The Los Angeles District Attorney will decide whether to resentence the Menendez brothers within 10 days

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón told NBC News on Wednesday that he hopes to make a decision within 10 days on whether to recommend re-sentencing of the Menendez brothers – and that it is possible is that in this case they would be released from prison by the end of the year.

“It will be up to the court to decide which path they want to take, but it's possible that they will,” Gascón said in an interview at the Los Angeles Hall of Justice shortly after a news conference called by Menendez's family members for the Release of the brothers.

“If they have actually rehabilitated themselves in the way that we are told that we are looking into, then I don’t think they should spend the rest of their lives in prison,” he added.

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

More than a dozen of the brothers' relatives argue that not only did they serve their time behind bars, but that the original case did not adequately address their allegations that their father sexually and physically abused them.

“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, niece of Jose Menendez told reporters on Wednesday.

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

“I think there is some level of evidence that there were a lot of problems in the budget,” he said.

The brothers were tried together for the first time in 1993, but the jury deadlocked. Prosecutors retried the case in 1995 when a judge ruled most of the sexual abuse 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 new evidence that supported their allegations of sexual abuse, including a letter that one of the brothers allegedly sent to a cousin months before his father's murders. In it he wrote: “I've been trying to avoid Dad…every night I stay awake thinking he might come in.”

Roy Rossello, a former member of the band Menudo, also spoke out in the Peacock documentary series “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed” and claimed that he was also raped by José Menendez. Peacock is owned by NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.

Not the whole family believes the brothers.

Kathy Cady, who represents Milton Andersen and Kitty Menendez, said in an interview that her client does not believe his nephews were abused and that they were motivated by greed.

“Even if these allegations were true, that doesn't excuse what they did to their parents and it doesn't excuse the murders they committed,” Cady said. “And again, the timing of them only committing the murders when they found out they were going to be left out of the will seems to suggest otherwise.”

Gascón, who polls show is trailing in his bid to be re-elected, recently began speaking publicly about his office's role in the case as it reviews the new evidence.

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

Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School who specializes in criminal cases, said her release is far from assured despite the high public interest in the case.

“The court of public opinion may provide some moral support to the defendants, but the decision will be made by the court,” Levenson said. “No one should confuse this with significant legal issues that need to be resolved in court.”

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

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

“I want to make sure there was no wrongdoing in prison. I want to see what steps they have taken to become a better person,” he said.

Although Gascón said he is still considering whether to recommend a resentencing, his public statements increasingly suggest he is open to it.

“We are still in the review process,” he said. “But if they are actually ready to be reintegrated into society after 35 years of good behavior, then I think that is appropriate.”