Posted on 03/14/2006 6:14:46 PM PST by mathprof
Robert F. Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, comes up for parole again this week in a potential conflict for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is married to RFK's niece.
Sirhan shot Kennedy to death at a Los Angeles hotel in 1968, minutes after the New York senator claimed victory in the California presidential primary. Sirhan received a death sentence, which was commuted to life in prison in 1972 when the California Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional.
The assassin's parole hearing at Corcoran State Prison on Wednesday - the 13th since his conviction and the first since Schwarzenegger's election in 2003 - will be heard by two board members, one of whom was appointed by Schwarzenegger.
If the board recommends his release - and that is unlikely, experts say - the decision of whether to free Sirhan will fall to Schwarzenegger, setting up an unusual dilemma.
"Judges can recuse themselves, but this is not the kind of decision a governor can delegate," said Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College.
The governor's press office declined to comment, saying it is highly unlikely the decision would fall to Schwarzenegger.
Sirhan's longtime lawyer died last year, and he has not chosen a new attorney.
Sirhan doesn't plan to present his own case, and if he doesn't choose a lawyer the board will make its decision without a public hearing, prison officials said.
Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney David Dahle, who will argue the state's case before the parole board, said there is little chance the decision would fall to the Republican governor. He conceded there is at least the appearance of a conflict.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
I know. I just wanted my point to be crystal clear
So I guess you think Sirhan did us a favor?
No. I think God allowed matters to proceed in such a way to spare this country another kennedy presidency. If it wasn't S.S. it would have been a car wreck or something.
For his safety he'd better hope he never gets out. Some nutcase will kill him. If they let him out they should let Charlie Manson out too!
I hope he dies in prison.
This should be shown to anyone who says there's such a thing as "life in prison" as an alternative to the death penalty.
There is certainly a Stockholm Syndrome among Palestinian Christians.
Pierre Rehov-an amazing Algerian-French filmmaker-has made some stunning films documenting the extreme plight of Christians living in the Holy Land and the Middle East.
As you all must know, it was this murder which was directly responsible for all the clamp-downs on gun ownership, i.e., the 1968 Gun Control Act.
And their "extreme plight" is at the hands of Muslims, I take it. (One can never tell with an Algerian-French filmmaker.)
I certainly do care about what Sirhan did, I remember the RFK assassination very well and have no desire to ever see him set free. But I've also never seen anyone claim that Sirhan was Muslim- Islam wasn't a point of controversy in 1968 so there was no motive for hiding any Muslim connection.
Daniel Pipes is a serious scholar who definitely would be interested in an Islamic connection- and he says Sirhan was raised Christian. Where is your evidence from concerning Sirhan's parents hiding a Muslim connection? They weren't even in America as I recall.
He was actually in the financial world, but became more politically active after witnessing the blood libel known as "Jenin, Jenin" win almost universal accolades from European and Western elites.
That sounds correct to me. Palestinian Christians are sometimes opposed to Israel, which can come as a surprise to Americans accustomed to being sympathetic to Israel. Some of the older Arab terrorist organizations were socialist in foundation rather than Islamic and could easily have had 'Christian' members.
Radical Islamic terrorism grew out of different roots than the other groups, but may be making common cause or alliances of convenience.
Bobby Kennedy has his own message going at the time, and it was powerful. He came very far in a very short time.
George Habash and Yasser Arafat were the role models of Osama Bin Laden, even if he refuses to concede this in public.
Sirhan was ethnically or culturally Christian, it's not a commentary on his behavior.
Osama's mentors were likely the Egyptian Brotherhood, one of the early Islamic terrorist cells. That's the group that murdered Anwar Sadat in 1981.
So the fact that he was going to grow up to be an Islamic fanatic-and quite possibly, a terrorist-wasn't unexpected.
I hope he's getting some play, then. But European elites will not change anytime soon.
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