LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors will recommend Erik and Lyle Menendez become embittered for the 1989 murders of their parents in the family’s Beverly Hills home, giving the brothers a chance at freedom after 34 years behind bars.

An official with knowledge of the decision who was not authorized to speak on the record ahead of a scheduled press conference confirmed that Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón would recommend that the brothers plead.

They were sentenced in 1996 to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors must now seek court approval for their recommendation to file charges.

Lyle Menendezthen 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, admitted to fatally shooting their entertainer father, Jose Menendez, and their mother, Kitty Menendez. The brothers said they feared their parents were about to kill them to keep people from finding out that Jose Menendez had been sexually abusing Erik Menendez for years.

The extended family of the brothers have appealed for their releaseand says they deserve to be free after decades behind bars. Several family members have said that in today’s world — which is more aware of the effects of sexual abuse — the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Several members of their extended family, including their aunt Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sat in the front rows of Thursday’s news conference. Joan Andersen VanderMolen was Kitty Menendez’s sister and has publicly supported their release. Mark Geragos, an attorney for the brothers, was also there.

The Menendez brothers were tried twice for the murders of their parents, with the first trial ending in a hung jury.

Prosecutors at the time argued there was no evidence of molestation, and many details of their story of sexual abuse were not allowed in the second trial. The prosecutor’s office also said at the time that the brothers were after their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate.

Not all Menendez family members support resentencing. Lawyers for Milton Anderson, the 90-year-old brother of Kitty Menendez, filed a legal document asking the court to uphold the brothers’ original sentences. “They shot their mother, Kitty, and reloaded to ensure her death,” Anderson’s attorneys said in a statement Thursday. “The evidence remains overwhelmingly clear: the jury’s verdict was fair and the punishment fit the heinous crime.”

The LA district attorney is in the middle of a tough re-election battle against former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman, who has blamed Gascón’s progressive reform policies for recent high-profile murders and increased retail crime.

The Menendez case has gained new traction in recent weeks after Netflix began streaming the true crime drama” Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”

But although some 30 relatives have come forward to call for leniency, not all family members agree that the brothers should be released.

Kitty Menendez’s brother, Milton Andersen — who is 90 years old — said through an attorney earlier this month that he believes “the appropriate sentence” is life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Evidence under prosecutors’ review included a letter written by Erik Menendez that his lawyers say corroborates allegations that he was sexually abused by his father.

Roy Rossello, a former member of the Latin pop group Menudo, also recently came forward, saying he was drugged and raped by Jose Menendez, the boys’ father, when he was a teenager in the 1980s.

Menudo was signed to RCA Records, which Jose Menendez headed at the time.

Rossello spoke about his abuse in the 2023 Peacock docu-series “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.” His allegations are part of the evidence outlined in the petition filed last year by the Menendez brothers’ attorney, seeking a review of their case. Rossello’s claim that he was raped twice by Jose Menendez is part of the Menendez brothers’ plea.

Although Kitty Menendez was not charged with abusing her sons, she appears to have facilitated the abuse, according to the petition. A cousin testified during the brothers’ first trial that Lyle told her he was too scared to sleep in his room because his father would come in and touch his genitals. When the cousin told Kitty Menendez, she “angrily dragged Lyle up the stairs by his arm,” the petition said.

Another family member testified that when Jose Menendez was in the bedroom with one of the boys, no one was allowed to walk in the hallway outside, according to the petition.