Rosie O’Donnell: Menendez brothers ‘have served enough time’

(NewsNation) — As lawyers for Erik and Lyle Menendez push for a hearing on new evidence in their murder case, the two brothers have a high-profile figure fighting for their release: celebrity Rosie O’Donnell.

“These two boys who suffered 20 years in their house and 30 years in prison have served enough time,” O’Donnell said Tuesday on “CUOMO.”

The brothers’ defense attorney Mark Geragos has asked a Los Angeles court to vacate the conviction, citing two new pieces of evidence backing the brothers’ claim that their father was sexually abusing them.

Erik and Lyle contended at their trial they shot and killed their parents in 1989 at their Beverly Hills home because they were being abused and feared for lives. The initial trial resulted in a hung jury, but the evidence of abuse was excluded from the second trial, at which they were convicted.

Geragos said both pieces of evidence show that the exclusion of abuse in the second trial was wrong and thinks if the jury had heard all the evidence, the brothers wouldn’t be in jail.

O’Donnell watched those trials and said she related to their story as someone who grew up in a house that was “unsafe for children.”

“What happens within a family when that kind of secrecy and lies and abuse all happen on top of each other, it becomes like a powder keg, and on that night when the incident happened and they murdered their parents, that was a very big deal, and it was the end of 20-year prison sentence for those boys,” O’Donnell said. “When someone has control of your life in that capacity, you don’t feel there’s any other options.”

In a TikTok video, O’Donnell said she was “afraid” to speak out about the case when it happened. But now, she says society is more willing to acknowledge that boys, not just girls, can be the victims of sex crimes.

“In 1989, when they killed their parents, we were not ready to accept that as a country and as a culture. We made a mistake,” O’Donnell said.

Geragos echoed that sentiment.

“If these were the Menendez sisters, they would not be in prison,” he said.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has said it is reviewing case files in order to answer questions from a judge who will rule on the brothers’ habeas corpus petition.