FRelatives of Erik and Lyle Menendez, the two brothers serving life sentences for fatally shooting their parents — Jose and Kitty Menendez — in their Beverly Hills home in 1989, called for the release and again condemning the couple.

During the press conference, family members announced a new coalition that would advocate for “justice for Erik and Lyle” and urged people to sign a petition asking the district attorney to move forward with recidivism for the couple. LA County District Attorney George Gascón announced earlier this month that he “remained open-minded” about a possible conviction of the brothers. Erik and Lyle were convicted of the murders in 1996 and are both serving life sentences without parole.

“Like so many others, I struggled to come to terms with the events of that fateful day in August and the loss I felt over time. It became clear that there were two other victims that day, my cousins, Lyle and Erik,” said Anamaria Baralt, a cousin of the brothers. “If Lyle and Erik’s case were tried today with the knowledge we now have about abuse and PTSD, I have no doubt that their sentencing would have been very different.”

Mark Geragos, an attorney representing the brothers, cited new evidence in the case, including a letter Erik wrote to his cousin that mentions the abuse months before the murders, and a statement from boy band Menudo member Roy Rossello that he claimed that Jose Menendez also abused him.

The case recently came back into the spotlight following the release of the Netflix series Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez in September, although there have been previous documentaries detailing the case.

Read more: How Ryan Murphy’s Menendez Brothers show reignited a decades-long controversy

Some celebrities, including Rosie O’Donnell and Kim Kardashian, who wrote a personal essay for NBC News asking for the two to be released, have advocated on behalf of the brothers.

Here’s what you need to know.

What happened

In August 1989, police began investigating the murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez, the parents of Erik and Lyle Menendez. Officers first responded to their Beverly Hills home on August 8, 1989, after Lyle called 911 claiming that “someone had killed my parents.” Lyle, then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, initially told police they came home to find their parents had been shot. But the following March, investigators received a tip to a psychologist stating that the Menendez brothers had admitted to killing their parents on tape.

Read more: The true story behind Ryan Murphy’s Menendez Brothers series

On March 8, 1990, Lyle was arrested. Erik surrendered to authorities two days later when he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport. Their first trial didn’t come until three years later. Ultimately, the brothers confessed that they had shot their parents in self-defense. During the first trial, family members and friends testified that the Menendez brothers had been victims of abuse, including sexual abuse in their home. The brothers claimed they shot their parents because they thought they were going to kill them so they wouldn’t reveal that their father had abused them.

However, prosecutors argued that the brothers fatally shot their parents because they wanted their parents’ inheritance. Shortly after the murder of their parents, the brothers spent their wealth mainly on Rolex watches and business investments. The jury for the first trial was deadlocked and a mistrial was ultimately declared.

A second trial in 1995 went in a different direction. The brothers were tried together and parts of the abuse evidence were declared inadmissible by the court. In March 1996, Lyle and Erik were found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. They have served for 34 years so far.

Why the prosecutor could revisit the case

In 2023, Geragos said he would be a petition of habeas corpus with the The Los Angeles Supreme Court is seeking to overturn their conviction. “If habeas were granted, you would get a new trial,” he said during Wednesday’s press conference. “If they are resentenced, the judge has the ability under California law to recall and sentence them to a wide range of options.”

Attorneys for the Menendez brothers say Erik and Lyle would have received different sentences if the trials had taken place today because today’s culture is more supportive of abuse victims.

Read more: The Menendez brothers are back in the spotlight. Here’s what you need to read and watch to understand their case

Lawyers representing the couple have pointed to new evidence in the case that proves allegations that Erik’s father sexually abused him. Some of that evidence includes a letter Erik wrote to his cousin Andy Cano. In the letter, written in December 1988, Erik said: “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.”

Rossello’s testimony that he was also abused by Jose Menendez will also be presented.

“Given the totality of the circumstances, I don’t think they deserve to be in jail until they die,” LA District Attorney George Gascón told co-host Juju Chang in an IMPACT x Nightline episode Thursday on Hulu is released.

A hearing for the habeas petition is scheduled for Nov. 29 in Los Angeles.

“I had no idea the extent of the abuse they suffered at the hands of my brother-in-law. None of us did, but when I look back I see the fear… that their father had instilled in them,” Kitty Menendez’s sister, Joan VanderMolen, said at the news conference. “They were just children, children who could have been protected, but instead were abused in the most horrific ways.”