The man convicted of shooting dead Robert F. Kennedy in a 1968 assassination that rocked the United States was granted parole Friday. Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian refugee convicted of assassinating US presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy in 1968, has been granted release by a California parole board. He had tried on 15 previous occasions to be released from the life sentence imposed five decades earlier.
The vote on Friday by a two-person panel of the California parole board does not mean that Sirhan will automatically be released. Despite the recommendation for release, the board’s decision could be reversed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will determine if the grant is consistent with public safety, a process that could take a few months. Kennedy, the New York senator and brother of President John F Kennedy was a Democratic presidential candidate when he was shot dead June 6, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after delivering a victory speech in the pivotal California primary. Sirhan was convicted and sentenced to death in 1969 after pleading guilty to the murder. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment several years later. Sirhan arrived at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in May 1969 after being convicted of first-degree murder and assault with intent to murder. Sirhan has said he had no recollection of the killing, although he has also said he fired at Kennedy because he was enraged by his support for Israel.
