A two-person panel of the California Board of Parole Hearings on Friday recommended for parole Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of assassinating Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.
Sirhan was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the killing of RFK. Sirhan’s sentence was reduced to life with the possibility of parole when California abolished the death penalty. Parole Board Commissioner Robert Barton said, “if you were sentenced to life without parole that would be a different matter, but you were sent to life with parole.”
This is Sirhan’s 16th request for parole, and it is the first time a prosecutor did not stand to oppose the release of Sirhan. Some progressive prosecutors are seeking, rather than opposing, the release of individuals who have been incarcerated for decades, no longer pose a threat to society, and will be costly to treat medically in their later years.
Under laws passed in 2018, the parole board was required to consider Sirhan’s childhood trauma from conflict in the Middle East, the fact he committed the offense at a young age and is now elderly. Barton acknowledged that Sirhan is not likely to reoffend and does not pose an unreasonable threat to society.
The parole board will review the ruling over the next 90 days, after which it will be sent to Governor Gavin Newsom who has another 30 days to approve, reverse, or modify the ruling. If released, Sirhan will be required to spend six months in a transitional home and additionally must attend an alcohol abuse program and therapy.
Two of RFK’s sons supported Sirhan’s release. Douglas Kennedy told the panel, “I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love.” Similarly, Robert Kennedy Jr. said, “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.”
However, six others of Kennedy’s nine surviving children urged Newsom to reverse the parole board’s decision stating: “[Sirhan] took our father from our family and he took him from America. … We are in disbelief that this man would be recommended for release.”
