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Erik Menendez was denied parole this week after spending more than 30 years in prison. The California parole board found that Erik, who was convicted with his brother Lyle for the 1989 murders of their parents, would be “an unreasonable risk to public safety” if released.

This week’s parole hearing lasted nearly 10 hours and included testimonies on Erik’s rehabilitation, his behavior in prison, and reasons for and against his release. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office recommended the parole board reject Erik’s request, while more than a dozen family members testified in his support. Ultimately, the parole board agreed with the prosecutors and cited Erik’s criminal history as a teen, the nature of the crime, and “serious violations” while in prison as the basis for its decision.

Erik, who is now in his 50s, will be eligible to petition for parole in three years. In the board’s explanation of its decision, Parole Commissioner Robert Barton said the ruling was “not solely because of the nature of the murders you committed.” It was also, he said, based on Erik’s behavior in prison.

“One can be a risk to public safety in many ways, with various types of criminal conduct, including the offenses you were guilty of in prison,” Barton told Erik. He advised him to make greater use of his “great support network” to avoid future violations.

Erik had accumulated nine rule violations since he began serving his sentence, according to the Los Angeles Times, including possessing drugs and contraband such as a cell phone and lighter. Several correctional employees wrote in his support as a “model inmate,” but Barton said that may not fit Erik’s history of violations. Erik told the board he only started to believe that his release was possible a year ago and that his “consequential thinking” was affected as a result.

Many of the family members who testified in his support were in tears. They spoke of the suffering, loss, and discord the killings had caused their family for more than three decades. However, many family members also said they were able to forgive Erik. “To say that our family has experienced pain does not quite capture what the last 35 years have been like,” Tiffani Lucero-Pastor, great-niece to the Menendez brothers’ mother, Kitty, said at the hearing. “It has divided us. It has caused us panic and anxiety.”

Other family members argued that Kitty’s refusal to believe there was any abuse occurring in the home only deepened the brothers’ terror. Karen Mae Vandermolen-Copley, Kitty’s niece, said Kitty’s “absence of protection deepened their fear and confusion.” The only family member known to be against parole was Kitty’s brother, Milton Andersen, who died earlier this year.

The family said in a statement after the parole board’s ruling that it was disappointed in the decision but respected it. “Our belief in Erik remains unwavering,” the statement read. “His remorse, growth, and the positive impact he’s had on others speak for themselves. We will continue to stand by him and hold to the hope he can return home soon.”

Lyle Menendez to Face Parole Hearing, Governor Holds Final Say

Erik was not the only Menendez brother to seek parole on Wednesday. Erik’s older brother, Lyle, will face the parole board on Friday as well. He, too, will have the chance to make his case for release and have the parole board consider his rehabilitation and prison record.

Lyle has fewer disciplinary violations than Erik, but his behavior during the killings may make a difference with the parole board. In 1993, Lyle testified in court that he shot both of their parents multiple times at close range with a shotgun. Barton also noted this week that Lyle’s mother’s death “was devoid of human compassion.”

The parole board may also be skeptical of Lyle’s claims of abuse against their father. He has given inconsistent accounts of the abuse throughout the years, and at one point was accused of asking his girlfriend to lie about their father drugging and raping her.

Lyle also has strong family support, including family members who have said they plan to testify on his behalf. As the Los Angeles Times put it, Lyle faces “a cross-examination in public with his fate in the hands of the board and California’s governor, whom experts say are unlikely to overrule the board on such a high-profile matter.”