Menendez brothers’ attorneys seek to overturn murder convictions with new evidence

Attorneys for Erik and Lyle Menendez are seeking to overturn their convictions for killing their parents in 1989, citing newly surfaced evidence that their father sexually abused them. The defense argues that the brothers' mental state at the time of the killings did not meet the standard for first-degree murder.

Attorneys for Erik and Lyle Menendez, who were convicted of killing their parents in 1989, have filed court papers claiming newly surfaced evidence warrants the overturning of their convictions.

The brothers never denied the killings, but argued they were repeatedly sexually assaulted by their father and feared for their lives. Prosecutors, however, said the killings were financially motivated.

The new evidence includes a letter written by Erik Menendez to a cousin in early 1989, and recent allegations by a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo that he was also sexually abused by Jose Menendez as a teenager.