The Menendez Brothers Case Shows True Crime Shows Can Have an Impact on Real Life

Thirty-five years after Eric and Lyle Menendez shot and killed their parents in their Southern California home, brothers could be granted resentencing in what advocates call a movement toward justice. This was largely due to a surge in media attention and the country’s appetite for true crime content.

The Menendezes were convicted of killing their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in 1989 in a retrial after their first murder trial ended with an undecided jury. To secure a second conviction, substantial evidence of the abuse the brothers say they suffered at the hands of their parents was excluded, their lawyers argued.

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

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

Popular true crime content that explores and often re-investigates elements of real-life murders and other criminal cases in documentaries, podcasts and books often generates a wave of public interest and increased attention, and in many cases major changes have occurred following this attention.

Here are four cases where real crime influenced real cases:

The “Serial” podcast and the overturned sentence of Adnan Syed

Adnan Syed had been serving a life sentence for more than a decade for the murder of his ex-girlfriend when the 2014 episode of the podcast Serial changed everything. In it, journalist Sarah Koenig reexamined the evidence used to convict him and traced some of the loose ends in the case.

One piece of evidence raised some of the biggest questions in the case: the existence of a potential alibi witness who said he was with Syed when the prosecution alleged the murder was committed. While the podcast did not conclude that Syed was innocent, it mounted a massive public campaign for his freedom.

The “serial” case continues: Overturning verdict in Adnan Syed’s murder turns into repetition

He was released from prison in 2022 after his conviction was overturned. The judge who overturned the conviction said prosecutors improperly withheld exculpatory evidence during his murder trial two decades ago. Prosecutors said they were dropping all charges after DNA evidence again confirmed Syed’s innocence.

Syed’s case is still pending. a complex web of legal uncertainty however in 2024. Last year his sentence was reinstated after family members of the victim, Hae Min Lee, said their rights were violated when they were not given time to appear in person at the hearing that led to his release.

Although his conviction was reinstated, he remains out of prison while he waits for this hearing to be repeated.

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

“Jinxed” documentary: Robert Durst

In another case, public attention caused by the documentary had the opposite effect. Robert Durst, who died in 2022, was featured in the 2015 documentary series “The Jinx,” in which prosecutors said he confessed to killing his best friend back in 2000.

Durst was 78 years old when he was found guilty of killing Susan Berman. Prosecutors said he killed Berman because she knew he also killed his wife, Kathy, in 1982, although he was never charged with his wife’s murder.

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

Participating in the 2015 documentary was “a very, very, very big mistake,” he later said in court, according to the Associated Press.

Brandon Dassey and Making a Murderer

Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer Almost helped free Brandon Dassey from his life sentence. Dassey was convicted of first-degree murder, mutilation of a corpse and second-degree sexual assault in 2007 and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach. Prosecutors said he helped his uncle Steven Avery, who was also sentenced to life in prison in a separate trial.

The series, which aired in late 2015, raised concerns about the legality of a confession given to police by Dassey as a teenager at the time of the murder. Following the release of the documentary, there was a wave of support for Dassey’s conviction to be overturned, as lawyers and advocates said his confession was coerced by authorities and no forensic evidence linked him to the crime.

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

Menendeses

The Menendezes’ original trial featured testimony from 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 were going to kill them.

The jury at that trial was hung, and the retrial included much less testimony, according to their lawyers and family members.

The saga was adapted into the Netflix series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which was followed by a two-hour documentary. The result has been renewed attention to a case that dominated the headlines decades ago, this time thanks to streaming services and social media.

Kim Kardashian even wrote an article calling for the verdict to be reconsidered. She wrote that a lack of awareness and widespread stigma around sexual abuse against boys mars their chances of getting a fair trial.

NEW EVIDENCE: Will the Menendez brothers be released? The family makes an earnest request

“I spent time with Lyle and Eric; they are not monsters. They are kind, smart and honest people,” she wrote for NBC News. “I do not believe that spending my entire natural life in prison was the right punishment for this complex case.”

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said in announcing his decision to recommend resentencing that he was reviewing new evidence of the alleged abuse. He said his office received an influx of inquiries after the documentary’s release.

Assistance: John Bacon, Christopher Kann, Minna Arshad, Erin Jensen, Selina Tebor and Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY; Kelly Arceneaux, Appleton Post-Crescent