LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Menendez brothers are set to make their cases for parole starting Thursday, marking the closest they've been to winning freedom from prison since their convictions almost 30 years ago for murdering their parents.

Erik and Lyle Menendez were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison for fatally shooting their father, Jose Menendez, and mother, Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989 . They were 18 and 21 at the time. While defense attorneys argued the brothers acted out of self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father, prosecutors said the brothers killed their parents for a multimillion-dollar inheritance.

The brothers became eligible for parole after a Los Angeles judge in May reduced their sentences from life in prison without the possibi

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