Sharon and Jack Osbourne have called for the Menendez brothers to remain in prison for murdering their parents as a lawyer tries to have Erik and Lyle Menendez released within days.
Mark Geragos, who is representing the killers, has persuaded the district attorney, who is in the height of a reelection campaign, to rule that the brothers should be up for resentencing.
That could lead to their murder conviction being reduced to involuntary manslaughter despite their having planned and executed the shotgun murders of their parents at their Beverly Hills home back in 1989.
They are both serving sentences of life without parole following a court case in the 1990s in which the prosecution claimed they were motivated by greed.
The story has become a huge hit after being adapted into a TV mini series for Netflix.
Geragos, 67, now wants the governor of California to pardon them instead ahead of a Thanksgiving holiday in America, which would lead to them being freed within days.
Geragos said: “We have dual tracks. I am doing everything possible. I want them home.”
Either path could lead to them walking the streets of Beverly Hills once more.
But Sharon, 72, and son Jack, 38, think that’s a bad idea.
Sharon said: “I’m against it because they killed their parents. Put it this way, if they could have had the where for all up here to plan to murder their parents why didn’t they have the where for all to leave.”
Alluding to the brothers’ alleged sexual abuse at the hands of their father, played in the TV show by Javier Bardem,Jack added: “I mean if it did happen it sucks and is terrible but shotgunning your parents in the face numerous times. Murder is murder. It’s terrible."
Speaking to TMZ Live, Geragos said: “For anybody who has been paying attention I’ve been saying all along that the biggest hurdle here is to get the DA initiating the resentencing which the DA has now done.
“We are now free to argue to the judge, ‘Look, your honour, based on this record, based on the law, just follow the law, you can and you should recall this sentence. You should reduce the murder conviction to involuntary manslaughter.’
“They’ve done more than the maximum that was available at the time under the California law. That would not necessitate going to a parole board.
“One of the problems in going to a parole board is why put the family in ill health or ripe old age through the trauma of revisiting all this family drama and not once but twice, both for Lyle and for Erik in parole hearings.
“They’ve more than served ample amount of time. I’ve said it a million times it’s almost become cliche if they were the Menendez sisters they wouldn’t be here.
“They had more jurors vote for manslaughter than murder when the abuse was presented in trial the first time and it’s time now for them to be released.”
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