Sirhan Sirhan was once again denied parole Wednesday at a hearing at a state prison in San Diego County to ask to be let out.
— A California panel on Wednesday denied parole for Robert F. Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan, saying the 78-year-old prisoner still lacks insight into what caused him to shoot the senator and presidential candidate in 1968.
The ruling was a reversal of the ruling two years ago by a different California parole board that voted to release Sirhan. But Gov. Gavin Newson rejected the decision in 2022.
Sirhan’s lawyer Angela Berry disputed he lacks insight, and his psychiatrists have said for decades that he is unlikely to reoffend or be a danger to society.
Berry said she believes the new board members on Wednesday were influenced by Newsom and by the lawyers representing Kennedy’s widow and some of his children.
In rejecting Sirhan’s freedom last year, the governor said the prisoner remains a threat to the public and hasn’t taken responsibility for a crime that changed American history.
I do feel the board bent to the political whim of the governor, Berry said after the hearing at a state prison in San Diego County.
Berry said the aging prisoner also wasn’t as articulate when he spoke to the board this time. The board recommended Sirhan do more work to better understand what makes a person a political assassin, she said.
The parole board hearing comes nearly six months after Berry asked a Los Angeles County judge to reverse Newsom’s denial.
