silence has paperwork

When I began writing this article, I didn't even know what to name it or what to put as the cover image. This is such a loaded & painful subject to address, but not addressing it is even worse. This article will encompass my understanding and reflection on crimes/cases, including Menendez Brothers Case.

To give you context on the Menendez Brothers, there are two: Lyle and Erik Menendez. They grew up in Beverly Hills, LA, California. Erik Menendez was sexually abused by their father, Jose Menendez, from ages 6 to 8, and Lyle had been sexually abused by the father from a young age up to the age of 21. I'm going to be brutally honest; even writing this right now makes my heart break. I never thought I'd write about something of this sort. I do not find any sort of thrill or dopamine boost by watching/reading crime documentaries and/or reenactments, but this story is one that I find SO unfair and intolerant that I sort of feel compelled to voice out on this.

Because of their years of abuse, they, together, decided to commit parricide. On August 20th, 1989, the brothers gunned down Jose and Kitty Menendez while they were watching "License to Kill" in their home theatre. Without going into the gruesome, absolutely unnecessary details, it can be said that the sons showed no mercy while committing the crime. After the murder of their parents, they immediately called 911, staging it to be a killing done by an intruder and instigated that it was a mob hit. The police bought this.

After committing the crime, the brothers went on a shopping spree and spent thousands of dollars in their enjoyment and pleasures. This is what got the police suspicious and led to the police accusing them of murder. Their case was brought to court and dragged on for several years, with each brother being presented to a different jury. The brothers were faced with life imprisonment with no parole. They went to jail on March 8th, 1990, and are still in jail. These are the plain and simple facts of the crime, with absolutely no opinion of mine given. I did this to ensure that you, the reader, aren't subconsciously influenced by my notions. Now this is the part where I tell you what I think of the situation. I'm going to put this straight on the table by telling you that I think the brothers did not deserve the sentence they got. We have criminals like Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell being given a sentence of barely 20 years for an act as criminal as child sex trafficking. If they are given such leniencies, why not the Menendez brothers? When we compare the two crimes, stripped from law and looked at purely through the lens of morality, what the brothers did is absolutely minuscule and necessary. Whenever I watch the court tapings of their case, I am utterly at a loss for words. How in the world could the jury and judge allow the Brothers to face such a plight? It is so upsetting to me, and it makes me sick to my stomach even thinking about what they have to endure day in and day out. What they did was purely out of self-defence. It was done out of survival and necessity. How can that be considered a crime? And one so serious that they continue to face life-long imprisonment. What bothers me is the thought that if they weren't two brothers but two sisters, would their fate have been different? Why was this case not taken seriously enough? Why were they punished so harshly just for self-defense? It breaks my heart.

I'm not generally the type of person to empathise with anyone, let alone criminals, but this case still pains me. This level of injustice makes me lose dangerous amounts of trust in the judicial system's ability to deliver judgments. Not only was their sentence dreadful, but what makes it worse is the fact that they had to spend years apart in separate jails because the court decided that they were a threat when kept together. They were all they had left, and the court took that away too.

Everything said and done, the two brothers still spend every day in jail, and there's nothing you or I can do about it. Although they seem much happier now (videos and interviews on YouTube and digital archives make it seem so), I hope this case can be used as a judicial precedent for future cases, and that mercy can be shown to future victims. That way, all their misery will be proven worthy, and I hope they are shown the empathy and respect they're so deserving of.