For years, Chandrika M. Kelso has worked with Lyle and Erik Menendez in prison, as they became leaders in nonviolence workshops, meditation groups and a hospice program for older, ailing inmates at R.J. Donovan Correction Facility near San Diego.
She heard the gossip on the yards at the prison this year, as the brothers’ case returned to the public spotlight, propelled by two new shows on Netflix and social media campaigns by young people. Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would consider clemency, and a judge in Los Angeles reduced their sentence of life without parole, giving them an immediate chance at freedom.
Many inmates have been envious, Ms. Kelso said, as they learned that the governor was weighing in on the brothers’ life sentences. “That’s not something that’s lost on the other inmates who got life.”
But she also hears another sentiment: “Hey, if they go home, I have hope that I’ll go home.”
Indeed, while the case has played out as a reckoning with culture and politics of the 1990s — the era’s tough-on-crime policies, the media obsession with celebrity and attitudes about sexual abuse — it has also raised a fundamental moral question. Who deserves a second chance?
Many observers, fellow inmates and participants in the case believe that, while celebrity has certainly worked to the advantage of the brothers, their case may end up helping other inmates who are not well known, and have not benefited from celebrity supporters and media attention.
“There are thousands of people like Lyle and Erik who don’t have the celebrity, don’t have the personality, and don’t have the good fortune of supportive family, to lift their case up,” said Michael Romano, one of their lawyers.
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The post A Question at the Heart of the Menendez Case: Who Deserves a Second Chance? appeared first on New York Times.
