UB Law Forum

Volume 8 Number 1 Winter 1995 Article 9

1-1-1995

In the Eye of the Storm: Michael Burt '78 and the Menendez Case

UB Law Forum

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Recommended Citation UB Law Forum (1995) "In the Eye of the Storm: Michael Burt '78 and the Menendez Case," UB Law Forum: Vol. 8 : No. 1 , Article 9. Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/ub_law_forum/vol8/iss1/9

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Alumni Publications at Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in UB Law Forum by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. In the Eye of the Storm Michael Burt '78 and the Menendez case

he w aiting, sa ys Michael Burt, was the hardest part. For 25 days he and his c li e nt, Ly le TMenendez, sweated it out while the jurors deliberated. Finally the jury declared itself hung and the judge declared a mi strial. In this hugely publicized Californi a mur­ der trial, it was in no small mea­ sure a victory for the defense. Burt, a 1978 gradua te of the Uni versity at Buffalo Law School, was one of two lawyers represent­ ing Lyle Menendez, who with his younger brother, Eri k, faced first­ degree murder charges for ki II i ng their parents in their Beverl y Hills mansion. Prosecutors painted the brothers as greedy to inherit the family 's fortune, sa id to be $ 14 million. The defe nse argued that the shotgun slayings were com­ mitted in self- defense a ft er years o f phys ical and ps ycho logical abuse. "For 25 days we paced, worried, fretted. We set a record in Cali fornia for the longest period of jury deliberations," says B urt, who took a leave of absence from his job as a deputy publi c defender in San Franc isco to work on t he Menendez case. "I can' t put into words how painful the process is. because you' re waiting for essen­ tially a life-or-death decision, or a decis ion whe the r to go into the next, penalty phase of the trial." California has the death penalty, and if but a reasonable person in the same sit­ the people who are covering the courts convic ted, Lyle and Erik Menendez uation would not think the threat there are much more focused on the faced the prospect of the gas chamber. would be imminent. Given the history entertai nment value of the case.'' Tn fact, it was Burt's work in capi­ of abuse these guys suffered, their own Burt said the intense coverage of tal cases that drew the attention of subjective state of mind was that their the Menendez trial flushed out witness­ Leslie Abramson and Jill Lansing. pri­ parents were threatening them. es on both sides - witnesses who oth­ vate-practice attorneys for the two "I thought, of the two cases, we erwise might never have come for­ brothers. In death penalty cases, had the harder of the two," Burt says. ward. "We were getting people calling Cali fornia law stipulates that each "Our client was portrayed as the older, in who had known these guys since defendant is e ntitled to two lawyers. more sophisticated, leader-of-the-pack they were kids and had some interest­ Burt worked with Lansing to defend kind of guy . ... The prosecution started ing stories about the parents. for exam­ Lyle Menendez, in a j oint trial heard this case with the perception it was a ple, stories that presented the parents in by two separate juries. slam-dunk, open-and-shut case, and a bad li ght." "I was always a fairly stTong death the death penalty would result from After the mistrial was declared. penalty opponent," Burt says. "That, I this. But by the end of the case we had Burt said he e scaped to the Grand think, stems from a gut feeling that it not onl y the jury but probably a large Cayman Islands for a li ttle scuba div­ was wrong, and the more I learned segment of the California population, ing - and then it was ri ght back t0 his about it, the more wrong I thought it as well as people across the country, job with the San Franc isco public was. I have some religious scruples de bating the issue of whether these defe nde r's offi ce. " l thought I' d be about it, but I also think it's just bad guys were even guilty of manslaughter gone for six to e ight months (at the public policy ." He c redits "some and whether they shouldn ' t be c ut Mene ndez tri a l)," he says, "and it loose entirely." turned out to be a year and a half." As exceptionally well -qualified and inspi­ UBLAW rational teachers in that area at the Law The tria l of Ly le and Erik a conseque nce. he left the case afte r School." Menendez was te levised dail y on the the mistrial, not wanting to jeopardize FORUM " I think one of the s tre ng ths I cable network Court TV, and Burt says hi s job. Winter 1995 "/can't put into \tVOrds how painful the process is, because you're waiting for essentially a life-or-deat11 decision ... " brought to the case was a good work­ he eventually had a change of heart As for the defendants, it appears ing knowledge of death penalty litiga­ about the clamoring hordes of reporters they will be retried. No date has been tion,'' Burt says. "I ended up handling and came rame n who would descend set for the new trial. all of the legal objecti ons - anything each day on the Los Angeles court The Me ne nd ez case inspired a havin g to do with the admissibility of building. host of commentari es on the evasion of evidence, motions to suppress certain "'M y own philosophy initially was personal responsibility- whether the evidence. legal arguments concerning to try as best I could to ignore them," legal system has swung too far toward whether the proceeding should be te le­ he says. ''But Lesli e (Abramson) is all owing people to escape the conse­ vised, or whether the jury should be very much a believer in the school of quences of .their act ions. questi oned in a specific way during thought that you try your case as effec­ Bun says he· s sympatheti c toward e mpa ne lling so as to minim ize the ti vely in the press as in the courtroom. that argument. But in abusive families. effects of pre-trial publicity." "As it developed. I began to have he says, the roots of criminal behavior As well , he conduc te d c ross­ some feeling for who were the people are insidious. examinations of severa l w itnesses, doing the real bad sensationalisti c "You cannot raise kids in a nega­ inc luding the ma in prosecution wit­ re porting a nd who were th e people tive environment and expect much in ness, the psychologist who heard the w ho had rea l q uesti o ns about the the way of instil lin g good va lues in brothers' confession. He and Lansi ng process. Or if they weren' t interested people.'" he says. "I feel very strongly both made c losing arguments on Lyle in the lega l issues, they at least had about that personally. The more egre­ Menendez's behalf. some concept of presenting a balanced gious cases I' m involved in do hn ve The ir argument claimed ··imper­ pi cture of the case. their roots in chiiJ abuse. fect self-defense ... a California stan­ "'It's unlike any othe r place I" ve ""T I1ere real !y is no such thing as a dard that suggests the perso~ "'ac~ua ll y ever seen, in that, because L. A. is the senseless crime.'" • ~ perceived the danger to be •mm• nent. media/entert ainment cent er that it is. 25