When a two-person Calif. Parole Board panel recommended the release of Robert F. Kennedy’s 77-year-old assassin Sirhan Sirhan Aug. 27, it created an uproar, largely because two of RFK’s surving sons, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Douglas Kennedy, agreed with the parole board to release the convicted assassin. Whatever reasons RFK Jr. or his brother have with “compassion” or whatever, it serves no one to release a heinous criminal that single-handedly changed U.S. history June 6, 1968. Much has been written about RFK’s assassination but eyewitnesses like former NFL player Rafer Johnson witnessed Sirhan Sirhan pull the trigger, wresting the 24-year-old Palestinian to the ground for his arrest. Yet with all the controversy around RFK’s brother, President John F. Kennedy, you’d think RFK’s death was cut-and-dried. Yet 67-year-old RFK Jr. says he doesn’t believe Sirhan Sirhan pulled the trigger.
RFK’s other son, 66-year-old, Douglas Kennedy, admits that he’s feared Sirhan Sirhan his entire life but somehow developed “compassion” for the man that killed his father. Several other of RFK surviving children all oppose his release from prison largely on grounds that Sirhan Sirhan took their father’s life, an unforgivable act. RFK’s widow, 93-year-old Ethel Kennedy penned a letter to the California Parole Board urging them to not release Sirhan from prison. Sirhan was originally given the death penalty but it was overturned in 1972 by former California Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Bird, earning Sirhan Sirhan and inadvertent reprieve of life-in-prison. But because Sirhan didn’t receive a life sentence, his parole attorney Angela Berry argues the parole board should release him on parole. Whatever the legal arguments or emotional pleas from RFK’s family, there’s more at stake.
Ethel Kennedy’s statements pleads with the California Parole Board to rescind the two-person panel recommending parole for Sirhan Sirhan. “Our family and our country suffered an unspeakable loss due the inhumanity of one man. We believe in the gentleness that spared his life, but in taming his act of violence, he should not have the opportunity to terrorize again,” Ethel said in statement from the Kennedy Family for Justice organization. “He should not be paroled,” Ethel’s statement said. But the two-person panel concluded, based on reports from prison, that Sirhan Sirhan isn’t likely to commit another heinous act. So when it comes to any decision about his release, the Kennedy Family for Justice Foundation should argue it’s not in the interest of American justice to release a political assassin. Whether Sirhan’s evaluated as “safe-for-release,” is not the overriding issue.
Political assassinations, for whatever reason, carry special circumstances that do not permit parole because of the particular heinous nature of the act to stop a political candidate or political movement. RFK led a fierce political movement running for the Democrat Party’s nominee in 1968. With the Vietnam War raging, practically tearing the country apart, RFK stood as a beacon of sanity to the young generation tired to going to their graves in Vietnam. President Lyndon Johnson (D-Tx.) escalated U.S. involvement after the assassination of John F. Kennedy Nov. 22, 1963. Five years later, Vietnam was tearing the country apart. RFK offered hope to the anti-war generation to end the Vietnam War at the earliest possible time. With Sirhan Sirhan snuffing out RFK, President Richard Nixon escalated the war, believing his Defense Secretary Robert McNamara that the war could be won.
Nixon didn’t throw in the towel on Vietnam until 1973, right before he was eventually hounded out of office because of Watergate. Whatever the history, Sirhan Sirhan’s bullet changed American history, eventually leading to the Vietnam death toll of over 58,000. While it’s pure speculation, RFK might have saved untold numbers of lost American lives. When the full Parole Board makes a recommendation about Sirhan’s parole to 53-year-old Gov. Gavin Newsom, if he survives the Sept. 14 recall, they should reject the ill-advised two-member panel. Ethel’s plea, while heartfelt, misses the point. Sirhan Sirhan should not be paroled whether or not he’s rehabilitated, it’s about the crime he committed. Assassinating a presidential candidate carries special circumstances prevent any release regardless of rehabilitation. No political assassin should be released from prison now or ever.
Robert Kennedy Jr. and Douglas Kennedy are entitled to their opinions but they’re not entitled to turn the U.S. criminal justice system on its head. Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian, admitted to killing RKF because he didn’t like his support for Israel. But no matter how crazy Sirhan Sirhan was at 24-year-old, his prison sentence is not about serving out his time on good behavior. Recent interviews with Sirhan indicate he has no recollection of killing RFK, leaving him unable to express remorse for his crime. But he tells the parole board that he has sympathy for anyone who’s the victim of any crime. At the time of his trial, Sirhan was diagnosed by defense psychiatrists as schizophrenic. Judging by his recollection of events, he sounds just as crazy. California’s full Parole Board must do the right thing and deny Sirhan Sirhan parole for his abhorrent place in U.S. history.