The family of Erik and Lyle Menendez is calling for their release before the murder case is examined

Warning: This article is about abuse.

Several family members of convicted US murderers Erik and Lyle Menendez have publicly called for the brothers' release from prison, arguing that they did not receive the same treatment in court today as they did when they were sentenced.

The brothers spent more than 30 years in prison and were serving life sentences for the 1989 murders of their father José Menendez, an entertainment executive, and their mother Kitty Menendez in Beverly Hills.

But several generations of José and Kitty's family members – including Kitty's sister and José's niece – gathered outside a Los Angeles courthouse to demand their release.

They said the brothers were “brutalized” and sexually abused by their father.

Several family members stressed that the brothers would not have received the same punishment in today's world, where there is a greater awareness of the effects of sexual abuse.

The case made a huge splash in the US in the 1990s, and the story hit the headlines again after Netflix began streaming “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” last month.

Brothers were “vilified,” the family says

Relatives from both sides of her parents' families attended the news conference in Los Angeles, the largest public gathering of the multigenerational family since the brothers' conviction.

Joan Andersen VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez's sister, said the extended family did not know the extent of the abuse.

“It became clear that their actions – although tragic – were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive their father's unspeakable cruelty,” she said.

“The whole world was not ready to hear that boys could be raped.

“Today we know better.”

About 20 family members were present at the news conference and said they would then go to the prosecutor's office to make clear to prosecutors their desire for the brothers to be released or for a new trial to take place.

The brothers' lawyers said the family assumed from the start that they should be charged with manslaughter, not murder.

“If Lyle and Erik's case were tried today, and given the understanding we now have about abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder, there is no doubt in my mind that their sentencing would have been very different,” said Anamaria Baralt, a niece of Jose Menendez.

But not every family member agrees with this.

Kitty Menendez's brother, Milton Andersen, said through his attorney Kathy Cady that he believes the appropriate sentence is life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Mr. Andersen was not available for an interview.

“He believes there was no abuse,” Mr. Andersen’s lawyer said.

“He believes the motive was pure greed because they had just learned they were going to be cut out of the will.”

New findings are being examined

The press conference came after Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced a review of new evidence to determine whether the brothers should serve life sentences.

Mr. Gascón said there was no doubt that the brothers committed the murders.

But the issue of sexual assault would have been treated more sensitively if the case had taken place today, he said.

New evidence presented in a petition includes a letter from 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 spoke out and said he was drugged and raped as a teenager in the 1980s by Jose Menendez, the boys' father.

Menudo was signed by RCA Records, whose head was Jose Menendez at the time.

Rossello spoke about his abuse in the 2023 Peacock docuseries Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed.

These allegations are part of the evidence detailed in the petition filed last year by the Menendez brothers' attorney to review their case.

A review hearing is scheduled for Nov. 29.

“We haven’t decided on a result yet. We are checking the information,” said Mr. Gascón.

What were the Menendez brothers convicted of?

First degree murder.

After initially protesting their innocence, Lyle Menendez and his younger brother Erik Menendez eventually admitted to shooting their parents.

At the time of the murder, Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18.

During a television trial that attracted widespread attention in the United States in 1996, the brothers claimed that they had been sexually abused by both parents for years.

The brothers said they feared their parents would kill them to prevent their father's long-standing sexual abuse of Erik from coming to light.

Prosecutors at the time claimed there was no evidence of harassment and many details of her sexual abuse story were not admitted in the trial that led to her conviction.

Prosecutors argued that the couple was seeking their parents' multimillion-dollar fortune.

A jury convicted the brothers of first-degree murder and they were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Lyle Menendez is now 56 and Erik Menendez is 53.

In 2018, more than 20 years after their conviction, the brothers were moved to the same housing unit in a Southern California prison.

ABC with wires