out went robert shapiro, and in came leslie abramson. >> we always assumed that dr. ounce of her energy, of her soul to make sure that if the state was going to prove that these boys were guilty of murder, that the state was going to have to prove it. >> but the da admits that he is fighting for every piece of evidence to convict the two menendez brothers for the sensational murders of their wealthy beverly hills parents. >> both brothers were calling me occasionally from jail. they said, "wait until the trial. you'll find out what was really happening in the menendez family." >> he just said that it was our secret, that bad things would happen to me if i told anybody. >> after 2 years of high-stakes preliminary hearings, the judge finally allowed erik and lyle's sensational audiotape confessions to be played at trial. based on that key piece of evidence alone, it looked like it would be an open-and-shut case for the prosecution, but just before the trial was set to begin in july 1993, more than 3 years after the murders, the defense team introduced a shocking new st