How many times can this former prosecutor make a buck off a case she lost 30 years ago.
She is trying to do it again.
Marcia Clark
O.J. Simpson
Marcia Clark, the prosecutor who became a household name during the O.J. Simpson trial, is weighing in on another infamous case: the Menéndez brothers. Erik and Lyle Menéndez, sentenced to life without parole in 1996 for murdering their parents, continue to spark debate decades later.
“I’ve bounced back and forth on this so many times because I don’t know the case,” Clark admitted during a recent interview on the Today show. Despite not being involved in the trial, Clark has her own mixed feelings about the brothers’ fate.
“Sometimes I think, ‘These spoiled rich kids shotgunned their parents to death,’” she said bluntly. “But then, maybe they were in real danger. If they were, then that’s manslaughter, not murder.”
The Menéndez brothers claimed their parents subjected them to years of physical, emotional, and s*.xual abuse. While prior appeals have been denied, renewed interest in their case—thanks to shows like Monsters: The Menéndez Brothers—has reopened discussions. The Los Angeles District Attorney even proposed a resentencing that could make them eligible for parole.
Clark is open to the idea of reexamining old cases. “It’s good to look back with fresh eyes,” she noted. She argued that society’s growing understanding of issues like child abuse might influence how cases like the Menéndez brothers’ are judged today.
Still, Clark stopped short of endorsing their release. “That doesn’t necessarily mean you change the outcome,” she said, adding that their case remains “more of a conundrum” than the Simpson trial.
Interestingly, during their time in the Los Angeles County Jail, the Menéndez brothers crossed paths with Simpson. According to Erik, the fallout from Simpson’s acquittal in 1995 negatively affected their trial, creating a public thirst for accountability that, he believes, hurt their case.
Whether Erik and Lyle ever see freedom remains uncertain. What’s clear, however, is that their story continues to provoke as much discussion now as it did in the ’90s.