Kim Kardashian Defends Lyle Menendez and Erik Menendez From "Monsters" Label, Calls for Prison Release

Kim Kardashian is speaking out in support of Lyle Menendez and Erik Menendez.

Amid renewed interest in the brothers’ 1989 killings of their parents, José Menendez and Kitty Menendez—which is chronicled in Ryan Murphy’s Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story—the reality star explained why she feels the brothers’ life sentences should be “reconsidered.”

“I have spent time with Lyle and Erik; they are not monsters,” she declared in an NBC News op-ed published Oct. 3. “They are kind, intelligent, and honest men.”

The SKIMS founder—who met with the brothers at their San Diego prison Sept. 21 alongside Monsters star Cooper Koch—also highlighted Lyle and Erik’s “exemplary” records in prison, adding that at least two dozen of their family members have called for their release.

“When I visited the prison three weeks ago,” Kim wrote, “one of the wardens told me he would feel comfortable having them as neighbors.”

While the Kardashians star called for a reevaluation of the brothers’ case—in which they were found guilty of first degree murder following two jury trials—she did not absolve them of their misdeeds.

“The killings are not excusable. I want to make that clear,” the 43-year-old added. “Nor is their behavior before, during or after the crime. But we should not deny who they are today in their 50s.”

Kim also explained that Erik and Lyle have made allegations that they had been “sexually, physically and emotionally abused for years by their parents,” so she believes they did “what they thought at the time was their only way out” in killing the couple.

“I don’t believe that spending their entire natural lives incarcerated was the right punishment for this complex case,” she continued. “Had this crime been committed and trialed today, I believe the outcome would have been dramatically different.”

The essay came on the same day as Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced that prosecutors are reviewing the case to determine if the brothers should be resentenced. Gascón’s office is also reviewing potential new evidence which could support the brothers’ allegation that they were physically and sexually abused by their father.

While Kim has expressed her wish for the brothers to get a second chance, Monsters creator Ryan Murphy was more critical after Erik slammed the series.

“The thing that the Menendez brothers and their people neglect is that we were telling a story that was a very broad canvas,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in a piece published Oct. 1. “We had an obligation to so many people, not just to Erik and Lyle. But that's what I find so fascinating; that they're playing the victim card right now—'poor, pitiful us'—which I find reprehensible and disgusting.”

However, actor Cooper Koch—who played Erik Menendez in the hit Netflix drama—called the brothers “such upstanding individuals” after spending time with them.

“They committed the crime when they were 18 and 21 years old, and at the time, it was really hard for people to believe that male-on-male sexual abuse could occur, especially with father and son,” he told Variety in September. “But now, after 35 years, we have so much more evidence of child sexual abuse and male-on-male sexual abuse that I think they do deserve to be retried.”

E! News has reached out to the Menendezes’ lawyers for comment but hasn’t heard back.

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