Menendez Brothers Star Witnesses for Resentencing Hearing Are Prison Employees | TMZ Live - video Dailymotion

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Erik and Lyle Menendez and their legal team are making a full court press for freedom at next month's hearing ... and we've learned their star witnesses are people inside the prison.

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00:00So, there is a big hearing we've told you about coming up on December 11th involving

00:04the Menendez brothers where they could be set free as early as that day.

00:10They could walk out totally free after 35 years.

00:15And so the issue is, how are they going to convince the judge?

00:19So a lot of people think this is going to be relatives and, you know, people that they

00:25knew.

00:26Nope.

00:27It's going to be people behind bars.

00:30They are the star witnesses in this case.

00:34And what it really foretells is they are leaning on the fact that they have been, as we've

00:40told you, model inmates.

00:42And they have done not just, this goes beyond just good behavior, that they didn't get into

00:47fights.

00:48And they are going to have testimony from the people who work at the prison down in

00:53San Diego where they have been now.

00:56We are talking about prison guards.

00:59We're talking about education, people who work in the education part of the prison there.

01:05And remember, they were in other prisons as well in the past.

01:12And they both reunited for the first time since 1996.

01:16In 2018, they were in separate prisons during that span there.

01:21But now they're together.

01:22But there are going to be six prison employees, people who work at the facility, who are going

01:29to talk about how they've been rehabilitated, how they're model prisoners, how they have

01:35improved themselves.

01:36And how they have improved the lives of other inmates.

01:38Which they've done.

01:39Yeah.

01:40And, you know, I got to say something about this.

01:43It's really, this is why this is really effective.

01:46That Eric and Lyle were both sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of

01:52parole.

01:53That means that by all rights, they're in prison for the rest of their lives.

01:57As they say, lock them up, throw away the key.

01:59Lock them up, throw away the key.

02:01A lot of people under those circumstances would not try to improve themselves.

02:06They would just throw in the towel and say, screw it, I'll just live my life.

02:11They've actually done affirmative things to help themselves, to help others, to help the

02:17prison.

02:18And I think that's going to go a long way for the judge.

02:21Look, I think you're right.

02:22They are going to be able to prove that these guys are model inmates.

02:25There's a beautification program around the prison.

02:27Apparently, Eric is a guy who's painted sort of murals around the prison in this beautification

02:31program in green spaces.

02:33The thing I struggle with is, what does it really matter whether they turned into savages

02:37or model inmates if they're serving a prison sentence without the possibility of parole?

02:41Really, the rehabilitation is kind of beside the point given the nature of the horrendous

02:45crime they committed.

02:46Except that the new evidence that they're going to get into during this hearing is that

02:51there really is no, there's additional evidence suggesting that they really were molested.

02:57And it's something that the judge pretty much would not allow in the second trial, even

03:02though he allowed it in the first trial where there was a hung jury and half the jurors

03:06felt it should be manslaughter because of it.

03:09So there was some sympathy among jurors on that.

03:12Right.

03:13So it seems like there are approaches, there are two steps, right?

03:15The first is, their sentence should not have been what it was based on the evidence of

03:22molestation, right?

03:23So that's the first thing.

03:24But they were sentenced, now look at what they've done as citizens while they were sentenced.

03:31And if you look at those two things, and if the judge looks at that favorably, and agrees

03:38with their argument.

03:39It's possible that, now just one other thing, there are additional people, there's a letter

03:43that we got that was filed with the court by the Menendez brothers attorney, Mark Geragos.

03:49And the letter is from a couple of dozen relatives of the Menendez family.

03:56And they are all saying, let them out.

04:00And they give reasons why.

04:02But what's interesting about these relatives is the way the court views the relatives.

04:08They're not just relatives of Eric and Lyle.

04:11They are relatives of Kenny and Jose, and they are considered victims in this case.

04:18These relatives, they are-

04:19I think you're 100% right.

04:21They are victims in this case because their relatives were killed, but it's mixed motive

04:24because their relatives are also imprisoned.

04:26So it's not as clean as the relative of someone who's murdered by a stranger.

04:30It's true.

04:31I mean, that's true.

04:32But some of them, we're guessing from what we were hearing, some of them will testify

04:38as well.

04:39So remember, you're right about the sentencing, that they're going to try to change the sentence.

04:44If they can do that, it goes to the parole board and the parole board then decides whether

04:47to release them.

04:48But the bigger play for Mark Geragos, the lawyer, is that he is going to go in and ask

04:55that they change the conviction from murder to manslaughter.

04:59And if they do that, Eric and Lyle get released immediately because they've already served

05:06more than the maximum for manslaughter.

05:08What I found out was, I never told you this, but this is really interesting, a big reason

05:13they don't want to bring them into the courtroom is that if they get transferred to be able

05:19to appear in court, they will be housed in LA County Jail.

05:24LA County Jail is a much more dangerous place than the prison that they're currently in.

05:32And what I'm told is there's some worry that if the hearing gets postponed, they're going

05:36to be sitting in LA County Jail, which they don't want to do.

05:39And they are the celebrities, you know, and I'm sure that adds an element of causing chaos

05:46in the jail.

05:47That's true.

05:48So they wouldn't want to be there.

05:49That's true too.

05:50And the jail probably doesn't want them there.

05:51And they don't want to be there.

05:52Yeah.

05:53Hi, I'm Alicia Scott from Chicago, Illinois.

05:55And I think the Menendez brothers are very traumatized and just hard people to just have

06:01to live their life.

06:02And I think that having these officers, correctional officers from the jail that they've spent

06:07decades around will be very beneficial in their case.

06:11I think they're going to be too.

06:12I mean, I do think that they're people who aren't related to them, but they've interacted

06:18with them and they've evaluated them.

06:20And they're people in law enforcement.

06:21And they're people in law enforcement.

06:22Right.

06:23I think it's going to be helpful.

Menendez Brothers Star Witnesses for Resentencing Hearing Are Prison Employees | TMZ Live

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