Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon snapped at a reporter when asked whether his call to re-punish the Menendez brothers was influenced by his fight for re-election.
Gascon, 70, held a news conference Thursday to recommend that Erik and Lyle Menendez receive a new sentence — 35 years after they killed their parents Kitty and Jose in their Beverly Hills mansion.
After calling for the brothers to be considered for parole, arguing that the pair have “paid their debt to society,” a reporter at the news conference asked whether Gascon was trying to score political points two weeks before election day.
‘Would you please stop! I’m not going to talk about re-election,” Gascon shouted back.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, 70, snapped at a reporter when asked if his call to re-punish the Menendez brothers was influenced by his fight for re-election
Erik (left) and Lyle (right) Menendez were sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for the murder of their parents, but now could be sentenced again as supporters say key evidence that they were abused by their father was not included at trial allowed
The reporter didn’t even finish his question before Gascon’s outburst, when the prosecutor’s supporters intervened to tell them to “relax.”
“That’s a fair question,” the reporter said, to which a woman abruptly snapped back, “No, it’s not.”
Gascon added, “If you want to talk about re-election, let’s go outside and we can talk about re-election there… I’m sorry sir, you’re interrupting me.”
It comes as Gascon faces an uphill battle to remain prosecutor, with polls showing him trailing badly behind his challenger, former prosecutor Nathan Hochman, with two weeks until election day.
In a recent poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and LA timeshe trailed Hochman by as many as 30 points, 51 percent to 21 percent.
Gascon, once called the “godfather of progressive prosecutors,” saw his popularity in Los Angeles plummet due to a rise in violent crime and his office’s lenient stance on crime.
The LA Times reported this week that Gascon’s fall has also caused his fundraising to dry up, with Hochman outpacing Gascon’s fundraising and spending 11 to 1.
Gascon faces an uphill battle to remain prosecutor, with polls showing him trailing heavily behind his challenger, former prosecutor Nathan Hochman (pictured), with two weeks until election day
The trials of the Menendez brothers gained national attention in 1996 and recently returned to the public consciousness following a controversial Netflix show about the murders.
Gascon has seen the Menendez case, which returned to public consciousness after a controversial Netflix show about the killings, as a way to score political points on public sympathy for the brothers.
Lyle and Erik were convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty, after their first trial was overturned.
The brothers have never denied killing their parents by shooting them 14 times with 12-gauge shotguns in their $1 million Beverly Hills home in August 1989, when they were just 18 and 21.
But Lyle and Erik, now 53 and 56 years old, claimed they acted in self-defense.
They said they had been victims of lifelong sexual abuse by their father, a high-flying businessman who worked in several industries, and were terrified their parents were about to kill them to prevent the allegations from going public. come.
However, Gascon’s decision to recommend a new sentencing was quickly dismissed by the Menendez brothers’ uncle, who criticized Gascon’s justification for his decision and for not informing him before the press conference.
Lyle and Erik were convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty, but claimed they were motivated by fear of their allegedly abusive father.
Milton Andersen, the brother of Kitty Menendez who was murdered along with her husband by her sons in 1989, called it “extremely insulting.”
‘Sir. Gascón’s disregard for Andersen is absolutely criminal,” a lawyer for the 90-year-old uncle said in a statement.
“He didn’t see fit to let Mr. Andersen know what he was going to do before telling the general public, and that is extremely insulting,” he continued.
Andersen has said he “firmly believes his cousins were not abused.”
Gascon can only recommend a new sentencing and the fate of the brothers will ultimately be left to the courts.