High-profile US prisoner Erik Menendez has been denied parole, more than three decades after he and his brother Lyle slaughtered their parents in the family's luxury Beverly Hills home.

A California panel ordered the 54-year-old to stay in prison on Thursday, defying a lengthy campaign waged by family, friends and celebrities like Kim Kardashian. Lyle's hearing on Friday is independent of his brother's.

"Erik Menendez was denied parole for three years at his initial suitability hearing today," the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a brief statement.

The result will be a huge blow to a movement that has swelled in recent years, nourished by documentaries and TV dramas, including the smash Netflix hit "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story".

It comes the day before Lyle Menendez, 57, will appear before a panel to ask them to release him from prison.

The men are among America's most celebrated prisoners, and the stars of one of the first-ever televised murder trials.

Blockbuster hearings in the 1990s were told how the men killed Jose and Kitty Menendez in what prosecutors said was a cynical attempt to get their hands on a large family fortune.

After setting up alibis and trying to cover their tracks, Erik and Lyle shot Jose Menendez five times with shotguns, including in the kneecaps. Kitty Menendez died from a shotgun blast as she tried desperately to crawl away from her killers.

The brothers initially blamed the deaths on a mafia hit, but changed their story several times in the ensuing months. Erik, then 18, confessed to the murders in a session with his therapist.

The pair ultimately claimed they had acted in self-defence after years of emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of a tyrannical father.

During their decades in prison, changing social mores and greater awareness of sexual abuse helped elevate the men to something approaching cultural icons.

Erik Menendez appeared by video link from the San Diego prison where he and his brother are being held.

The parole hearing became possible when a judge earlier this year resentenced the men, reducing their original full-life tariff to one of 50-years with the possibility of release.

Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman said he would oppose parole. He has insisted that the men's shifting explanations for the double deaths – they gave five different accounts in the course of the murder investigation – means they have not truly admitted their guilt. (AFP)