This article was originally posted on March 1, 2024.

Lyle and Erik Menendez have been behind bars in California for more than thirty years for the 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. They were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in the infamous case that captured the attention of the country moved. Now the brothers hope new evidence will reopen their case and set them free.

’48 Hours’ contributor Natalie Morales speaks with Lyle Menendez from jail as he awaits a judge’s decision in an encore of ‘The Menendez Brothers’ Fight for Freedom,’ now streaming on Paramount+.

The Menendez brothers admitting to killing their parents. Instead, the focus of the case has long been on why they did it. They claim they killed out of fear and in self-defense, after a lifetime of physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of their parents.

One of their attorneys, Cliff Gardner, tells “48 Hours” that new evidence confirms these long-standing claims and reduces their culpability. Gardner argues that Lyle and Erik Menendez should have been convicted of manslaughter instead of first-degree murder, and that if they had been, they would have received a much shorter sentence and would have been out of prison long ago.

The new evidence includes a letter that Gardner says was written by Erik Menendez to Erik’s cousin Andy Cano in December 1988, about eight months before the crime. The letter reads in part: “I’ve been trying to avoid Dad. It still happens, Andy, but it’s worse for me now. …Every night I stay awake thinking he might come in. …I’m scared. …He’s crazy. He warned me a hundred times not to tell anyone, especially Lyle.”

Andy Cano testified at the brothers’ trials. He said Erik Menendez told him at age 13, years before the murders, that his father touched him inappropriately. Prosecutors at the trial suggested Cano was lying.

The brothers were tried twice. Their first trial ended in a mistrial when two juries, one for each brother, could not reach a unanimous decision on whether Lyle and Erik Menendez were guilty of manslaughter or murder. When they were tried a second time, prosecutors attacked the abuse allegations more aggressively. They called the accusations “the excuse for abuse.” That trial resulted in the brothers’ convictions for first-degree murder.

Gardner says this letter is proof that the abuse allegations are not fabricated. He says the letter was not presented at either trial and was discovered in storage by Andy Cano’s mother in recent years. Andy Cano passed away in 2003.

The letter is not the only piece of evidence that has surfaced. Roy Rossello, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, has come forward claiming that he was also sexually abused by Jose Menendez in the early 1980s, when Rossello was a minor and a member of the band. At the time, Jose Menendez was working as a manager at RCA Records, and RCA signed Menudo to a recording contract.

Rossello is now 54 years old. He says in an affidavit filed in 2023 that he went to Jose Menendez’s house in the fall of 1983 or 1984. Rossello would have been between 14 and 15 years old at the time. He says he drank “a glass of wine” and then felt like he had “no control” over his body. He says Jose Menendez took him to a room and raped him. Rossello also claims in the affidavit that he was sexually assaulted by Jose Menendez on two other occasions, just before and just after a performance at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

“When I first heard about it…I cried,” Lyle Menendez told Morales. “For me, it was really meaningful to get things out there that really made people realize, okay… at least this part of what it’s about is true.”

The Menendez brothers’ attorney, Cliff Gardner, filed a habeas petition in May 2023, citing Rossello’s letter and affidavit as new evidence proving his clients’ convictions should be vacated.

“The boys were abused as children. They were abused all their lives. … And this is a manslaughter case, not a murder case. It’s that simple,” Gardner told “48 Hours” about the Menendez brothers. “My hope in this case is that the judge will realize that this new evidence is indeed credible and compelling and will vacate the convictions.”

If that happens, it will be up to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office whether to retry the case. In a statement, the district attorney’s office told “48 Hours” it is investigating the claims in the habeas petition. It is unclear when a judge will rule in the case.