Kim Kardashian has long been known for her legal advocacy, and she recently convinced Ryan Murphy, the creator of Netflix’s “Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story,” that the Menendez brothers should be released from prison.
Murphy spoke about how Kardashian, who is also starring in his upcoming legal drama “All’s Fair,” was able to change his mind on the July 20 episode of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom.”
Murphy told Newsom, who can grant the Menendez brothers clemency as governor, that when he was writing the series, he was on the fence about whether Erik and Lyle Menendez should be freed or not.
“We had an interesting writers room, where I was the one person in the room who kept saying, ‘I’m not so … I don’t think they should get out.’ I was the voice of, ‘I don’t know,'” Murphy said.
“In a weird way, what has happened through the show is, I was really, really educated a lot by the other people in the writers room and by the actors,” he added. “I was astonished at how I went into something with such a predetermined point of view and came out of it at the end of it thinking, where I am today is, I really do think they should be released. I do think there should be paroled, and I did not think that when I started.”
Newsom asked how his point of view was able to evolve and asked him to share his journey to coming to his conclusion.
“What happened to me, was there was a lot of very interesting voices in my path along the way,” Murphy said. “For example, one of my good friends who’s the star of one of my shows coming up, Kim Kardashian, you may have heard of her, arguably the most famous woman on the face of the earth.”
Murphy added it’s hard to get Kardashian on the phone to talk about “All’s Fair” because she’s studying for the bar exam after completing her law program earlier this year.
Newsom interjected to say Kardashian is constantly reaching out to his office to talk about cases, including advocating for incarcerated fire crews in California.
“She said, ‘Can I see this?’ and then I sent (the show) to her early, and she was really obsessed with it, and then went to visit (Erik and Lyle Menendez). Then she called me up and said, ‘I really feel like they deserve to be paroled.’ And I said, ‘Why?'” Murphy recalled.
“She talked a lot about really interesting points of view that I had not really thought about, which is, they were under 25, which I think is an interesting point of view,” he added.
Murphy cited studies that show the prefrontal cortex does not fully develop in men until they are about 26.
“So there’s that argument. Also, they’ve been model prisoners. Also, I was very moved by their family recently and how the family is so unified,” Murphy said. “And I guess it just begs the question, ‘If not now, when?’ Like, what benefit to society do we have by keeping them there, if they can come out of prison and actually serve some good. I think that’s a powerful thing.”
Newsom said he’s had people ask him about the flip side: “What good can come from sending a message that you can kill both your parents and be released? Why is the society benefited with them being released?”
Erik and Lyle Menendez have been serving life sentences for the murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez, their father and mother, in 1989.
A judge resentenced Erik and Lyle Menendez to 50 years to life in prison on May 13, making them eligible for parole immediately.
The brothers’ case received renewed attention from the public after the release of “Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story” on Netflix last year, including calls for their freedom from Kardashian and many others.
“I think that’s what your series did, is it really elevated that conversation,” Newsom said. “Because there’s a lot of the people in prison that don’t get any attention, that don’t even get in front of the parole board, that don’t have advocates, that don’t have Kim Kardashian making phone calls, they don’t have their day in court, so to speak, at least the court of the parole board and so it’s, you know, it’s trying to balance all that.”
In February, Newsom directed the state’s parole board to investigate whether Erik and Lyle Menendez would pose a safety risk to the public if they were to be released from prison. The parole board’s decision is set to be released in a set of hearings scheduled for Aug. 21 and 22.
As the governor of California, Newsom can grant clemency to the brothers at any time, and he will be tasked with reviewing the California State Parole Board’s recommendation.
“That’s heavy stuff,” Murphy told Newsom when the governor explained the process on his podcast.
“Heavy stuff,” Newsom replied. “I kept having a temptation to want to see (the show), but with the recognition always in the back of my mind that this thing may land on my desk. I don’t want to be persuaded by something that’s not in the files.”
Murphy later called the publicity over the Menendez brothers’ case “a very slippery slope” and “a really hard road.”
“I feel for you,” he told the governor.
Murphy then joked that Newsom can watch “Monsters” over Labor Day weekend, after he receives the parole board’s recommendation in late August.
“I’m going to see if I made the right decision,” Newsom said while laughing.
“I would love for you to watch it, actually, because the thing about that show that I love is it asked the question, ‘Are monsters made, or are they born?'” Murphy said.
Newsom asked what Murphy thinks the show decides about the Menendez brothers.
“I think ultimately, in the case of these two brothers, I think they were made,” Murphy said.
