“Erik and Lyle Menendez’s positive transformation, as well as their ability to find meaning and purpose in their current incarceration, illustrates how much circumstances have changed since they were sentenced to life without parole,” said the Los Angeles County District Attorney. office in its official paperwork recommending pleas for the nearly three-decade-long incarcerated siblings who murdered their parents in 1989.

First reported exclusively by Deadline and announced on October 24 by the DA George Gascón on a press conference in the center, the action that could see the Menendez brothers free within months now rests with LA Superior Court Judge William Ryan. If Judge Ryan agrees that the now quinquagenarians deserve sentences of 50 years to life in prison, with the possibility of parole, then a parole judge will have the final say on whether the brothers walk free from the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San. Diego.

“The murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez in August 1989, although clearly planned, came after years of alleged sexual and emotional abuse,” the 57-page motion, which was filed late last night and a little ahead of the timeline set up by DA Gascón at Thursday’s press conference. “Removed from the horror of what was described as having occurred in the family home, both Erik and Lyle Menendez have proven to be empathetic individuals who care about and participate in society for the betterment of the collective.”

“Defendants have demonstrated that they no longer pose a risk to public safety … such that their current sentence is no longer in furtherance of justice,” added Nancy Theberge, chief of the resentencing unit, and deputy director of post-conviction and litigation , Brock Lunsford, on behalf of their re-election seeking boss Gascón.

Read the LA DA’s indictment for the Menendez brothers here

Thus, the cases of Erik Menendez, 53, and Lyle Menendez, 56, received a wave of new attention stemming largely from new evidence revealed in a Peacock documentary last year, plus a flurry of TikTok videos, advocacy from Kim Kardashian and Ryan Murphyis a very successful nine-parter Netflix series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

In the possession of the divided polls office that fought Gascón for nearly a year, the new evidence includes allegations that music executive Jose Menendez sexually assaulted at least one member of the boy band Menudo in the 1980s. More significantly, there is also a letter from 1988 which Eric Menendez wrote to one of his cousins ​​about the repeated sexual abuse he suffered from his father. The handwritten correspondence was sent over eight months before the brothers shot their parents to death in their Beverly Hills home. “I never know when it will happen and it drives me crazy,” the then 18-year-old Menendez wrote to his relative about the attacks by his “obese” father.

Thursday’s filing also lists in detail the programs and rehabilitation and “self-employment” the Menendez brothers have engaged in during the 30 years they’ve been behind bars. These comprehensive programs for himself and fellow inmates include “despite not having a documented history of alcohol or drug abuse, Erik Menendez has engaged aggressively in sobriety maintenance programming.”

“Both men have made incredible contributions to the prison system as a whole and to their fellow inmates on a very personal level,” prosecutors said.

Although reports of the alleged sexual abuse at the Menendez home were admitted in the brothers’ first trial (which ended in a mistrial), it was barely mentioned in the second trial in 1996 where the duo was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

As he has done in recent weeks, Gascón’s rival for the DA gig wasted no time this week bashing the incumbent for this move in the Menendez case at this time.

“He has waited until days before the Nov. 5 election, down 30 points in the polls with articles coming out about how his failed policies have led to further murders of innocent people, to release his recommendation to prosecute,” ex-U.S.: s Assistant Attorney General Nathan Hochman said in an Oct. 24 statement. “By releasing it now, Gascón has cast a cloud over the fairness and impartiality of his decision, allowing Angelenos to question whether the decision was correct and fair or just another desperate political move by a DA running a losing campaign to grab headlines through a televised decision Angelenos and everyone involved deserve better.”

In his press conference yesterday, DA Gascón insisted that his resentment had nothing to do with his political situation. “I’m not going to talk about re-election,” he said sternly surrounded by members of the extended Menendez family who support the brothers’ arraignment and release.

We’ll see if that proves the case in this case on November 5th.