LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles County judge is expected to begin hearing evidence in a Van Nuys courtroom Thursday that could give brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez their first chance at freedom in more than 35 years.

Defense attorney Mark Geragos will ask L.A. County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic to resentence the brothers to manslaughter in the execution-style slayings of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, citing years of sexual abuse allegedly suffered at the hands of their father.

The brothers were convicted of murder with special circumstances and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a 1995 trial.

Last year, then-L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón asked a judge to make the brothers eligible for parole under California law, reducing their sentences because the killings happened when they were under the age of 26. Gascón cited the brothers’ work creating rehabilitation programs in prison, their low-risk assessments by prison officials and potential new evidence about their father’s alleged abusive behavior as reasons they should be set free.

Current District Attorney Nathan Hochman strongly opposes their release and has focused his arguments on what he sees as the brothers’ refusal to take ownership of the grisly crime.

Late Wednesday, the district attorney’s office filed a motion asking to delay the hearing so it could obtain and review the latest risk assessment of the brothers conducted by the state parole board. The assessment was ordered this year by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is considering a separate petition from the brothers seeking clemency for the killings.

The report is not complete and will not be available until June, according to the governor’s office.

“Our office notified Judge Jesic of the status of this report, which is not a stand-alone risk assessment, and offered to share it with the court should he request it,” Newsom’s office said, describing the document as essentially a first draft.

Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse Thursday morning, Geragos dismissed Hochman’s motion as a Hail Mary attempt.

“If I was desperate and afraid of the truth, I’d do the same thing,” Geragos said.

Hochman, however, told reporters Thursday that his office received the first version of the risk assessment report Tuesday and has not had time to properly review it.

On Aug. 20, 1989, Erik and Lyle Menendez entered the family’s home armed with shotguns they bought with cash and opened fire while their parents were watching a movie. Jose Menendez was shot five times in the kneecaps and head. Kitty Menendez was crawling away, covered in blood, when one of the brothers hit her with a final, fatal shotgun blast.

Erik, then 18, confessed to the killings in a conversation with his therapist. While the brothers claimed Jose sexually abused them and was a threat to their lives, prosecutors contended they killed their parents to get early access to their multimillion-dollar inheritance.

A push to free the brothers gained steam last year after the release of a popular Netflix documentary about the case, which included the unearthing of additional documentation of Jose’s alleged sexual abuse. In a motion for a new trial, defense attorneys pointed to a letter Erik sent to one of his cousins detailing his father’s behavior, which was delivered eight months before the murders. The motion also contained a declaration from a member of the boy band Menudo who alleged Jose raped him when he was a teenager in 1984.

Nearly two dozen of the brothers’ loved ones have formed the Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition, a family-led group advocating for their freedom. The lone Menendez family member who opposed the brothers’ release died this year. The rest of the family has been in an increasingly tense dispute with Hochman over the case, accusing the district attorney of mistreating them in private meetings.

On Thurdsay morning, the extended Menendez family got out of three black SUVs and walked toward the courthouse surrounded by news crews holding cameras inches from their faces. A throng of reporters later swarmed Geragos and Hochman when they arrived at the court complex.

Geragos is expected to call several relatives as witnesses during the hearing, as well as a former inmate who was mentored by the brothers. A correctional supervisor who thinks so highly of one of the brothers that he wouldn’t mind if they were neighbors is also supposed to take the stand, Geragos said in open court last week.

It is unclear if the brothers will testify. Hochman said Thursday he was unsure if the district attorney’s office will call any witnesses.

Hochman, who accused Gascón of seeking resentencing in a desperate bid to boost his reelection campaign, last month announced his opposition to the brothers’ release. Hochman said Thursday that his office’s position on the brothers eligibility for resentencing is better described as “not yet,” rather than “no.”

“We have identified a pathway for the Menendez brothers to come forward, acknowledge all the lies they have told over the past 30 years. ... They can then say to the court we have come clean, we have been rehabilitated, we no longer constitute a danger to society,” he said.

Hochman and his prosecutors have argued that Gascón’s analysis of the case was paper-thin, questioned the validity of their self-defense claims and repeatedly insisted the brothers had lied about the circumstances of the shooting. Hochman has also said the brothers have not shown proper “insight” into their crimes.

At a hearing last week seeking to revoke Gascón’s petition, Jesic agreed with a defense argument that “insight” was not relevant to a resentencing petition. That standard applies only in a parole hearing, the judge said.

Hochman said Thursday he disagreed with part of that interpretation, arguing that parole and resentencing standards overlap. By continuing to “minimize their crimes,” Hochman said, the Menendez brothers have demonstrated they have not undergone rehabilitation, as it is defined by the state Supreme Court.

The hearing is expected to last two days, and it is unclear whether Jesic will immediately rule on Friday. If the brothers are resentenced, they could be on track for a parole hearing this year.

If Jesic rejects the petition, the brothers still have two routes to release: a motion for a new trial citing the additional sex abuse evidence and the clemency petition before Newsom.

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