Calif. parole board votes to release RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan
Fate of RFK’s assassin in hands of California governor
SAN DIEGO — California’s parole board voted Friday to free Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin after two of RFK’s sons went against several of their siblings’ wishes and said they supported releasing him. But the governor ultimately will decide if Sirhan Sirhan leaves prison.
Douglas Kennedy was a toddler when his father was gunned down in 1968. He told a two-person board panel that he was moved to tears by Sirhan’s remorse and that the 77-year-old should be released if he’s not a threat to others.
“I’m overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr. Sirhan face to face,” he said. “I’ve lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love.”
But six of Kennedy’s nine surviving children said they were shocked by the vote and urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to reverse the parole board’s decision and keep Sirhan behind bars.
“He took our father from our family and he took him from America,” the six siblings wrote in a statement late Friday. “We are in disbelief that this man would be recommended for release.”
The statement was signed by Joseph P. Kennedy II, Courtney Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Christopher G. Kennedy, who ran for Illinois governor in 2018, Maxwell T. Kennedy and Rory Kennedy.
But another sibling, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has spoken in favor of Sirhan’s release in the past and wrote in favor of paroling him. He said in the letter that he met him in prison and was moved by Sirhan, “who wept, clinching my hands, and asked for forgiveness.”
“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,” he said in a letter submitted during the hearing to the board.
Sirhan, whose hair is now white, smiled, thanked the board and gave a thumbs-up after the decision to grant parole was announced. It was a major victory in his 16th attempt at parole after he’s served 53 years. But it does not assure his release.
The ruling will be reviewed over the next 120 days by the board’s staff. Then it will be sent to the governor, who will have 30 days to decide whether to grant it, reverse it or modify it. If Sirhan is freed, he must live in a transitional home for six months, enroll in an alcohol abuse program and get therapy.
Robert F. Kennedy, a U.S. senator from New York, was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination when he was gunned down at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Five others were wounded.
Sirhan, a Christian Palestinian from Jordan, has acknowledged he was angry at Kennedy for his support of Israel. Sirhan insists he doesn’t remember the shooting and had been drinking alcohol beforehand. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, but that sentence was commuted to life when the California Supreme Court briefly outlawed capital punishment in 1972. If released, he could be deported to Jordan.
On Friday, Sirhan again said he didn’t recall the killing, but he attempted to show he takes responsibility for the harm he caused.
“Sen. Kennedy was the hope of the world … and I harmed all of them and it pains me to experience that, the knowledge for such a horrible deed, if I did in fact do that,” said Sirhan, appearing on camera from a San Diego County prison at the virtual proceeding.