Menendez brothers face potential parole after life sentence shift

Interestingly, no trial will be needed. The judge will be asked to resentence them. "We are going to recommend to the court [on Friday] that the life without the possibility of parole be removed and they would be sentenced for murder. But because of their age -- they both were under 26 at the time of the crimes -- they would be eligible for parole immediately," emphasised the prosecutor.

The prosecutor stressed that Eric and Lyle committed a terrible act, but 30 years ago, the circumstances that drove them were not considered. "When you look at the case of the Menendez brothers, you see two very young people. One was 19 and the other was 21 when they committed these horrible acts. And I want to underline they were horrible acts. There is no excuse for murder, and I will never imply that what we are doing here it to excuse that behavior. Because even if you get abused, the right path is to call the police and seek help. But I understand also how sometimes people get desperate. …And I do believe the brothers were subjected to a tremendous amount of dysfunction in the home," added Gascon.

Eric and Lyle Menendez came into the spotlight again because of the series "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story" by Ryan Murphy. The production stayed in Netflix's top 10 worldwide for a long time. On 20th August 1989, Erik and Lyle shot their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion. Initially, no one suspected them of murder. Investigators circled around the mafia theory due to the Menendez family's considerable wealth. The brothers confessed to their psychologist, who in turn told his lover. And that's how it was revealed that the sons murdered their father and mother. The trial lasted several years and ended in 1996, with the brothers being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

During the trial, the brothers testified that they were abused by their father from early childhood until the time of his death.