LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón will ask a judge to sentence Erik and Lyle Menendez, two brothers serving life sentences for killing their parents, in a move that could pave the way for their release.

Gascón will ask that the brothers’ prior sentences of life without the possibility of parole be overturned and that they be sentenced to 50 years to life, a move that could make them eligible for parole as young offenders because they committed the crime when they were younger. than 26.

“I’ve come to a place where I think under the law the sentence is appropriate and I’m going to recommend that,” Gascón said.

The two brothers were convicted of murder under special circumstances, a charge punishable by life without parole or the death penalty. On Thursday, Gascón said he would ask the court to convict the brothers on one count of murder, which leaves open the possibility of parole.

“I think they have paid their debt to society,” he said.

Brothers were sentenced to life without parole after a jury found them guilty of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home. The 1989 murders and the televised trial that followed spawned documentaries, films and television series that made the brothers two of the most recognizable to the public.

The brothers have pursued appeals for years without success, but now they may have a path to freedom.

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

Prosecutors would argue that the killings were motivated by greed and the brothers’ desire to obtain their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate.

But during the trials, Erik and Lyle Menendez detailed what they said were years of violent sexual abuse by their father.

Earlier this month, over 20 relatives of the brothers pleaded at a press conference to be released. More than a dozen family members were in attendance when Gascón announced his decision Thursday.

“We know this wasn’t an easy decision, but it’s the right one,” said Joan VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez’s sister. “It’s about truth, justice and healing.”

During Gascón’s tenure as top prosecutor, he obtained new sentences for more than 300 people, including 28 who were convicted of murder. If approved by a judge, the Menendez brothers would be the most prominent convicts to have their sentences reduced at the prosecutor’s request.

It’s a decision that has already proven controversial and has caused division even within the prosecutor’s office.

Gascón noted that there will be members of his office who opposed resentencing present at an upcoming court hearing in the case.

“We have people in the office who strongly believe that the Menendez brothers should be in prison for the rest of their lives, and they don’t believe they were molested,” he said.

Lawyers for the pair last year filed a habeas motionarguing that new evidence supports their claim that they were sexually abused by their father years before the murders.

The file 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 includes 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 reviewing the motion and the case for more than a year. The decision, he said, was made final Thursday afternoon.

There is no doubt that the brothers killed their parents, but Gascón said the issue is whether the jury heard evidence that their father molested 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 included when the brothers were first tried, which ended in hung juries.

But when they were retried together, 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 brothers’ work running rehabilitation programs while in prison also factored into the decision to make them eligible for parole, Gascón said.

The two have been employed for years in prison programs to help inmates deal with trauma and help those with physical disabilities. Both earned university degrees.

“I will never suggest that what we are doing here is to excuse their behavior. … If you’re being abused, the right thing to do is call the police,” Gascón said. “Even though they didn’t think they would ever be freed, they embarked on a different journey — a journey of redemption and a journey of rehabilitation.”

Lawyers representing the brothers saw the announcement as a win for their clients and the family seeking their release from prison.

Flanked by the brothers’ relatives during a press conference in the bar below his law offices, lawyer Mark Geragos scoffed at the idea that Gascón had made a political decision. He said his team and prosecutors have been in conversation for months, including arranging interviews with family members.

“Today is a monumental, monumental victory on this track,” Geragos said. “If there is a hearing, all these family members who are behind me will be heard. All of these family members will uniformly ask one thing, “Bring them home.”

If the recommendation is approved by a judge, the fate of the brothers would still rest with the parole board, which will decide whether to release them. It could prove to be a roadblock, but their lawyers said at least there is a way.

“A straight life sentence with the ability to go to the parole board is much better than a life sentence without parole,” said Cliff Gardner, another attorney representing Erik and Lyle Menendez.

Public attention to the case has increased with recent television series and documentaries focusing on the crimes. A Peacock documentary series, “Menendez + Menudo: Betrayed Boys”, raised allegations that Jose Menendez, an RCA Records executive, had sexually assaulted Rosselló.

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

Kitty Menendez’s 90-year-old brother, Milton Andersen, criticized the decision to seek new sentences for the siblings. He said Gascón refused to meet with him to discuss his decision before announcing it to the media.

“Mr. Andersen was left in the dark, forced to learn crucial updates about his sister’s case through the media, instead of being treated with the dignity and respect he deserves,” Andersen’s attorney, Kathy Cady, said in a statement.

Cady filed an amicus curiae brief this week to oppose the resentencing. She said in a statement that the district attorney was trying to “manipulate the facts in order to have a fleeting chance to save his political career.”

Cady was also a leader in two failed attempts to recall Gascón.

Gascón’s election challenger, Nathan Hochman, questioned the timing of the prosecutor’s action in the case, suggesting he was making headlines to try to save his re-election bid. Polls show Gascón trailing Hochman by as much as 30 percentage points, and a Los Angeles Times analysis of campaign finances shows the challenger has raised far more money than the district attorney.

Gascón rejected claims that the decision was politically motivated.

“There is nothing political about it. We have sentenced more than 300 people,” he said. “We’re going to keep resenting people.”

Geragos noted that the brothers’ petition was filed months ago, long before Hochman appeared in the November contest.

“Before there was ever talk of an election, before there was ever talk of (Gascón) being down at the polls, this prosecutor had taken our petition for habeas corpus seriously,” he said.

Surrounded by more than half a dozen of the brothers’ cousins ​​— many of whom followed Geragos with cries of “Enough is enough” and “Bring them home” — the attorney said each relative planned to testify in the names of erik and lyle menendez if there was a hearing.

Geragos also suggested that a judge could override Gascón’s recommendation and convict the brothers of manslaughter, which would allow them to bypass the parole board and be released immediately.

“If you’re going to talk about victims’ rights, these are the victims right here,” he said, motioning to the family sitting behind him.

Dmitri Gorin, a criminal defense lawyer, said the evidence was clear in the initial trial that the killings were premeditated, but the case appeared to have a chance to be re-examined given the liberal policies of the district attorney’s office under Gascón.

A judge is likely to approve the prosecutor’s request, given that it is also supported by the brothers’ defense attorneys.

“I give the defense credit for the timely filing,” Gorin said. “If this was filed in December with probably a new prosecutor, they’re not going to come out. Most (district attorneys) in California wouldn’t let them out.”