The Menendez brothers face the possibility of freedom after spending more than 30 years in prison, with their case being reviewed for possible prosecution by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office following the emergence of key new evidence.

On August 20, 1989, Lyle Menendez, then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, shot their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion. Jose Menendez was a wealthy 45-year-old entertainment executive, while 47-year-old Kitty Menendez was a housewife.

The brothers were sentenced to life in prison after being convicted at their second retrial, following mistrials in the first trial.

“It was one of the largest cases in Los Angeles and in the country from the beginning; No one could believe that these two young men had murdered their parents in this way,” ABC’s Terry Moran, who covered the trial, told Impact X. Nightline.”

The fact that they killed their parents 36 years ago was always clear. However, the reason why they did so has always divided and enthralled the nation.

During their first trial, defense attorney Leslie Abramson claimed that Lyle and Erik shot their parents in self-defense. She argued that the brothers feared their parents would kill them if they revealed their father’s years of alleged sexual assault.

The first trial ended in a mistrial on January 13, 1994 due to a deadlocked jury. After a second trial, the brothers were found guilty of first-degree murder in 1996 and received two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

A new legal filing has been filed with even more harrowing details about Jose Menendez’s alleged abuse.

According to the brothers’ lawyers, Erik Menendez wrote a letter to his cousin describing his father’s alleged abuse.

Another alleged victim of their father, a former member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, also spoke out in the 2023 Peacock documentary “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.” Roy Rosselló claimed he was molested by José Menendez at the age of 14.

The Menendez brothers have seemingly gone from public enemies to victims as a powerful movement builds online to free the brothers.

Now under a modern lens, their story sheds a new perspective on an alleged trauma that was little understood at the time: that men could also be victims of sexual abuse. Some people say this reexamination challenges long-held beliefs and prompts people to reconsider their understanding of this complex issue.

“I always thought that if the Menendez brothers were the Menendez sisters, they would be free today and they would be convicted,” Moran said. “But a victim of abuse often receives some form of leniency.”

Prison reform advocate Kim Kardashian called for their release.

“We are all products of our experiences,” Kardashian wrote in a personal essay about the brothers. “Time changes us, and I doubt anyone would claim to be the same person they were at eighteen.”

Actor Rosie O’Donnell has become friends with the brothers.

“They weren’t terrible kids,” O’Donnell told “Impact X Nightline.” “They were severely, sadistically tortured by a pedophile predator father, and a very compliant and also involved mother, who had no interest in them.”

In the 1990s, Dr. William Vicary, a former psychiatrist, was a key defense witness in the case after attorney Leslie Abramson hired him to evaluate Erik Menendez. Vicary later had his medical license placed on probation after admitting he altered notes from those meetings.

“In the ’80s and ’90s, the public had very little knowledge about this type of sexual abuse, especially fathers abusing their own sons,” Vicary told ‘Impact X Nightline’. “At the time, there were a lot of people who rejected this outright.”

Others, like Alan Abrahamson, who covered the trial for the LA Times, still believe the brothers killed their parents for money and that the jury was right, given their lavish spending in the aftermath of the murders.

“The parents were in the den watching TV,” Abrahamson told “Impact X Nightline.” ‘Did they have weapons? No.’

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced earlier this month that he was reviewing new evidence in the case against the brothers.

Some family members said the Menendez brothers should have been charged with manslaughter instead of murder. A group of family members, including Kitty Menendez’s sister, agree.

The family members held a news conference in LA on Wednesday, hoping this would influence the appeal of their conviction. The court has scheduled a hearing for November 2024.

ABC News Studios’ “IMPACT x Nightline: The Menendez Brothers: Monsters or Victims?” streams on Hulu starting Thursday, October 17. A special “20/20” report on the Menendez brothers airs on ABC October 18 at 9pm ET.