Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón will ask a judge to resent Erik and Lyle Menendez, two brothers serving life sentences for the murder of their parents, a move that could pave the way for their release.

Gascón will request that the brothers be convicted of murder and immediately considered for parole, he said at a news conference Thursday.

“I came to a point where I believe it is appropriate under the law to retaliate, and I am going to recommend that,” Gascón said. “What that means in this particular case is that we are going to recommend to the court that they be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole and that they will be convicted of murder.”

The two brothers were sentenced to life in prison without parole after a jury found them guilty of killing their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home with a pair of shotguns. The 1989 murders and the television trial that followed have led to documentaries, films and television series that have made the brothers two of the most publicly recognizable convicts.

The brothers appealed for years without success, but now they could find a path to freedom. A judge will ultimately decide whether the brothers will be released.

In 1989, Erik and Lyle Menendez bought a pair of shotguns with cash, walked into their Beverly Hills home and shot their parents while they watched a movie in the family living room. Prosecutors said Jose Menendez was struck five times, including in the back of the head, and Kitty Menendez crawled on the ground, wounded, before the brothers reloaded and fired a final fatal blast.

Initially it was rumored that the murders were mafia hits.

Prosecutors allege the murders were caused by greed and the brothers’ desire to control their parents’ multimillion-dollar business.

But during the trials, Erik and Lyle Menendez and their attorneys explained what they said were years of violent sexual abuse the brothers experienced at the hands of their father.

Earlier this month, more than twenty relatives of the brothers called for the couple’s release at a press conference.

“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.

During Gascón’s tenure as top prosecutor, he has secured new sentences for more than 300 people, including 28 convicted of murder, but the Menendez brothers are the most prominent convicts whose sentences were reduced at the prosecutor’s request.

Lawyers for the brothers filed a habeas motion last year, arguing that new evidence supported their claim that they had been sexually abused by their father for years before the killings.

The filing included a letter Erik Menendez sent to his cousin in December 1988 — eight months before the murders — that appeared to corroborate the claims of abuse. It also included a statement from Roy Rosselló, a member of the boy band Menudo, who claimed that Jose Menendez raped him in 1984 when he was 13 or 14 years old.

Gascón’s office has been studying the motion and the case for more than a year.

Earlier this month, he said his office had a “moral and ethical obligation to assess what is presented to us and make a decision.”

There is no doubt that the brothers killed their parents, but Gascón has said what matters is whether the jury heard evidence that their father abused them, and whether that evidence could have affected the outcome of the trial.

Evidence of sexual abuse, including testimony from family friends and relatives, was recorded when the siblings were first tried, which ended in hung juries.

But when they were tried together again, the jury didn’t hear much of the testimony supporting their allegations of sexual abuse. The two were convicted of first-degree murder in March 1996.

The case has received renewed public attention, fueled by television series and documentaries that focused on the infamous murders. A Peacock docuseries, “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed,” highlighted allegations that Jose Menendez, an executive at RCA Records, sexually assaulted Rosselló.

Gascón’s decision has been criticized by those who say the move is a political ploy to strengthen his re-election campaign.

Kitty Menendez’s 90-year-old brother, Milton Andersen, released a statement Thursday criticizing the decision to seek new sentences for the brothers. He said Gascón has refused to meet with him to discuss his decision before announcing it to the press.

Andersen’s attorney, Kathy Cady, said the prosecutor “manipulated the facts for a fleeting opportunity to save his political career.”

On Tuesday, Cady filed for an amicus curiae brief opposing the brothers’ possible conviction.

Gascon’s election challenger, Nathan Hochman, has also questioned the timing of the district attorney’s action in the case, suggesting he is making headlines in an attempt to salvage his re-election bid. Polls show Gascon trailing Hochman by as much as 30 percentage points, and a Times analysis of campaign finances shows the challenger has raised significantly more money than the DA.

Dmitry Gorin, a criminal lawyer, said the evidence at the first trial was clear that the killings were premeditated, but that the case seemed to have a chance of being revisited given the prosecutor’s office’s liberal policies under Gascón.

A judge is likely to approve the prosecutor’s request as it is also supported by the brothers’ lawyers.

“I give the defense credit for the timely filing,” he said. ‘If this is submitted in December to probably a new prosecutor, they will not be able to resolve it. Most (district attorneys) in California wouldn’t release them.”