Friends and family of Erik and Lyle Menendez called for the brothers to be re-sentenced for the murder of their parents during a news conference in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, hoping this would pave the way for their eventual release from prison .

More than two dozen family members stood outside the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on Wednesday, urging the Los Angeles County district attorney to reprimand the brothers and support the public’s efforts to free them.

“If Erik and Lyle’s case were tried today, with the knowledge we now have about abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder, there is no doubt that their sentencing would have been very different,” said Anamaria Baralt, a cousin. of the brothers and sisters.

The two brothers spent more than 30 years in prison after being sentenced to life without parole for the gruesome murder of their parents.

At one point, the two were faced with the possibility of a death sentence. Now lawyers for the siblings and several family members are seizing what they see as an opportunity to have the brothers re-sentenced or possibly released.

Previous attempts by the brothers and their lawyers to end their incarceration have been fruitless, but a new habeas corpus writ citing new evidence is being filed by the Dist. Atty. George Gascón’s office.

Prosecutors have been quietly studying the Menendez case and their petition for more than a year. But renewed public attention to the case, fueled in part by the Netflix series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story,” prompted Gascón to hold a press conference earlier this month.

Gascón gave no indication of which direction he and his office were leaning, but said he hoped to bring “finality” to the case at a Nov. 26 hearing.

“We are not ready at this point to say whether or not we believe this information,” Gascón said during the press conference. “But we are here to tell you that we have a moral and ethical obligation to assess what is presented to us and make a decision.”

The two brothers bought shotguns in 1989 and murdered their parents in their Beverly Hills home. Prosecutors said Jose Menendez was shot five times, including once in the back of the head. His wife, Kitty Menendez, was said to have crawled to the ground, wounded, before the brothers reloaded and fired a final shot.

Erik and Lyle Menendez became the prime suspects after Erik confessed to his therapist in March 1990.

Police and prosecutors argued that the two killed their parents to gain control of the multimillion-dollar estate. However, defense lawyers argued that the gruesome murders occurred after the brothers had been subjected to years of violent sexual abuse by their father.

The first trial, which was broadcast live on cable television network CourtTV, featured testimony about the alleged abuse and ended with jurors unable to reach a unanimous verdict against both brothers.

However, in the second trial, Lyle Menendez did not testify, and much of the abuse testimony was excluded. Prosecutors also argued that the abuse allegations against Jose Menendez, an executive at RCA Records, were fabrications.

The habeas petition currently being considered by prosecutors points to evidence included in a Peacock docuseries, “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed,” which alleged that Jose Menendez was also an underage then-member of the pop band Menudo from the attacked in the 1980s.

The series also pointed to a letter Erik Menendez allegedly wrote eight months before the 1989 shooting, which suggested he had been sexually abused into his late teens.

The letter had been discovered by family members years earlier, but had not been submitted to the court for review until after the habeas petition.

Mark Geragos, one of the attorneys who represented the brothers in their petition, said the brothers had exhausted their legal options to appeal in 2005.

“They had resigned themselves to spending the rest of their lives in prison,” Geragos said Wednesday. But the evidence cited in the motion has given them a chance to reconsider.

He called the support from more than twenty family members ‘unprecedented’.

Baralt pointed to the time Erik and Lyle Mendendez had spent in prison, pointing out that the two were involved in rehabilitation programs at the prison despite little hope of release.

“Despite their circumstances, they have chosen to live a light life,” she said. “Lye and Erik deserve a chance.”

Baralt and other family members were also scheduled to meet with the district attorney’s office on Wednesday to voice their support for Erik and Lyle Menendez’s revenge.

“I never thought this day would come,” said Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sister of Kitty Menendez. “As the details of Erik and Lyle’s abuse emerged, it became clear that their actions, while tragic, were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive their father’s unspeakable cruelty.”

Brian Anderson Jr., Erik and Lyle Menendez’s cousin, said he would welcome the brothers to his home if they were released.

“I can tell you without a doubt that they are not the villains they are portrayed as,” he said. “They were boys, young, scared and abused by their father in a way that no child should ever experience.”

Family members asked supporters to sign an online petition in support of the brothers’ conviction.

Not all relatives of the siblings agree on Erik and Lyle Menendez’s future.

In a statement, Kitty Menendez’s brother, Milton Andersen, said he believes the two should remain in prison. His attorney, Kathy Cady, criticized Gascón, saying he failed to keep Anderson informed about the case.

“The lack of clarity and transparency once again leaves Mr. Andersen in limbo,” she said in the statement. “He should not have to learn about the future of his sister’s murder case from a magazine or a press conference.”