Kim Kardashian met Menendez brothers following ‘Monsters’ release on Netflix
Kim Kardashian is best known as a reality TV star and entrepreneur, but the celebrity is also a passionate activist for prison reform, working with many charities and organisations on the issue. After the release of Ryan Murphy’s latest Netflix true crime series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, Kardashian met with the real-life Menendez brothers to discuss reform.
Kardashian’s passion for prison reform has been a key pillar of her life for many years. She played a big role in getting President Trump to support the First Step Act, which enacted major changes to the US prison system. She’s also worked for the clemency of several prisoners, bringing media attention to select cases. She’s even studying for the bar exam to become a lawyer to further her work in this area.
After the release of Murphy’s new series, looking into the Lyle and Erik Menendez case when the two brothers were convicted of murdering their parents, major attention has been drawn to the case. During the brothers’ trial, the prosecution claimed they plotted the murder to get their inheritance. However, the brothers claimed, and still claim today even as they serve life sentences, that their actions came after a lifetime of physical, sexual and emotional abuse.
Their sentence gives them no chance of parole. As part of her work with projects like the 90 Days to Freedom campaign, Kardashian’s activism pushes for reform to include better rehabilitation and second chances for convicts to re-enter society.
On September 21st, Kardashian met the Menendez brothers as she did a talk at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, where they are inmates. She visited the facility with actor Cooper Koch, who portrays Erik the series, as well as its producer Scott Budnick, and her family, Kris Jenner and Khloé Kardashian.
In prison, the Menendez are involved in a prison reform project which is “aimed at improving prison yards to aid inmate rehabilitation,” according to Deadline. During her visit, Kardashian spoke to 40 inmates involved in the project, including the brothers.
However, Murphy’s series has proved controversial since it came out. Similar to the upset caused by his dramatisation of the Jeffrey Dahmer story, people have said that this latest project also approaches a difficult topic without sensitivity for those involved.
Erik Menendez has condemned the show, releasing a statement that reads, “I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant likes rampant in the show. I can only believe they were done so on purpose.”
He continued, “It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent.”
Maintaining that their actions came out of fear and self-defence against their father’s onslaught of abuse, the brother’s feel that Murphy’s portrayal furthers misunderstandings of their case. “It is sad for me to know that Netflix’s dishonest portrayal of the tragedies surrounding our crime have taken the painful truths several steps backward — back through time to an era when the prosecution built a narrative on a belief system that males were not sexually abused, and that males experienced rape trauma differently than women,” Erik continued.
He concluded, “Those awful lies have been disrupted and exposed by countless brave victims over the last two decades who have broken through their personal shame and bravely spoken out.”