Status: 01/14/2022 08:55 a.m
Even after more than 50 years, the murderer of Robert Kennedy – the brother of ex-President John F. Kennedy – remains in prison. A parole board recommended his parole, but the governor of California turned it down.
The murderer of US politician Robert F. Kennedy, who has been imprisoned for more than five decades, will not be released on parole. Contrary to the advice of a parole board, the governor of the US state of California has rejected the conditional release of Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Robert Kennedy.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has rejected the parole of Robert Kennedy’s killer. Sirhan is still a “threat”.
Image: REUTERS
Still a “threat to public safety”
Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement that the 77-year-old still poses a “threat to public safety” and refuses “to accept responsibility for this crime.” “Mr. Sirhan’s assassination of Senator Kennedy is among the most notorious crimes in American history,” he said. “After decades in prison, he still hasn’t fixed the mistakes that led to his assassination of Senator Kennedy.” Sirhan lacks the “necessary clarity to prevent him from making the same dangerous decisions as in the past”.
Jerusalem-born Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan was convicted in 1969 of the 1969 murder of the New York Senator, the younger brother of US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who had been assassinated five years earlier. The court found it proven that he had shot and killed Robert Kennedy on June 5, 1968 in Los Angeles – just hours after he had won the primary election in California to choose the Democratic US presidential nominee. The US judiciary assumed that Kennedy’s pro-Israel attitude was the motive of the then 24-year-old perpetrator.
Sirhan was sentenced to death, but in 1972 his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. In August 2021, the California Parole Board finally approved Sirhan Sirhan’s release from prison, after previously denying it 15 times. However, the final decision rests with the governor.
Kennedy-Wirtwe relieved about Newsom’s decision
Ethel Kennedy (93), widow of Robert F. Kennedy, and six of their eleven children were “deeply relieved” about Newsom’s decision in a joint statement.
Two Kennedy sons, on the other hand, spoke out in favor of Sirhan’s release. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote in a letter to the parole board in August that he believed his father recognized Sirhan’s impressive rehabilitation, the Los Angeles Times reported. Douglas Kennedy said prisoners should be released when they no longer pose a threat to themselves or others.
Kennedy killer is not released
Katharina Wilhelm, ARD Los Angeles, January 14, 2022 7:36 a.m