During a hearing on Friday, where Erik and Lyle Menendez awaited to hear whether their re-sentencing hopes would end, a gruesome crime scene photo was on put on display showing their father’s lifeless body after they shot him six times with a shotgun in 1989.
The photo of José was shown in a crowded courtroom that had many members of the Menendez family in attendance, including his sister, Terry Baralt. The family received good news at the hearing — the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s request to withdraw a motion for the brothers’ resentencing was denied — but it came at a cost.
2 mornings after the hearing, Baralt was rushed to a hospital, where she remains in critical condition — and the Menendez family says her health deterioration is the DA’s fault.
Baralt, who the family says is battling cancer, is 85 years old.
“Without notice, prosecutors chose to show a graphic, unredacted image of José’s dead body directly in front of us, his surviving family. No one prepared us,” the family said in a statement sent to KTLA. “There was no warning, no humanity – just shock and pain inflicted on people who have already endured decades of grief.”
“The display put on by the DA’s office pushed her past the brink,” the statement continued.
José was shot six times by his sons, including the fatal shot to the back of the head. That fact has never been in dispute — they’ve admitted to the shootings several times — but their claim that José sexually abused them throughout childhood has led to a reexamination of their life sentences handed out in 1996.
Now, the family is calling for DA Hochman to be removed from the case.
They claim the display of the gore-ridden photo violated Marsy’s Law, which was approved by California voters as Proposition 9 in 2008. The law protects victims during due process, saying they should “be treated with fairness and respect for his or her privacy and dignity, and to be free from intimidation, harassment, and abuse, throughout the criminal or juvenile justice process.”
The family says the victim, José Menendez, was not protected through the display of the photo.
“The display was retraumatizing, completely avoidable, and we believe it was intentional,” the statement reads in part. “The District Attorney’s Office knew what the law required and deliberately chose to ignore it. We are holding them fully responsible for the profound pain we are suffering right now. The shock and heartbreak we feel cannot be put into words.”
During a news conference on Sunday from a group against the Menendez brothers’ resentencing efforts, advocates said Marsy’s Law doesn’t protect Lyle and Erik.
“Let us be clear: Marsy’s Law was created to protect crime victims—not murderers. The Menendez brothers are not victims. They brutally murdered their parents and were rightfully convicted. Any attempt to use Marsy’s Law to gain their release is a complete distortion of its purpose,” said LaWanda Hawkins co-founder of Justice for Murdered Children and one of the original signers of Marsy’s Law.
Mark Geragos, the attorney representing the brothers, objected to the photo in real time during Friday’s hearing according to the family. KTLA was unable to reach him for comment on Sunday.
The family said it seeks to remove Hochman from the case while hoping for good news regarding Baralt’s health.
“Now, let us be crystal clear: our forgiveness for Erik and Lyle does not erase our grief. It does not mean we don’t mourn José and Kitty. It means we believe that people can grow,” the family said. “That trauma begets trauma. That cycles of abuse can and must be broken. It is not contradictory to hold love for those who were harmed and for those who caused harm, it is human. And yet this District Attorney’s Office seems determined to punish us for that humanity.”
The post The Menendez brothers’ aunt is in critical condition. The family says it’s the DA’s fault appeared first on KTLA.
