LOS ANGELES: A fresh attempt by a man convicted of assassinating Robert Kennedy in 1968 to break out of prison was rejected in California on Wednesday.
Even though there are questions about who really changed the course of American politics, Sirhan Sirhan, now 78, has been incarcerated for more than 50 years.
Kennedy, the younger brother of slain President John F. Kennedy, was shot and killed in a Los Angeles hotel while actively seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.
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The California board on Wednesday rejected Sirhan's most recent application for parole. He first became eligible for parole in 1972. His release was approved by a different board for August 2021, but California Governor Gavin Newsom overturned it in January of the following year.
At the time, Democratic Party leader Newsom said Sirhan was "an unreasonable threat to public safety." They claimed that the decision was taken for a number of reasons, "including Mr. Sirhan's refusal to accept responsibility for his crime."
After being convicted, Sirhan was found guilty and sentenced to death in 1969. A few years later, however, his sentence was commuted to life in prison.
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Since Sirhan's trial, when it was revealed that Kennedy was shot at point-blank range from behind while Sirhan was allegedly standing in front of him, questions have been raised about Sirhan's guilt. Later, it was discovered that up to 13 shots could be fired, but Sirhan's gun could only fire eight rounds.
Kennedy's son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited Sirhan in prison because of his doubts about the decision. In 2018, he told the Washington Post, "I went there because I was curious and troubled by what I saw in the evidence. The possibility that the wrong person could be convicted of my father's murder troubled me."
He and his youngest brother, Douglas, supported an effort to secure Sirhan's release in 2021. Sirhan, a Palestinian immigrant, claimed at the time of the assassination that Kennedy's support of arms sales to Israel motivated him to commit the assassination.
He claimed, at a 2016 parole hearing, that his prior confession was the result of poor legal advice from his attorney and that he had consumed too much alcohol the night of the shooting.