After spending 34 years behind bars for murdering their parents in 1989, Lyle and Erik Menendez can be now on the threshold of freedom. But the fight over their fate has divided not only the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, but also their family — and even curious tourists visiting the Beverly Hills crime scene.

Mark Geragos, the brothers’ attorney, said Good morning America On Friday, the two are “cautiously optimistic that they can see some relief” after District Attorney George Gascón announced Thursday that he will recommend that they be resentenced and released.

“It’s exciting, it’s beyond words,” said cousin Karen VanderMolen, one of more than 20 relatives supporting their freedom. “The best case scenario would be for Erik and Lyle to be home for the busy week of Thanksgiving,” she told GMA, noting that the holiday coincides with three family birthdays.

Another cousin, Tamara Goodell, pointed to the changing public attitude toward abuse victims. (The brothers insisted they killed their parents in self-defense, after years of sexual and psychological abuse.) “This new generation is really fighting to say this shouldn’t have been handed to them,” Goodell said on GMA. “At this point, after almost 35 years, they’ve done their time… It’s time for them to come home.”

But not all family members agree. Their 90-year-old uncle Milton Andersen (brother of their mother Kitty Menendez) remains their most vocal opponent and has dismissed their claims of abuse as lies. “The jury’s verdict was just and the punishment fit the heinous crime,” Andersen said in a statement to GMA, arguing that the brothers’ murder was driven by greed and a desire to claim their $14 million inheritance.

Andersen’s lawyer, Kathleen Cady, said Gascón is trying to exploit the case to win re-election on Nov. 5 and is trying to “rewrite history” and “manipulate the facts.”

“His decisions must be based on truth and law, not a last-minute effort to influence voters,” Cady said. Fox News. “The victims of this horrific crime, including Mr. Andersen, deserve much more than to be pawns in a politician’s game.”

Announcing his decision to seek resentencing on Thursday, Gascón revealed that his own office is divided.

“There are people in the office who strongly believe that the Menendez brothers should stay in prison for the rest of their lives, and they don’t believe they were molested,” Gascón explained. “And there are people in the office who strongly believe that they should be released immediately and that they have in fact been molested.”

“I will never condone murder, and these were brutal, premeditated murders,” Gascón said CNN Thursday. “They were properly convicted at the time they were tried. They received life without the possibility of parole. I just think that given the current state of the law and given our assessment of their behavior in prison, they deserve the opportunity to be re-evaluated and perhaps reintegrated into the community.”

“What they did was horrible… But I think they are different people today and we base our opinion on the behavior of the last 35 years,” Gascón said.

Gascón is trailing by more than 30 points in public opinion polls in the prosecutor’s race. His challenger, Nathan Hochman, a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney running as an independent, immediately questioned the timing of his announcement. One statementHochman urged voters to consider, “whether the decision was fair and just or just another desperate political move by a prosecutor running a losing campaign struggling to grab headlines with a made-for-TV decision.”

The Los Angeles District Attorneys Association also accused Gascón of playing politics.

“Throughout his disastrous tenure as DA, Gascón has consistently prioritized celebrity cases over the rights of crime victims, showing more interest in being in the spotlight than standing up for justice,” wrote Michele Hanisee, president of the association, a union which represents almost 900 people. deputy DA, in a statement.

“Gascón’s actions make it clear that he is more interested in using his office for free media attention than in actual justice,” the statement continued. “His self-serving agenda has left victims and their families neglected while he chases the next headline.”

Even tourists who visit Menendez’s crime scene on Elm Drive in Beverly Hills—the family’s former mansion—they find themselves divided. In Daily Beast interviews at the scene, some sympathized with Lyle and Erik, seeing them as victims of parental abuse, while others saw them as cold-blooded killers who got what they deserved.