WASHINGTON, DC – The case of the Menendez Brothers calls for the consideration of the role of trauma in capital offenses as new research proves that people accused of committing violent crimes are victims of physical and sexual abuse in their adolescence, reports the Death Penalty Information Center.
The Menendez Brothers were accused of first-degree murder with special circumstances that made the crime a “death-eligible offense,” said DPIC, adding, despite the prosecution’s claim the brothers acted out of greed, the defense counsel argued “introducing evidence (of) physical, psychological, and sexual abuse by their father starting when they were very young.”
New research shows the plausible link between violent crimes and childhood abuse, adding individuals who experienced abuse at a young age had an “increased likelihood of (engaging in) criminal behavior,” reported Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE).
Often, mental issues and traumatic experiences are presented at trial as “mitigation evidence during capital trials,” different from other criminal trials, “as they have two phases, of guilt and sentencing,” stated DPIC.
According to the SCOTUS, “a defendant has the right to present any relevant evidence in support of a life sentence during the sentencing-phase,” said DPIC.
And, in Lockett v Ohio (1978), “the Court required states to allow capital sentencing judges and juries to consider all relevant mitigating evidence, striking down Ohio’s law which had only permitted mitigating evidence” under certain criteria, noted DPIC.
However, this right was not honored at the trials of the Menendez Brothers, charged DPIC, noting their first trial ended as a mistrial despite the defense counsel’s “extensive evidence of the abuse that both brothers experienced.”
At their second trial, DPIC writes the evidence of abuse intended for mitigation was not presented, “and (thus) prosecutors contended that both brothers were lying about the abuse they suffered.”
Between 2020 and October of 2024, out of the 90 people executed during that time, “76.7 percent of them experienced significant trauma,” said DPIC.
The DPIC reported on the case of Lisa Montgomery, a woman who was sentenced to death in 2021 for the murder of a pregnant woman. DPIC said Lisa’s defense counsel argued Lisa suffered “pseudocyesis, a phantom pregnancy, and attempted to make an insanity plea.”
Evidence of Montgomery’s mental illness and traumatic experiences showed that, as a young child, Montgomery experienced sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather, her mother prostituting her to “pay the bills” and being forced to marry her stepbrother, “who continued to sexually assault her,” cited DPIC.
Evidence of traumatic brain injury was also presented at trial, and DPIC noted a 2018 study that proved a correlation between increased risk of violence and criminal convictions.
DPIC said that in 2008 the jury did not learn about Montgomery’s mental diagnoses—PTSD, bipolar disorder, temporal lobe epilepsy and psychosis—and had this information been presented, “she may have not been sentenced to death and then executed.”
