How Would Life Look For The Menendez Brothers if They'd Been Acquitted?
The brothers would have faced a very different set of challenges
On January 13, 1993, two separate juries were unable to come to a verdict on the matter of whether Lyle and Erik Menéndez murdered their parents in cold blood. The juries were deadlocked on the questions presented to them, leaving the judge no choice but to declare a mistrial.
But what if the juries came back with an acquittal for the young men?
The brothers would have been immediately released from prison. They would have also likely collected whatever was left of the inheritance after their legal bills were paid.
There is a very low probability that they would have stayed in the house where they killed their parents. Too many bad memories would have haunted them. And the number of people who surrounded it would have made it almost unbearable.
Their early days out of jail would have been a whirlwind of activity. Family would have wanted to see them. They very likely would have wanted to continue therapy, albeit with someone who was licensed and ethical, unlike Dr. Jerome Oziel. And of course, there would have been a lot of business offers coming through.
It is plausible that Lyle and Erik would have wanted to finish out their schooling. Without their father’s interference, the young men would have been able to study and follow a career path that they wanted, not one he chose for them.
As for their love lives, there’s no guessing what would have happened there. Lyle would marry and divorce a couple of times before settling into more of a bachelor lifestyle.
While Erik met and married the love of his life. Making their relationship work through thick and thin.
Pretty much following the same path that the brothers went down while in prison.
Would they have faced more charges?
The answer to that question is a bit complicated. Lyle and Erik would not have faced federal murder charges, since everything happened in the state of California. Most people understood this.
However, there could have been a chance that the state tried to try the brothers for manslaughter. Some members of the Menéndez family had argued early on that Lyle and Erik should have been charged with that rather than first-degree murder.
If those charges were brought, it is very likely that the case would have been dismissed on double jeopardy grounds. Given the appetite for a conviction, it would not have been entirely surprising to see the prosecutor attempt this. Even if it ultimately, there was no way for it to succeed.
But there were charges that one of the brothers might have faced.
Before their second trial, it came out that Lyle tried to get his then-girlfriend, Jamie Pisarcik, to lie under oath about witnessing his father abusing him. This is also known as witness tampering.
Under California law, witness tampering can be charged as a misdemeanor or a felony. Because there was almost an obsession on the part of the prosecutors’ end to see the brothers in jail, Lyle would have faced yet another felony.
And it is unlikely he would have been acquitted on those charges.
Lyle would have ended up in state prison for four years. Unless, the judge took pity on him and gave him a lesser sentence for time served. He would still end up there for at least a year or so.
Erik would not have faced any additional charges. Though, how he would have adjusted with his brother in prison is an open guess. He lost his parents and with his brother gone, he would likely have been very lost.
What business offer be there for the brothers?
The Menéndez brothers’ story was one of the hottest of the 1990s. Every major media outlet ran article after article about it. Some like Vanity Fair dug into the brothers’ guilt and tried to paint them as villains out for a good time. Others wanted an exclusive interview and would stop at nothing to get it.
Barbara Walters did an interview with the brothers in prison just after their conviction in 1996. There’s no reason to think that she would have moved the Magic Kingdom and Splash Mountain to get the interview when they were acquitted.
Book publishers would have been throwing cash at the brothers, together and separately, to get a deal done. It is very likely that they would have written a memoir together and made a ton of money from it.
After the book deal and possibly serving his prison sentence, Lyle would likely have ended up being involved in business. Maybe he would have done something involving tennis or another sport, a passion of his that was nearly extinguished by his father.
Erik would likely also have followed his passion. He would have ended up as a screenwriter, potentially even a successful one. With all of the movies and TV shows made about the Menéndez story, there is a high probability that he would have written one of those projects.
It should be noted that not everyone would have been happy to see the brothers succeed.
The 1990s were a different time, the understanding of abuse was not as advanced as it is today. There would have been detractors and those who believed that the boys killed their parents out of sheer greed. People like renowned journalist Dominic Dunne, who also started gay rumors about the boys.
Would they have been able to overcome that obstacle?
Alas, that is not an answer that can be guessed. Because the Menéndez brothers were convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents. They were originally sentenced to life in prison without a chance of parole, another judge reduced that to life in prison with a chance of parole.
Maybe some of the theories presented can come true, albeit a little later.
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