(CNN)- Becoming an armchair detective has become an American obsession, fueled by the abundance of true crime content on podcasts and television series. However, few of those projects have spurred real legal developments.
The latest example involves the high-profile case of brothers Eric and Lyle Menendez, who were convicted of the premeditated murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, inside the family mansion in Beverly Hills in 1989 and sentenced to life in prison. The sentence was pronounced.
On Thursday, Los Angeles prosecutors announced they are reviewing new evidence presented in their case ahead of next month’s hearing, including a letter written by Eric Menendez, now 53, to his attorneys. The argument corroborates the allegations that the brothers had been undergoing sexual abuse for years. By his father.
In their petition for review of the case filed last year, the brothers’ lawyers also cited the Peacock documentary “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.” The project included an interview with a former member of the music band Menudo, who said in a sworn statement that Jose Menendez had sexually abused him when he was about 14 years old.
Public interest in the Menendez case was recently rekindled by the dramatization of the murders in Ryan Murphy’s Netflix drama “Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Eric Menendez.” Although the brothers have criticized the portrayal in the scripted series, their legal efforts have drawn the attention of Kim Kardashian and others.
“So many people are now interested in this case and are talking to me about the power of television and what it can do. It can illuminate something and it can illuminate dark corners,” Murphy told Variety this week. “We gave them their time in the court of public opinion.”
This is not the first time that pop culture projects have fueled legal developments. Here are some other examples:
The acclaimed singer was acquitted of charges related to child sexual abuse in 2008 after a tape surfaced that prosecutors said showed him having sex with a 14-year-old girl. However, this did not stop the years-long conversation about Kelly and the sexual misconduct allegations.
Some of those stories came to light in January 2019 in “Surviving R. Kelly,” an explosive multi-episode documentary in which multiple women shared allegations of abuse by Kelly, which he denied.
Just a few months later, in July 2019, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois issued a 13-count indictment that included charges of child pornography and obstruction of justice. Kelly was also charged with sex trafficking in New York and attempting to influence a case in Atlanta in a five-count indictment from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. In August 2019, Kelly was charged with engaging in prostitution with a person under the age of 18 in Minnesota in connection with an alleged incident that occurred at a campaign event in July 2001.
Kelly pleaded innocent to all charges.
“Surviving R. Kelly” received a massive response and a second season aired in January 2020 with additional allegations.
Kelly was convicted of federal fraud and sex trafficking charges. Sentenced to another 30 years in prison in 2021. The disgraced R&B singer was also found guilty of child pornography and solicitation of a minor. He received a separate prison sentence of 20 years.
The disappearance and subsequent death of 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach in October 2005 might have seemed like a local story in Wisconsin if it weren’t for Netflix.
The streaming giant’s 2015 documentary, “Making a Murderer,” tells the story of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dacey, who were arrested and convicted of Halbach’s murder.
The 10-episode series was so popular that it spawned several online forums, where viewers discussed the crime and exchanged their theories and interpretations of the evidence.
A second season titled “Making a Murderer: Part 2” was released in 2018.
Both Avery and Dacey were sentenced to life in prison, but Dacey’s conviction was overturned in 2016.
Prosecutors appealed and a federal appeals court later reinstated the conviction.
Avery has filed several unsuccessful appeals and motions over the years.
Both the persons are in jail.
“The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst” is a true crime series that made headlines even when it was in the news.
Durst, an eccentric New York real estate heiress, was arrested in March 2015 just before HBO (which is owned by CNN’s parent company) was to air the series finale.
The series investigated three cases to which Durst was connected: the unsolved disappearance of Durst’s wife Kathy in 1982; the execution of her friend, writer Susan Berman, in 2000, and the death and dismemberment of her neighbor, Morris Black, in Galveston, Texas, the following year.
Durst claimed self-defense in Black’s death and was arrested for Berman’s murder during the airing of the show’s first season.
He was convicted of the premeditated murder of Burman in 2021 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Durst was also charged in his wife’s death, but she died in January 2022.
In April 2024, HBO aired a second season of “The Jinx”.
The “Serial” podcast not only helped increase interest in the then-new media format, but also helped lead to the release of a man convicted of the premeditated murder of his high school girlfriend.
A 2014 podcast hosted by journalist Sarah Koenig examined the conviction of Adnan Syed for the premeditated murder of Hae Min Lee in 1999, when both were seniors at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County.
According to the show’s producers, the first season set a podcast record with over 300 million downloads at the time of its release. Syed was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping and false imprisonment.
Attention to the case, which included questions about the immunity Syed received, led to his conviction being overturned in September 2022.
Syed is free until the case is on appeal.
