Calif. Gov. Newsom denies parole for Sirhan Sirhan, convicted of Robert F. Kennedy assassination [View all]
Source: Washington Post
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Thursday rejected parole for Sirhan Sirhan, the 77-year-old Palestinian immigrant who was convicted of the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.) in Los Angeles.
A two-member panel of the California parole board in August approved release for Sirhan after serving 53 years behind bars, and that ruling was then approved by the parole board’s legal staff.
But California voters amended their state constitution in 1988 to allow the governor to reverse decisions by the state Board of Parole Hearings for convicted murderers. Newsom elected to do so, saying in an op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times that Sirhan, after decades in prison "has failed to address the deficiencies that led him to assassinate Senator Kennedy. Mr. Sirhan lacks the insight that would prevent him from making the same types of dangerous decisions he made in the past.”
Kennedy’s wife, Ethel Kennedy, publicly declared her opposition to parole in September, and she was joined by six of her nine surviving children. They issued a statement Thursday evening welcoming Newsom’s decision. “We are greatly appreciative of the Governor’s consideration of the facts and his faithful application of the law,” the statement said. “His decision represents the vindication of the rule of law over all who would betray it with hatred and violence..., the Governor protects Californians and people around the world—and that is in the tradition, and faithful to the legacy, of Robert Kennedy. We are deeply grateful for this decision.”
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/13/sirhan-parole-denied/
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