results in a wave of public interest and increased scrutiny, and in the wake of this attention, many cases have seen major breakthroughs.

    Here are four situations where real crime affects real cases:

    ‘Serial’ podcast and overturning of Adnan Syed’s conviction

    It was more than a decade after Adnan Syed was serving a life sentence for the murder of his ex-girlfriend when the release of the podcast “Serial” in 2014 changed everything. In this article, journalist Sarah Koenig reexamined the evidence used to convict him and traced some of the loose threads in the case.

    One piece of evidence has raised some of the biggest questions about the case: the existence of a potential alibi witness who said she was with Syed when the prosecution claimed the murder occurred. Although the podcast did not conclude that Syed was innocent, it launched major public campaigns for his freedom.

    ‘Serial’ case continues: Reversals in Adnan Syed murder conviction turned into reconstruction

    He was released from prison in 2022 after his conviction was overturned. The judge who annulled the conviction said prosecutors in the murder case two decades ago improperly withheld exculpatory evidence. Prosecutors said they would drop all charges after new DNA evidence established Syed’s innocence.

    Syed’s case is still ongoing complex web of legal uncertainty but in 2024. conviction last year reinstated Family members of the victim, Hae Min Lee, said that their rights were violated because they were not given time to attend the hearing in person.

    Although the conviction was reinstated, stays out of prison while he awaits the retrial.

    “Adnan Syed would be nowhere if Sarah Koenig hadn’t stepped in and turned him into a national spectacle,” said Deirdre Enright, law professor and founder of the Innocence Project at the University of Virginia School of Law, who appeared on the podcast. he told USA Today after the conviction was initially overturned. “Like most, he would be on his own.”

    ‘Jinx’ from a documentary: Robert Durst

    In another case, attracting public attention The documentary had the opposite effect.. Robert Durst, who died in 2022, appeared in the 2015 documentary series “The Jinx,” in which prosecutors say he confessed to killing his best friend in 2000.

    Durst was 78 when he was convicted of the execution-style murder of Susan Berman. Prosecutors said he killed Berman because he knew Berman had also killed his wife, Kathie, in 1982, but Berman was never charged with killing his wife.

    In the six-part HBO documentary “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” which aired in early 2015, Durst was heard saying on a hot microphone that he “killed them all,” among other damning statements and evidence presented. Before this documentary, Durst had become a well-known figure in 2010 with the movie “All Good Things” based on his own life.

    He later told the court that participating in the 2015 documentary was “a very, very, very big mistake,” the Associated Press reported.

    Brandon Dassey and ‘Making a Murderer’

    Netflix documentary series “Making a Murderer” He almost helped free Brandon Dassey from life imprisonment. Dassey was convicted in 2007 of first-degree premeditated murder, dismemberment of a corpse, and second-degree sexual assault and was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach. Prosecutors said he helped his uncle, Steven Avery, who was sentenced to life in prison in a separate case.

    The series, which aired in late 2015, raised concerns about the legitimacy of the confession given to police by Dassey, who was a teenager at the time of the murder. While attorneys and advocates say Dassey’s confession was coerced by authorities and there is no forensic evidence linking him to the crime, there has been an outpouring of support for overturning Dassey’s conviction following the release of the documentary.

    His conviction was subsequently overturned by a federal judge, and he appeared likely to be released from prison until a divided appeals court reinstated him. In 2018, the Supreme Court refused to hear his case and effectively upheld the conviction.

    The Menendezes

    The Menendezes’ first trial included testimony from the brothers accusing their father of horrific physical and sexual abuse. Their lawyers argued that the young men killed their parents in self-defense because they believed, perhaps irrationally, that their parents would kill them.

    His lawyers and family members said the jury for that trial was hung, and the retrial included much less of that testimony.

    The saga was dramatized in the Netflix series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and was followed by a two-hour documentary. The result has been renewed interest in a case that dominated headlines decades ago, this time driven by streaming services and social media.

    Kim Kardashian even wrote an opinion piece calling for a review of their sentences. He wrote that a lack of awareness and widespread stigma around sexual abuse of boys clouded their chances of a fair trial.

    NEW EVIDENCE: Will the Menendez brothers be released? The family made a passionate defense

    “I spent time with Lyle and Erik; they are not monsters. “They are kind, intelligent and honest men,” he wrote. NBC News. “I do not believe spending their entire natural lives in prison is the appropriate punishment for this complex case.”

    In announcing his decision to recommend resentencing, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said he was considering new evidence of the alleged abuse. He said his office was flooded with inquiries after the documentary aired.

    Contributors: John Bacon, Christopher Cann, Minnah Arshad, Erin Jensen, Celina Tebor and Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY; Kelli Arseneau, Post Appleton Crescent

    Harry
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