Erik and Lyle Menendez are spending life in prison without the chance of parole for the high-profile murders of their parents in Beverly Hills in 1989.

On Thursday, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón called for a new sentencing hearing for the brothers.

“I learned more about the law,” the lawyer said. “I now think that resentencing is the right thing to do.” “That’s what I’m going to tell the court tomorrow.”

The government worker said he would ask for a 50-year to life term. The brothers were under 26 years old when they did the crimes, so the law says they can get young offender parole right away, Gascón said. Before the proposal for a new sentence is official, it must be approved by a court.

The brothers killed their parents, Kitty Menendez and José Menendez, a well-known theater executive, when they were 18 and 21 years old.

At first, the brothers said they should be charged with killing because they killed their parents after being sexually abused by their father for a long time and saying he would kill them if they didn’t shut up.

Family members praised the choice to ask for a new sentence, calling it a “brave and compassionate step.”

“This choice isn’t just about the law,” cousin Joan Andersen VanderMolen said at the news conference on Thursday. “It’s a way of acknowledging the abuse my cousins went through.”

The district attorney said that his office did not “universally agree” with the resentencing decision. The decision was based on new evidence in the case, such as a letter Erik wrote to a cousin about the alleged sexual abuse before the killing and a claim by a member of the boy band Menudo that José also abused him.

The decision, made Thursday by the district attorney, was not based on politics. He said it was important to show that abuse victims should be heard and people accused of murder should be punished.

At the news conference, Gascón said, “I want to stress that those were horrible acts.” “There is no reason to murder someone, and I will never say that what we’re doing here is a reason to do that.” It’s the right thing to do to call the cops and get help if you are abused. In the same way, I understand how people feel weak.

At first, prosecutors said the teens killed their parents to get their multimillion-dollar estate. The brothers bought a Porsche sports car, clothes worth $40,000, and a Rolex watch worth $15,000. They did this in the seven months between the killings and their arrest.

After the first trial finished with a deadlock, both brothers Menendez were found guilty of murder and given life sentences without the chance to get out.

Family members and famous people have asked for the brothers’ release, saying that they would have been treated differently in today’s court system because sexual abuse reports would have been looked at more thoroughly.

In an article published on October 3, Kim Kardashian said that the brothers’ claims of abuse were not treated fairly in court and that the public did not take their claims seriously enough.

Kardashian wrote, “The trial and punishment these brothers got were more fitting for a serial killer than for two people who were sexually abused for years by people they loved and trusted.”

In the past few months, two Netflix shows—a documentary and an imagined version of the story—Ryan Murphy’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story have stoked even more interest in the case. Another updated, in-depth book about the killings has also been released.

A 2023 docuseries about Peacock made the case even more complicated.

Roy Rosselló, who used to be in the boy band Menudo and wrote the book Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed, said that José Menendez drugged and raped him when he was a teenager.

Gascón said that the Menendez brothers will not show up in court tomorrow when the district attorney’s office asks for the new sentence.

Mark Geragos, the brothers’ lawyer, told NBC Los Angeles that he hopes to get the brothers out of jail before the end of the year.

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