
Unable to profess their innocence, Lyle and Erik instead claimed that their father’s reign of terror went far beyond emotional abuse and the pressure of high expectations. “We’ve had lots of trials like that since, but that was really the one that proved that people would be interested in watching big trials.” “ probably had the effect, maybe good, maybe bad, of demonstrating that, even if you didn’t have a celebrity, if the circumstances were dramatic enough, people will be captivated,” Steve Brill, the founder of Court TV, told Rolling Stone in 2017.
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The network carried not only the trial but endless hours of coverage before and after each day’s proceedings, helping fuel a national obsession with a case that had all the elements of a great primetime soap opera: a rich family torn apart by scandal, two handsome and mysterious young men, a grisly crime and psychodrama galore. The trial began in 1993 and was broadcast on a relatively new cable network called Court TV, which was devoted to turning the legal system into a hybrid of entertainment and sporting event. The trials were national sensations with very sordid details Finally, the Supreme Court of California ruled that two of the three tapes were eligible to be used in the trial, including one that contained Lyle’s admission of guilt.
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Erik, who was in Israel at the time, flew to Miami and then L.A., where he turned himself into police.įiguring out whether the tapes with the confessions fell under doctor-patient privilege or were admissible as evidence in court took two full years, with lawsuits and appeals flying back and forth between the prosecution and the Menendez’s lawyers. She even had an audiotape of the confessions. Smyth and Oziel had a rocky relationship - she claimed he was controlling and abusive - and after he allegedly attacked her, Smyth contacted the Beverly Police to reveal that the Menendez brothers confessed to their parents’ murder.

Erik said they’d done it to put their mother “out of her misery,” while Lyle made it clear that they were both in on the crime. We can all easily do this right now.The therapy sessions continued and Oziel ultimately got both Erik and Lyle on tape, confessing to the murders. “On death row, I turned my cell into a monastery and used the time to learn, grow, and expand. “Don’t just worry the days away – seize them, and wring every ounce of opportunity out of them,” he wrote on his website. Baldwin co-founded the non-profit Proclaim Justice, which advocates for inmates who say they’ve been wrongfully convicted.Įchols recently spoke to the Wrongful Conviction podcast about what he learned about isolation while on death row, and how others can learn from his experience to better cope with coronavirus lockdown. His memoir, Life After Death, came out in 2012 and became a New York Times Best-Seller.


Now living in New York City, Echols devotes his time to magick, a spiritual practice. The Independent gave it one of several positive reviews, noting at the time: “Director Berg lays out the film with clarity and persuasiveness, and brings it as close to a happy ending as the tragic squalor of the case will allow.” Echols and Peter Jackson co-produced another documentary, titled West of Memphis, directed by Amy J Berg and released in 2012, the same year as Paradise Lost 3.
