Erik and Lyle Menendez and their legal team are making a full court press for freedom at next month's hearing ... and we've learned their star witnesses are people inside the prison.
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00:00So, there is a big hearing we've told you about coming up on December 11th involving
00:04the Menendez brothers where they could be set free as early as that day.
00:10They could walk out totally free after 35 years.
00:15And so the issue is, how are they going to convince the judge?
00:19So a lot of people think this is going to be relatives and, you know, people that they
00:25knew.
00:26Nope.
00:27It's going to be people behind bars.
00:30They are the star witnesses in this case.
00:34And what it really foretells is they are leaning on the fact that they have been, as we've
00:40told you, model inmates.
00:42And they have done not just, this goes beyond just good behavior, that they didn't get into
00:47fights.
00:48And they are going to have testimony from the people who work at the prison down in
00:53San Diego where they have been now.
00:56We are talking about prison guards.
00:59We're talking about education, people who work in the education part of the prison there.
01:05And remember, they were in other prisons as well in the past.
01:12And they both reunited for the first time since 1996.
01:16In 2018, they were in separate prisons during that span there.
01:21But now they're together.
01:22But there are going to be six prison employees, people who work at the facility, who are going
01:29to talk about how they've been rehabilitated, how they're model prisoners, how they have
01:35improved themselves.
01:36And how they have improved the lives of other inmates.
01:38Which they've done.
01:39Yeah.
01:40And, you know, I got to say something about this.
01:43It's really, this is why this is really effective.
01:46That Eric and Lyle were both sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of
01:52parole.
01:53That means that by all rights, they're in prison for the rest of their lives.
01:57As they say, lock them up, throw away the key.
01:59Lock them up, throw away the key.
02:01A lot of people under those circumstances would not try to improve themselves.
02:06They would just throw in the towel and say, screw it, I'll just live my life.
02:11They've actually done affirmative things to help themselves, to help others, to help the
02:17prison.
02:18And I think that's going to go a long way for the judge.
02:21Look, I think you're right.
02:22They are going to be able to prove that these guys are model inmates.
02:25There's a beautification program around the prison.
02:27Apparently, Eric is a guy who's painted sort of murals around the prison in this beautification
02:31program in green spaces.
02:33The thing I struggle with is, what does it really matter whether they turned into savages
02:37or model inmates if they're serving a prison sentence without the possibility of parole?
02:41Really, the rehabilitation is kind of beside the point given the nature of the horrendous
02:45crime they committed.
02:46Except that the new evidence that they're going to get into during this hearing is that
02:51there really is no, there's additional evidence suggesting that they really were molested.
02:57And it's something that the judge pretty much would not allow in the second trial, even
03:02though he allowed it in the first trial where there was a hung jury and half the jurors
03:06felt it should be manslaughter because of it.
03:09So there was some sympathy among jurors on that.
03:12Right.
03:13So it seems like there are approaches, there are two steps, right?
03:15The first is, their sentence should not have been what it was based on the evidence of
03:22molestation, right?
03:23So that's the first thing.
03:24But they were sentenced, now look at what they've done as citizens while they were sentenced.
03:31And if you look at those two things, and if the judge looks at that favorably, and agrees
03:38with their argument.
03:39It's possible that, now just one other thing, there are additional people, there's a letter
03:43that we got that was filed with the court by the Menendez brothers attorney, Mark Geragos.
03:49And the letter is from a couple of dozen relatives of the Menendez family.
03:56And they are all saying, let them out.
04:00And they give reasons why.
04:02But what's interesting about these relatives is the way the court views the relatives.
04:08They're not just relatives of Eric and Lyle.
04:11They are relatives of Kenny and Jose, and they are considered victims in this case.
04:18These relatives, they are-
04:19I think you're 100% right.
04:21They are victims in this case because their relatives were killed, but it's mixed motive
04:24because their relatives are also imprisoned.
04:26So it's not as clean as the relative of someone who's murdered by a stranger.
04:30It's true.
04:31I mean, that's true.
04:32But some of them, we're guessing from what we were hearing, some of them will testify
04:38as well.
04:39So remember, you're right about the sentencing, that they're going to try to change the sentence.
04:44If they can do that, it goes to the parole board and the parole board then decides whether
04:47to release them.
04:48But the bigger play for Mark Geragos, the lawyer, is that he is going to go in and ask
04:55that they change the conviction from murder to manslaughter.
04:59And if they do that, Eric and Lyle get released immediately because they've already served
05:06more than the maximum for manslaughter.
05:08What I found out was, I never told you this, but this is really interesting, a big reason
05:13they don't want to bring them into the courtroom is that if they get transferred to be able
05:19to appear in court, they will be housed in LA County Jail.
05:24LA County Jail is a much more dangerous place than the prison that they're currently in.
05:32And what I'm told is there's some worry that if the hearing gets postponed, they're going
05:36to be sitting in LA County Jail, which they don't want to do.
05:39And they are the celebrities, you know, and I'm sure that adds an element of causing chaos
05:46in the jail.
05:47That's true.
05:48So they wouldn't want to be there.
05:49That's true too.
05:50And the jail probably doesn't want them there.
05:51And they don't want to be there.
05:52Yeah.
05:53Hi, I'm Alicia Scott from Chicago, Illinois.
05:55And I think the Menendez brothers are very traumatized and just hard people to just have
06:01to live their life.
06:02And I think that having these officers, correctional officers from the jail that they've spent
06:07decades around will be very beneficial in their case.
06:11I think they're going to be too.
06:12I mean, I do think that they're people who aren't related to them, but they've interacted
06:18with them and they've evaluated them.
06:20And they're people in law enforcement.
06:21And they're people in law enforcement.
06:22Right.
06:23I think it's going to be helpful.