The Menendez brothers will present their cases for parole, marking the closest they have come to securing freedom since their convictions nearly 30 years ago for murdering their parents.

Erik and Lyle Menendez were sentenced in 1996 to life imprisonment 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. Defense attorneys argued the brothers acted in self-defense after years of sexual abuse by their father; prosecutors claimed they murdered 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 possibility of parole to 50 years to life, making them immediately eligible under California law because they were under 26 when they committed their crimes.

A panel of two or three parole hearing officers will evaluate the brothers individually. Erik Menendez will have his hearing Thursday morning, followed by Lyle Menendez on Friday, via video conference from prison in San Diego.

If the board grants parole, a 120-day review period will follow. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom then has 30 days to affirm or deny the parole.