Rosie O’Donnell is asking for Lyle and Erik Menéndez to be free — the brothers had been convicted of murdering their dad and mom in 1989 and sentenced to life imprisonment in one of many first main true-crime dramas to seize the nation again within the early Nineties.

Lyle and Erik Menéndez had been finally discovered responsible of murdering their dad and mom in a trial collectively after two separate juries deadlocked making an attempt them individually. Now, Rosie O’Donnell is not so certain that closing verdict obtained it proper.

Simply 18 and 21 years outdated on the time of their 1993 trial for the 1989 murders of their dad and mom, José and Mary Louise, that closing trial notably restricted the protection’s testimony relating to sexual abuse allegations.

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The brothers didn’t deny the murders, however the abuse allegations had been a key a part of the protection’s reasoning for his or her actions, arguing that the murders weren’t premeditated, however an act of self-defense after lifetime of abuse by the hands of their father.

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The brothers had been convicted on two counts of second diploma homicide and conspiracy to commit homicide. They had been subsequently sentenced to life in jail with out the potential for parole.

In a brand new TikTok posted over the weekend, O’Donnell says that she has “identified” the brothers had been harmless for years now, referring to a letter she obtained from Lyle all the way in which again in 1996 that mentioned as a lot.

She mentioned the letter “principally mentioned, ‘I do know you understand, and I hope we may join,'” she recalled. “And you understand, he was proper. I did know that they had been harmless. I did know that these had been boys who had been incested.”

“Why I knew, and the way I knew — Lyle additionally knew,” she continued. “I did not write him again as a result of I felt afraid, and I wasn’t prepared to the touch the topic, and you understand, it was 1996.”

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What O’Donnell was referring to by mentioning the yr was that although the ’90s nonetheless, “folks weren’t prepared to simply accept the truth that boys too get raped — typically by their fathers — and as a tradition, we ridiculed them.”

She referred to the brothers changing into fodder for recurring segments and parodies on late-night programming like “Saturday Evening Dwell” and Jay Leno’s “Tonight Present.” “Everybody thought this was a humorous goal,” she mentioned.

“Youngsters who had been molested for the reason that age of preschool, preventing again and standing up, and folks thought they only needed the cash,” O’Donnell added. “That they had the cash. They did not want the cash. Cash was not what it was about.”

She did lastly rise up the nerve to attach with him, even going as far as to speak with the older brother on the phone after she’d watched and posted about Peacock’s documentary, “Menéndez & Menudo: Boys Betrayed.”

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As a part of that documentary, Roy Rossello, one member of the famed boy alleged that José Menéndez, an RCA Information government on the time, assaulted him when he was a teen.

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She mentioned that she’s develop into “very shut” with Lyle and praised how they’ve spent their “30-plus years in jail,” whereas asking when it was time for folks to begin believing their story?

“So, we consider them now due to Roy from Menudo? Will we consider now due to the letter Erik despatched his cousin eight months earlier than the homicide?” she requested. “It is time. I consider them.”

“They had been horribly abused by their dad and mom, they did the unthinkable, which had been carried out to them day after day after day, and so they paid the value for that,” she emphasised.

Chatting with the “On the Reycord” podcast final week, as famous by ET, O’Donnell mentioned that she believes society would have dealt with this narrative in another way had the youthful brother been a sister, as an alternative.

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“f Erik, at 17 or 18, when he advised [Lyle] that the daddy had been doing this to him for a few years,” she argued, “if it had been a woman; that his sister was being raped by the daddy; that might’ve been a lot simpler for our tradition within the ’90s to know why the older brother would’ve acted in the way in which that he did.”

She additionally made certain to notice that “no person is condoning the violence or the homicide of their dad and mom,” however that there needs to be consideration each for the “extenuating circumstances” that had been disallowed of their convicting trial, and for the actual fact they’ve already spent 30 years behind bars.

Legal professionals for the Menéndez brothers claimed final month, per CNN, that there’s new proof that needs to be sufficient to overturn their life sentences. They’re referring to the letter O’Donnell talked about, despatched by Erik to his cousin detailing the alleged abuse, in addition to Rossello’s allegation of abuse towards José.

The case can also be set to be the topic of Ryan Murphy’s newest season of “Monster” on Netflix. The streamer additionally has “unique entry to Lyle and Erik Menéndez for a forthcoming documentary function,” which can seemingly embody these newest developments.

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