An Unlikely Source Gives Kennedy Assassin Support For Parole

With the support of two of Robert F. Kennedy’s sons, California’s parole board voted Friday to give parole to the killer of the former US Attorney General.

Kennedy served as a Massachusetts senator and as US Attorney General during his older brother, John F. Kennedy’s, administration in the early 1960s, according to The Associated Press (AP). Sirhan Sirhan assassinated RFK on June 6, 1968, at the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel, minutes after he finished his California primary election victory speech.

Douglas and Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. convinced the panel to grant Sirhan parol more than half a century after their father’s assassination, claiming that his release would symbolize RFK’s “commitment to fairness and justice,” the site stated.

“I’m overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr. Sirhan face to face,” Douglas said. “I’ve lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I’m grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love.”

“While nobody can speak definitively on behalf of my father, I firmly believe that based on his own consuming commitment to fairness and justice, that he would strongly encourage this board to release Mr. Sirhan because of Sirhan’s impressive record of rehabilitation,” RFK Jr. wrote in a letter to the panel.

SAN DIEGO (@AP) — Robert F. Kennedy's assassin granted parole by California board after 2 of RFK's sons say they support his release.

— Stefanie Dazio (@steffdaz) August 27, 2021

Parole was met with widespread criticism from the Los Angeles Police Department and the general public, Parole Board Commissioner Robert Barton told the Associated Press. His attorney, Angela Berry, contended that the choice should be made on the basis of the person he is today, rather than his late 1960s acts.

Sirhan reportedly grinned, expressed gratitude to the board, and gave a thumbs-up following the panel’s approval of his 16th parole plea, the station stated. According to the AP, the board’s staff will evaluate the decision for 90 days before transferring it to Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will have 30 days to approve, disapprove, or amend the board’s approval.

Sirhan will spend six months in a transitional home if the governor agrees to the request. He will be obliged to enroll in an alcohol dependency program and receive counseling. Sirhan’s most recent hearing in 2016 determined that he lacked remorse and demonstrated an inability to comprehend the gravity of his crime.

Sirhan testified in 2011 that he has no recollection of shooting Kennedy but did recall being there. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death during his 1969 trial. According to the site, his death sentence was reversed as a result of the California Supreme Court’s 1972 decision to temporarily abolish capital punishment.