Sirhan denied parole again

California parole officials rejected once again assassin Sirhan B. Sirhan's petition for release from his life prison sentence for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and the wounding of five other people in a Los Angeles hotel in 1968.

"The commissioners did a great job - bold, thorough, decisive," Eric M. George of Ellis George LLP, who opposed the parole on behalf of many Kennedy family members, said in a message after the Zoom hearing.

It was the 17th parole hearing for Sirhan, a Palestinian immigrant who killed Kennedy and wounded five others in the Ambassador Hotel on the night he won the California Democratic primary. Sirhan was sentenced to death, but it was commuted to life.

"Sirhan was found suitable for parole on Aug. 27, 2021, and Gov. Gavin Newsom reversed the parole suitability finding on Jan. 13, 2022," state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Officer Terri Hardy wrote in an email Friday. "On March 1, 2023, Sirhan was denied parole for three years. .... An administrative review of the denial resulted in advancing his hearing date. Today, on Aug. 16, 2024, Sirhan was denied parole for three years."

"It's a different panel every time," said Angela Berry, who has represented Sirhan since 2020. "But today they said he is still a danger. He's 80 years old and couldn't remember one of the six people that were shot -- their name readily -- and they used that against him."

Berry said she filed a petition with the California Supreme Court challenging the power of a governor to reverse a parole board decision, as happened in 2021, and said the court has asked the attorney general for an informal briefing.

George said, "The commissioners' comprehensive findings include that Mr. Sirhan continues to this day to dissemble and feign ignorance about his motives and actions in assassinating Senator Robert Kennedy."