As the notorious Menendez brothers moved closer to freedom in Los Angeles despite serving life sentences without parole for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents, their defense team and more than a dozen family members gathered outside the city’s Hall of Justice on Wednesday to greet the district attorney George Gascón is pushing for a new sentence that could see her released before the end of the year.

After a mistrial, the brothers were convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A resentencing under California’s new laws could be controversial because the district attorney overseeing her case is up for re-election in less than a month.

But the brothers’ lawyers argue they should have been convicted of manslaughter and not murder. If they had, they would have already been released from prison.

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An undated photo of the Menendez family as it appears on the screen during a panel discussion at CrimeCon 2024 in Nashville on June 2. Brothers Lyle and Erik were convicted in the fatal shooting of their parents in 1989. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)

Earlier this year, they filed two requests for release – a habeas petition asking a court to consider new evidence and a petition to Gascon under the new law that gives district attorneys the power to make resentencing recommendations .

Erik and Joseph “Lyle” Menendez, the sons of former RCA Records executive Jose Menendez and his wife Mary “Kitty” Menendez, have been in prison since the 1990s after killing their parents in a 1989 shotgun massacre at their Beverly Hills mansion had killed.

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Erik Menendez (center) and his brother Lyle (left) are pictured in Beverly Hills on August 12, 1991, after being accused of killing their parents Jose and Mary Louise Menendez. (Mike Nelson/AFP via Getty Images)

They accused her father of sexual abuse and fired so many shots that they had to return to the car to reload before firing the shot that killed her mother, who authorities said had tried to escape after being wounded.

The crime scene was so bloody that one of the crime scene investigators previously told Fox News Digital that a detective held an umbrella over his head to block the dripping blood and guts.

“It comes down to one thing,” retired Beverly Hills forensic scientist Clark Fogg said earlier this month. “The reason they are in prison is because they brutally killed their mother and father, not poisoned them, but shot them to the point where they were up to the ceiling.”

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The Menendez brothers – Erik (left) and Lyle – on the steps of their Beverly Hills home in November 1989. (Ronald L. Soble/Los Angeles Times)

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At the heart of their appeal is a letter revealed earlier this year from Erik Menendez to his cousin Andy Cano, which was allegedly written months before the murders and contains evidence that their father was sexually abusing the sender when they killed him.

Cano testified in court that his cousin told him about the abuse when he was just 13 years old, but prosecutors downplayed the sexual abuse allegations, saying the brothers simply wanted to live a lavish lifestyle with their inheritance and pointed to everything they bought after the murders included a Porsche, Rolex watches and a restaurant.

According to Geragos, the letter supports Cano’s statement.

Pictured is a letter purportedly written by Erik Menendez and sent to his cousin Andy Cano eight months before the murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez. (Supreme Court of the State of California, Los Angeles County)

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Cano’s mother found the letter in 2015. He died in 2003.

Gascón has signaled for months that he may be willing to reduce her sentence.

If they are resentenced to anything less than life in prison without parole, they could be eligible for parole immediately.

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“This is not a political matter. This is about truth, justice and healing,” said Anamaria Baralt, Jose Menendez’s niece and a cousin of the brothers. “Lyle and Erik deserve a chance to heal, and our family deserves a chance to heal with them.”

An archive photo shows Lyle and Erik Menendez in prison jumpsuits during their murder trial in Los Angeles. (Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty Images)

She and more than a dozen relatives of the brothers and their slain parents attended Wednesday’s news conference to support their release.

Many of them argued that if the trial had taken place today, the evidence of Jose Menendez’s abusive treatment of his sons would have formed a larger part of their defense and therefore they could have received lighter sentences.

The Menendez brothers are now both in their 50s.

They were 21 and 18 years old at the time of the murders.

Attorney Mark Geragos speaks to members of the Menendez family during a news conference to announce developments in the case of brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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Between 2005 and early this year, Geragos said, they exhausted all possible legal remedies and resigned themselves to the idea that they would never be released. Both were model prisoners during this time, he said.

“You could pursue this in two ways,” he told reporters. “Either you could just become a hardcore or, more unforgiving, recidivist, or you could do what they did, which was create programs, mentor people, develop great programs, mentor people, go to college and get degrees.”

After the briefing, the family was scheduled to meet with Gascon’s office as part of their search for a resentencing. If they are resentenced, they could be home by Thanksgiving, Geragos said. If they are successful in their separate petition for a writ of habeas corpus, they could face new trials.

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Fox News’ Audrey Conklin, Mollie Markowitz and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.