Page 8 - Robert Rand News Today

>> reporter: erik, on the other hand, seemed broken. >> he very rarely made eye contact. he was biting his fingernails. so i was thinking in my head, "boy, i sure hope i get to work with the older brother and not the younger brother. because this is gonna be a piece of cake with the older brother. >> how wrong he was. after a few sessions with lyle, dr. vicary hit a wall. and moved on to erik, who, month after month, seemed to stick to a kind of script about his wonderful father, his loving fami...

Decision turned a local l.a. story into an international sensation. how big was it? the menendez trial was the case that put an entire network, court tv, on the broadcast landscape. >> reporter: prosecutor pam bozanich knew all of america was watching her every move. >> how did you feel as you prepared to make your opening statement? >> as i walked down the hallway, all the cameras were there. and, you know, i just threw up. cause i thought, "oh, god. you know, this is really stressful." so -- >...

So what was it then? >> reporter: according to leslie abramson there was only one relevant question to consider in the menendez murders. >> why did these killings occur? >> reporter: a question the brothers believed they could answer best. no one had ever seen televised testimony like this before. >> say your full name and spell your last name.| >> joseph lyle menendez. >> reporter: the brothers testified in graphic, emotional terms about what they said were the darkest secrets of their family. ...

>> as he would find, getting to the brothers was not so easy. but then, theyd just lost their parents. >> lyle and erik menendez were the grieving sons. >> alan abrahamson is a journalism professor at usc. back in 1989, he was a reporter for the la times. >> nobody quite knew who had -- who had killed the parents. professor at usc. back in 1989, he was a reporter for the la times. >> nobody quite knew who had -- who had killed the parents. was it because of joses position in business? had he bee...

Distasteful that when the state doesnt succeed in convicting somebody under one set of rules, they sort of change the rules dramatically. >> reporter: grounds to vacate their convictions? and what do the brothers have to say all these years later? well ask lyle menendez, next. coming up -- >> the outside world saw what they thought was evidence of premeditation. >> id have to say, keith, that its just not really entirely accurate. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues his ...

The best. especially in sports, i noticed immediately. swimming, soccer, tennis. josé pushes sons to excel and everything. as his own career skyrocketed. >> in the 70s, josé was a general manager of hurts and impress the sons by bringing the companys famous spokesperson o.j. simpson home to dinner. >> holiday was living the american dream. anyones voice to continue that american dream >> in 1986, jose took a job with -- in los angeles. the company that prove. like basic instinct, and the rambl...

And i -- my thing was, "im gonna shoot leslie twice." i felt that the brothers were evil, but not as bad as she was. >> reporter: abramson had a reputation for doing whatever it took. >> you guys havent been fair to these boys and youre not fair to them now. >> reporter: and she had an unusual strategy for defending the brothers. a law known as imperfect self-defense. >> that is to say under all the circumstances, it was reasonable to the person to think that they were acting in self-defense. bu...

>> that really just was like a punch in the gut. >> reporter: and then, just before the jury went out, judge weisbergs last ruling. and quite possibly, the most important one of all. >> the jurors would not be allowed to consider an imperfect self-defense. judge weisberg, basing his ruling on a california supreme court decision that came down after the first menendez trial, said imperfect self defense didnt apply because the brothers initiated the confrontation with their parents. >> reporter: d...

In the end, all her efforts did not spare the menendez brothers from a life sentence. >> i think the fairness has been drained out of the system. >> reporter: decades later, that question whether the second trial was fair, is still being debated. >> its a tale of two trials. the trials couldnt have been more different. >> reporter: cliff gardner was the attorney appointed to handle lyles appeal. >> so it was sort of a one, two, three punch. no source evidence, no lay -- expert testimony. and the...

>> reporter: but before that second trial could begin -- oj happened. and suddenly the stakes were even bigger. >> when o.j. went home, we were nationally considered to be losers. >> reporter: the second menendez trial began just eight days after ojs acquittal -- with judge weisberg presiding again. the same judge -- the same case, but this time the trial was fundamentally different. >> the first major ruling judge weisberg made was, "no tv camera in the courtroom." >> reporter: this time, one j...