The Los Angeles County DA will make a decision on whether to resentence the Menendez brothers within 10 days

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon told NBC News on Wednesday that he expects to make a decision within 10 days on whether to recommend parole for the Menendez brothers – and if he does, they could possibly get out of prison. end of year

“It will be up to the court to decide which way they want to go, but it's possible they could,” Gascon said in an interview at the Los Angeles Hall of Justice shortly after a news conference with Menendez's family members, who were calling. For the release of the brothers.

“If in fact they've been rehabilitated as we're being told, which we're reviewing, I don't believe they should spend the rest of their lives in prison,” he added.

Eric and Lyle Menendez are serving life sentences without parole for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents, Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez, in their Beverly Hills home.

More than a dozen relatives of the brothers argue that not only did they spend time behind bars but that the original case did not properly assess their allegations that their father sexually and physically abused them.

“If Lyle and Eric's cases were heard today, with the understanding we have now about abuse and PTSD, I have no doubt in my mind that their punishment would have been very different,” Jose Menendez's niece Annamaria Barrault told reporters Wednesday.

Gascon said while he is still reviewing the evidence based on what he has seen so far, he agrees with those family members and also believes the brothers' claims that they were molested.

“I think there's a certain level of evidence that indicates there were a lot of problems in the family,” he said.

The brothers were first tried together in 1993, but the jury was deadlocked. Prosecutors retried them in 1995, after a judge found most of the sexual assault claims inadmissible, prosecutors convinced jurors that they killed their parents to inherit money and went on a spending spree after the murders.

But last year, the brothers presented what they said was new evidence to support their sexual abuse allegations, including a letter one of the brothers allegedly sent to a cousin months before his father was killed. In it she wrote, “I was trying to avoid Dad… Every night, I lay awake thinking he might come.”

Roy Rossello, a former member of the band Menudo, also spoke on the Peacock documentary series “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed”, alleging that he too was raped by Jose Menendez. Peacock is owned by NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.

Not everyone in the family believes the brothers.

Cathy Cady, who is representing Milton Andersen, Kitty Menendez, said in an interview that her client does not believe her nephews were molested and that they were motivated by greed.

“Even if these allegations were true, it doesn't excuse what they did to their parents, and it doesn't excuse the murders they committed,” Cady said. “And again, the fact that they only killed when they knew they were going to be taken against their will would suggest otherwise.”

Gascon, who polls show is trailing his bid for re-election, has recently begun speaking publicly about his office's role in the case as it reviews new evidence.

The case received renewed attention following the release of the popular Netflix series “Monsters: The Lyle and Eric Menendez Story,” which dramatizes their story.

LoLa Law School professor Lori Levenson, who specializes in criminal cases, said that while there is considerable public interest in the case, their release is by no means certain.

“The court of public opinion may provide some moral support for defendants, but that's where the decision will be made in the judicial courts,” Levenson said. “One should not confuse this with significant legal issues that must be resolved in court.”

Gascon acknowledged that prosecutors in the DA's office differed on whether the brothers should be resentenced and ultimately released.

He said in the next 10 days he plans to speak with prosecutors handling the case and review the brothers' prison files to support the family's claims that they have been rehabilitated.

“I am trying to ensure that they are not mistreated while they are in prison. I want to see what steps they take to become better people,” he said.

Although Gascon said he is still mulling whether to recommend a reprieve, his public comments increasingly indicate he is open to it.

“We are still in the review process,” he said. “However, if, in fact, after 35 years of good behavior they are ready to reintegrate into society, I think that would be appropriate.”