Erik Menendez, who along with his brother was recently resentenced in the gruesome 1989 shotgun murders of his parents, has been taken to a hospital and diagnosed with a medical condition, according to news reports.

Menendez, 54, was diagnosed with a "serious medical condition," his attorney Mark Geragos told NBC News and TMZ. ABC News also confirmed that Menendez was in the hospital with his family. Geragos called for his client's release via a medical furlough in an interview with TMZ.

The news comes weeks before Erik and Lyle Menendez, 57, are scheduled for a parole hearing on Aug. 21 after they were each resentenced earlier this year to 50 years to life, opening up the possibility of parole and a path to freedom. The two have most recently been incarcerated at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California, according to prison records.

Erik Menendez, right, is pictured with brother Lyle during court proceedings on May 17, 1991.

The brothers were convicted of the murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. They were convicted in 1996 after unsuccessfully arguing that they acted in self-defense after suffering through years of physical and sexual abuse.

USA TODAY has reached out to the Menendez brothers' attorney and the California Department of Corrections for comment.

What happened in the 1989 murder?

The brothers were convicted in 1996 of the slaying of their parents, who were shot to death in their Beverly Hills home on the evening of Aug. 29, 1989. Their conviction came during a retrial, after a first murder trial ended with an undecided jury. To secure a conviction the second time, substantial evidence of the abuse the brothers said they suffered at the hands of their parents was excluded, their attorneys have argued.

In the first trial, the brothers testified that their father subjected them to horrific physical and sexual abuse while their mother emotionally battered them. Their attorneys argued that the men – Lyle was 21 and Erik was 18 at the time of the murders – killed their parents out of self-defense, because they believed, perhaps irrationally, that their parents were going to kill them to stop them from exposing the abuse.

Prosecutors claimed the brothers were lying about the abuse and were motivated to kill their parents by the $15 million fortune they hoped to obtain, and pointed to a lavish spending spree the pair went on after the murders.

The case received a wave of public support after the release of a Netflix documentary titled "The Menendez Brothers" and a dramatized portrayal of their story last year. Members of their family have also publicly supported the brothers' release and said they have forgiven them.

The brothers' long fight for their freedom

The resentencing in May was decades in the making, and just one of the several paths toward freedom pursued by the brothers, who were originally serving prison terms of life without the possibility of parole.

The effort for their release included a series of setbacks when the Los Angeles district attorney who supported their resentencing, George Gascón, lost his reelection bid to a DA who vehemently opposed it, Nathan Hochman. Multiple court delays culminated in a judge issuing them the new sentence of 50 years to life. They had also pursued a clemency application.

Parole suitability hearings are scheduled for Aug. 21 and 22 for the brothers, according to prison records.