Originally appeared on E! Online
Kim Kardashian is showing her support for Erik and Lyle Menendez as they inch closer to freedom.
After Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón shared his plans to recommend that the 1996 life without parole sentences the brothers received for killing their parents José Menendez and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez in 1989 be replaced with a sentence of 50 years to life with possibility for parole, the SKIMS founder expressed her gratitude.
"The Menendez brothers were granted a second chance at life and will wake up tomorrow finally eligible for a parole hearing," Kardashian, a longtime social justice reform advocate, wrote on her Instagram Stories following the Oct. 24 press conference. "Thank you, George Gascón, for revisiting the Menendez brothers' case and righting a significant wrong."
Lyle Menendez was 21 and Erik Menendez was 18 when they fatally shot José and Kitty Menendez. During their 1993 trial — where a jury was ultimately deadlocked leading to a 1995 trial where they were convicted — the brothers alleged their parents had physically, emotionally and sexually abused them for years and their legal team had argued they killed in self-defense. In the latter trial, the judge excluded much of the evidence relating to the sexual abuse.
READ Menendez Brothers' Lawyer Says He Believes Erik and Lyle Will Be Home By Thanksgiving
The case is the focus of the newest installment of Ryan Murphy's Netflix series "Monsters," which began streaming last month and brought the brothers' story back to public debate decades after their televised trial.
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"The media's focus, especially on the heels of Ryan Murphy's TV show, helped expose the abuse and injustices in their case," Kardashian wrote. "Society's understanding of child abuse has evolved, and social media empowers us to question the systems in place. This case highlights the importance of challenging decisions and seeking truth, even when guilt is not in question."
At the press conference, the D.A. said that while there was "no excuse for murder," he believed "that the brothers were subjected to a tremendous amount of dysfunction in the home and molestation."
"I think that often for cultural reasons, we don't believe victims of sexual assault, whether they're women or whether they're men," he added. "It's salient to understand that our own implicit and sometimes explicit bias around sexual abuse and sexual assaults often leads us to severe injustice in our community."
If a judge follows Gascón's resentencing recommendation, Lyle Menendez, 56, and Erik Menendez, 53, would be eligible for parole immediately because they were under 26 at the time of their parents' killings.
In September, Kardashian met the Menendez brothers at their San Diego prison — where she was joined by "Monsters" star Cooper Koch, who played Erik Menendez — and subsequently wrote in an op-ed that she hoped their life sentences be reconsidered.
"We owe it to those little boys who lost their childhoods," she wrote in the NBC News essay, "who never had a chance to be heard, helped or saved."
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