Menendez brothers, convicted of murdering parents, are defended by relatives as they fight for freedom

Joseph Menendez, who goes by his middle name Lyle, and his brother Erik, shot her parents, Jose and Mary “Kitty” Menendez. Both were convicted of the murders in 1996 and sentenced to life in prison, but they recently applied for a reduced sentence.

“We are basically the entire extended family of Erik and Lyle Menendez. We are 24 members and today we want the world to know that we support Erik and Lyle,” their family wrote in a statement that Erik's wife, Tammi Menendez, posted on X Thursday in response to a new series about their lives and their crimes. “We pray individually and together for their release after 35 years in prison. We know them, love them and want them to be home with us.”

Their group statement is in response to a new Netflix show called “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” which premiered on Netflix last week.

Menendez brother who shot his parents slams new show for 'dishonest portrayal'

Erik and Lyle Menendez listen during their trial in the 1990s. (Ted Soqui/Sygma)

“Monsters” is advertised as “a true crime drama that examines the lives of the Menendez brothers, convicted of the brutal 1989 murders of their parents in Beverly Hills.”

But the Menendez brothers' family members describe it as “a phobic, gross, anachronistic, episodic nightmare that is not only full of falsehoods and outright untruths, but ignores recent exculpatory revelations,” they said in their statement posted on X.

“We know these men. We grew up with them since they were boys.”

— The Menendez family

“Our family has become a victim of this grotesque shock drama. “Murphy claims he spent years researching the case, but in the end he relied on the exposed Dominick Dunne, the pro-prosecutor, to justify his smears against us and never spoke to us,” the statement said Statement reads. “The character assassination of Erik and Lyle, our nephews and cousins, under the guise of 'storytelling' is disgusting. We know these men. We grew up with them since they were boys. We love them and to this day we are close to them.”

Lyle (left) and Erik (right) are pictured in current mugshots from 2023. After years of separation, they were moved to the same housing unit at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego in 2018, according to the New York Daily News. (California Department of Corrections)

Erik Menendez released his own statement about Tammi ahead of his family's news

“It is sad for me to know that Netflix's dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime has set the painful truths back several steps – back to a time when the prosecution built a narrative on the belief that men are not sexual “and that men experienced rape trauma differently than women,” Erik said in his statement shared by Tammi.

THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS: MONSTER OR MISUNDERSTANDED?

The Menendez brothers Erik and Lyle walked on the steps of their Beverly Hills home in November 1989. (Ronald L. Soble / Los Angeles Times)

Lyle's family members posted a separate reaction to the show on Facebook.

“So these 'writers/creators' got up in the morning, ate their cereal and went to an office where they decided to lie about rape survivors who had suffered every single day of their lives. The professionals did this for money. How ironic,” they wrote on a public Facebook page where they speak on behalf of Lyle while he is in prison. “Never forget: There was more evidence of abuse in the first trial than in most successful child abuse trials.”

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His family went on to describe the series as “the most horrific fictional miniseries” they had “ever seen.”

Trial of the Menendez brothers in Los Angeles – Lyle Menendez with his lawyer: Jill Lansing. Los Angeles, March 9, 1994. (Ted Soqui/Sygma)

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The brothers' lawyers argued they should have been convicted of manslaughter and not murder; in which case they would have already been released from prison.

A separate documentary about the brothers, titled “The Menendez Brothers,” is scheduled to premiere on October 7. According to a press release, the film promises to “offer a different perspective – that of the brothers themselves, conveyed in all-new audio interviews.” . The brothers' allegations that their father sexually abused them are also detailed.

Fox News' Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.