The family of the Menéndez brothers in bitter dispute over the district attorney’s freedom plan

After spending 34 years behind bars for the murder of his parents in 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez can be now on the verge of freedom. But the fight over his fate has divided not only the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, but also his family and even curious tourists who visit the Beverly Hills crime scene.

Mark Geragos, the brothers’ attorney, said Good morning America On Friday, both are “cautiously optimistic that they will be able to see some real relief” after District Attorney George Gascón announced Thursday that he would recommend resentencing and their release.

“It’s exciting, it’s beyond words,” said cousin Karen VanderMolen, one of more than 20 family members supporting his freedom. “The best case scenario would be if we had Erik and Lyle home during the busy week of Thanksgiving,” he told GMA, noting that the holiday coincides with three family birthdays.

Another cousin, Tamara Goodell, noted the change in public attitudes toward abuse victims. (The brothers have insisted they killed their parents in self-defense after years of sexual and psychological abuse.) “This new generation is really fighting to say this is not what they should have been given,” Goodell said on GMA. “At this point, after almost 35 years, they have served their time… It’s time for them to come home.”

But not all family members agree. Her 90-year-old uncle Milton Andersen (brother of her mother, Kitty Menendez), remains her most vocal opponent and has dismissed her abuse allegations as a lie. “The jury’s verdict was fair and the punishment fits the heinous crime,” Andersen said in a statement to GMA, arguing that the brothers’ crime was driven by greed and the desire to claim their $14 million inheritance.

Andersen’s attorney, Kathleen Cady, said Gascón is seeking to exploit the case to win re-election on Nov. 5 and is trying to “rewrite history” and “manipulate the facts.”

“Their decisions should be based on truth and the law, not a last-ditch effort to influence voters,” Cady said, according to fox news. “The victims of this horrible crime, including Mr. Andersen, deserve much better than to be pawns in a politician’s game.”

In announcing his decision to seek a new sentence on Thursday, Gascón revealed that his own office is divided.

“There are people in the office who firmly believe that the Menéndez brothers should remain in prison for the rest of their lives and do not believe that they were sexually abused,” Gascón explained. “And there are people in the office who strongly believe that they should be released immediately and that, in fact, they were sexually abused.”

“I will never excuse murder, and those were brutal, premeditated murders,” Gascón said. cnn on Thursday. “They were sentenced appropriately at the time they were tried. They were given life sentences without the possibility of parole. “I just think that given the current state of the law and our evaluation of their behavior in prison, they deserve the opportunity to be reevaluated and perhaps reintegrated into the community.”

“What they did was horrible… But I think they are different people today and we base our opinion on the behavior of the last 35 years,” Gascón said.

Gascón is currently trailing by more than 30 points in public opinion polls in the race for district attorney. His rival, Nathan Hochman, a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney who runs as an independent, immediately questioned the timing of his announcement. in a statementHochman urged voters to consider “whether the decision was right and fair or just another desperate political move by a district attorney running a losing campaign and striving to grab headlines through a made-for-TV decision.”

The Los Angeles Deputy District Attorneys Association also accused Gascón of playing politics.

“Throughout his disastrous tenure as district attorney, Gascón has consistently prioritized celebrity cases over the rights of crime victims, showing more interest in the spotlight than in upholding justice,” Michele wrote. Hanisee, president of the association, a union that represents almost 900 Deputy Prosecutors, in a statement.

“Gascón’s actions make it clear that he is more interested in using his position for free media attention than actual justice,” the statement continued. “His selfish agenda has left victims and their families neglected while he chases the next headline.”

Even the tourists who visit the scene of Menéndez’s murder on Elm Drive in Beverly Hills, the family’s former mansion, are divided. In interviews with the Daily Beast at the scene, some sympathized with Lyle and Erik, seeing them as victims of parental abuse, while others saw them as cold-blooded killers who got what they deserved.