X-Raided, a rapper who spent time behind bars with the Menendez Brothers, says Erik and Lyle remain "cautiously optimistic" about the prospect of potentially being free men ... despite a recent roadblock.
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00:00Have you talked to them by any chance?
00:04How are they doing?
00:05I'm so curious.
00:07I mean, it's frustrating to have these kinds of delays, but
00:10a delay is a lot better than a denial.
00:13Than for the resentencing petition, the withdrawal to have been granted.
00:19We'd rather be waiting than to have had that happen.
00:22We'd rather be waiting than to have the motion denied as a whole or whatever.
00:26So it's a little frustrating.
00:29But last night we did video chat with the family.
00:32Got to go see Miss Terry, who is doing a lot better.
00:35She's getting stronger out of the hospital.
00:38So that was really cool.
00:39And we talked to both brothers on video chat and
00:42spent some time with the family.
00:43It was beautiful.
00:44And how are they?
00:45I mean, are they hopeful?
00:47They are hopeful.
00:48These are some of the most wonderful people you could ever meet.
00:52It's an amazing family.
00:53I love these people.
00:54They've embraced me and just have been so kind.
00:57And they're just phenomenal human beings.
01:00And it's understandable how Lau and Erica come from a group of people of that caliber.
01:05And I've benefited from my proximity to them.
01:08It's a warm, loving, intellectually quick family.
01:13You know, they're just good people.
01:14And it's been a great experience.
01:16There's a cautious optimism.
01:19You know, there's a lot of hope.
01:21But I think, you know, you have to temper that and be prepared because there's a lot of rejection
01:26involved in this process.
01:28Being sentenced, being convicted, having your appeals denied, fighting, delays.
01:34It's a lot of disappointment going from 1989 to 2025.
01:39And so I think they just have to be cautiously optimistic.
01:42But, you know, it got to feel a lot better than being in there doomed and you're just
01:47there forever thrown away.
01:48Right now there is legitimate hope.
01:50And I believe we're going to win.
01:51I think we're winning.
01:53And this is, I'd say it's like a fish flopping around outside of the water hoping that the
01:58judge will throw it back in the water.
02:00The district attorney is losing his case and that's why we're seeing these type of histrionics
02:05and procedural battles because if he allows, if he was winning, he would say, let's go
02:10to court.
02:11Let's go.
02:12He wouldn't care about a document.
02:13He wouldn't care about any of that.
02:14He'd be ready to go.
02:15So, you know, nobody kicks and screams their way to winning.
02:18What was it like kind of like, you know, being in prison with them?
02:21Any like fond memories with them?
02:23My fondest memory was them helping me with my prepare for board, you know, in 2018 in April
02:30Lyle showed up and the three of us were reunited.
02:33I was the only person in the room when the two of them reunited after being separated
02:37for 22 years.
02:38So it was beautiful.
02:40And then we immediately got to work on my prep to go to board about a month later.
02:44And so I went through, I went to my hearing, I came back.
02:48They were the first people waiting for me when I came back and they were just so excited
02:52because they thought this would happen for me before I had faith or hope that I would
02:56ever be free.
02:57They were the two telling me that I was going to go home and they like nobody who's done
03:00as much as you should be here for the rest of their lives.
03:03And they started that process with me when they had no hope of being free themselves.
03:08So, you know, that's the kind of men they are.
03:10I love them.
03:11And that's why I fight for them the way I do.
03:13I mean, anything you would want to work on, on with them, what, if they are free, like,
03:17you know, you guys can kind of all be together, friends and everything like you ever think
03:22about that?
03:23When they get home, advocacy is the big deal for us.
03:26And right now, I got a lot of people in the email, my assistant, we're getting a lot of
03:31requests to go help people all over the country and we're going to continue to do that.
03:35So when Lyle and Eric get home, it just makes us that more stronger and the legitimacy involved
03:40in our movement.
03:42For criminal justice reform, it's a lot of people that need help out there.
03:45Louis Reed, the director at Reed Forum, is one of my closest friends.
03:50I did artists and athletes for Van Jones program.
03:54So it's a lot of things that I feel that we have the ability to do and accomplish with
03:59helping people because the criminal justice system in America, it's horrible.
04:03It's horrible.
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