Posted on 01/14/2022 8:51:35 AM PST by nickcarraway
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday reversed the state parole board's decision to grant parole to Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of killing Robert F. Kennedy more than 50 years ago, saying he remains a threat to society.
Sirhan was convicted and originally sentenced to death but was commuted to life in prison for fatally shooting Sen. Robert Kennedy, the former attorney general under his brother, President John F. Kennedy, on June 5, 1968, at the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel. Five bystanders were also shot, all of whom survived.
The presidential hopeful was slain in front of his family, friends and media after winning the California Democratic presidential primary, and his death sent shockwaves across the nation still reeling from the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. nine weeks earlier and that of his brother while a sitting president in 1963.
After more than five decades in jail, Sirhan was recommend for parole in late August during his 16th hearing that was absent a prosecutor for the first time following the abolishment of the longstanding practice for one to appear at parole hearings to argue against the release of inmates.
Newsom said he decided to reverse the parole board's decision following an extensive review of Sirhan's case, finding he "poses an unreasonable danger to society."
Sirhan, 77, refuses to accept responsibility for his crime, fails to disclaim violence committed in his name and has not done enough to mitigate his risk factors, Newsome said.
"After decades in prison, Mr. Sirhan has failed to address the deficiencies that led him to assassinate Sen. Kennedy," Newsom wrote in the order. "Mr. Sirhan lacks the insight that would prevent him from making the same types of dangerous decisions he made in the past."
As evidence, Newsom pointed to Sirhan's "shifting narrative" of the crime as he stated in court that he killed Robert Kennedy to telling a board psychologist that he didn't intend to commit homicide but only sought attention to "the plight of his fellow countrymen." In a 1985 parole hearing, he blamed alcohol for the crimes and in 2021, portrayed himself the victim of being "in the wrong spot at the wrong time," the order states.
The shooting coincided on the one-year anniversary of the Six-Day War, and he has said he committed the crime in objection to Kennedy's support of Israel.
In an op-ed published Thursday in the Los Angeles Times, Newsom explained Sirhan remains a potent symbol of political violence and in the past terrorists have taken hostages, some of whom were killed, in his name -- acts Sirhan has not tried to distance himself from.
"Recently Sirhan laughingly dismissed the current relevance of his status as an ideological lightning rod," Newsom wrote in the paper. "He does not understand, let alone have the skills to manage, the complex risks of his self-created notoriety. He cannot be safely released from prison because he has not mitigated his risk of fomenting further political violence."
The family of Robert Kennedy issued a statement of gratitude for Newsom's decision to deny parole, stating without identifying Sirhan by name that he must "transform himself" and that time alone is not a measure of rehabilitation for premeditated murder.
They said the pain of reliving Robert Kennedy's last moments is "simply unbearable" and instead of contrition Sirhan seems to suggest the time he has spent in jail is enough punishment for his crimes.
"The political passions that motivated this inmate's act still simmer today, and his refusal to admit the truth makes it impossible to conclude that he has overcome the evil that boiled over 53 years ago," they said. "After decades in prison for a horrific crime, it is difficult to imagine that he ever will. He remains a danger to public safety and must continue to be incarcerated for the protection of the community."
Probably afraid of what Sirhan will reveal about how the Democrats paid him to kill Bobby Kennedy.
Too bad the CIA shrinks who created Sirhan aren’t in there with him.
Do democrats even know what a “shifting narrative” means?
Surprising.
Or he just didn’t want to be known as the governor who let a prominent assassin go.
Did Rosey Grier chime in?
Newsom actually did the right thing. I’m a little surprised.
It’s hard to imagine living 50 years in prison.
No, but he probably will get a “Profiles in Courage” Award from the Kennedys.
The Kennedy’s are no longer relevant.
.
Hard as he tries, not even Gavin Newsom can be wrong 100% of the time.
Gavin Newsom has more sense than the PAROLE BOARD!
That is a disturbing thought.
This is just about the only thing that clown has done right since coming into office!
The only one who is relevant is Bobby Jr., "Dr." Fauci's nemesis.
“Probably afraid of what Sirhan will reveal about how the Democrats paid him to kill Bobby Kennedy.”
He didn’t do it. He was in front of Kennedy and the shot that killed him came from his back and struck him in the scull.
The location of Kennedy’s wounds suggested that his assailant had stood behind him, while witnesses assert that Sirhan faced west as Kennedy moved through the pantry facing east. (This was supported by the Guardian from London)
This has led to the suggestion that a second gunman actually fired the fatal shot, a possibility supported by Thomas Noguchi, the Chief Medical Examiner and Coroner for the County of Los Angeles, who stated that the fatal shot was behind Kennedy’s right ear and had been fired at a distance of approximately one inch. Sirhan never got that close and was facing the the wrong direction.
On February 22, 2012, Sirhan’s lawyers William Francis Pepper and Laurie Dusek filed a court brief in District Court in Los Angeles claiming that a second gunman fired the shots that killed Kennedy. It was the fourth and final in a series of federal briefs filed under the writ of habeas corpus by Pepper and Dusek beginning in October 2010. It was denied without investigation.
wy69
In the same vein and from the same period of time James Earl Rya’s rifle was framed as being the murder weapon used to kill MLK Jr. all while forensic testing was unable to link it to the crime and, to at least some extent, actually ruled it out as being the murder weapon.
https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/JohnJudge/MLKrifle.html
I do not recall ever reading that Sirhan shot five other
people.
News to me, too.
Aw, he’s not a threat to society. Just to another would-be tyrant. Newsom is a moron, but not an idiot. At least on this.
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