1996 Menendez conviction questioned amid brothers’ fight to be released from prison

New questions are being raised in the Menendez brothers‘ fight to be released from prison.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has ordered the district attorney to explain why exculpatory evidence, which supports the brothers’ claims of sexual abuse by their father, was withheld from the jury during their second trial.

The judge ruled that it could have changed the outcome of their convictions in 1996 for the murders of their parents.

One of the pieces of evidence is a declaration from a band member that the brothers’ father, Jose Menendez, was an executive for. That individual claims he was raped by the Menendez father.

Erik and Lyle Menendez have spent 35 years behind bars in the 1989 murders of their parents. The two are now eligible for parole after they were resentenced in May to 50 years to life in prison, instead of life without parole.