Menendez Brothers Juror Says ‘Trial Outcome Would Be Very Different’ Today

A juror in the Menendez brothers’ trial said she believes today’s world would have been more understanding of the complexity of the trauma suffered by victims of sexual abuse and would have acquitted the brothers of murdering their parents in 1989.

“If they were tried again, I think the outcome would be very different because people know more these days, people understand more these days,” Hazel Thornton, a juror in Lyle’s first trial, said Friday and Erik Menendez, on NewsNation’s “Banfield.” .

The brothers claimed they acted in self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, Jose Menendez, when they shot him and their mother, Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez, in their home from Beverly Hills.

But Thornton said the men on the jury were not convinced that José, a former RCA Records executive, abused his sons.

“But the men in the room, it was a classic battle of the sexes. “The men didn’t believe that Jose had abused his sons,” Thornton, author of the book “Hung Jury: The Diary Of A Menendez Jury,” told guest host Laura Ingle.

Thorton also said she believed prosecutor Lester Kuriyama, raising the theory in his closing arguments that Erik was gay, played a role in the outcome.

“There was no evidence to support this. It was just Lester’s theory that he rejected in his closing arguments, and the men ran with that and never backed down or accepted the fact that they may have been mistreated,” Thornton said.

The brothers’ first trial, in 1993, ended in a deadlocked jury; A new trial was ordered in 1995, for which Judge Stanley M. Weisberg barred the sexual abuse defense, resulting in a first-degree murder conviction for both siblings.

Erik, 53, and his brother Lyle, 56, are both serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced Thursday that his office is reviewing new evidence in the case that José sexually abused his sons.

His office will determine whether the jury would have reached a different verdict if it had heard the new evidence. A hearing on the matter has been set for November 29.

Attorney Cliff Gardner, who also represents the brothers, said they are hopeful about the prosecutor’s decision.

“Given today’s very different understanding of how sexual and physical abuse affects children – boys and girls – and the remarkable new evidence, we believe a new conviction is the appropriate outcome,” said Gardner in an email Thursday to The Associated Press. “The brothers served more than 30 years in prison. That’s enough.