Sirhan Sirhan, who assassinated presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, is asking a judge on Wednesday to free him from prison by reversing California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s denial of his parole earlier this year.
Sirhan shot Kennedy moments after the U.S. senator from New York claimed victory in California’s pivotal Democratic presidential primary. He wounde🐈d five others during the shooting at the Ambassador Hotel inꦗ Los Angeles.
Newsom said in January that Si💞rhan to the public and hasn’t taken responsibility for a crime that .
But his attorney, Angela Berry, says there is no e⛎vide🌞nce her now 78-year-old client remains dangerous.
She is filing what’s known as a writ of habeas corpus asking a judge to rule that Newsom violated state law, which holds that inmates should be paroled unless they 🦄pose a current unreasonable public safety risk. Recent California laws also required the parole panel to consider that Sirhan committed the offense at a young age, when he was 24, and that he is now an elderly prisoner.
Berry said she is challenging the governor’s reversal as an “abuse of discretion,” a denial of Sirhan’s constitutional right to due process and as a violation of California law. It also allegeඣs that Newsom misstated the facts in his decision.
Berry said the governor “acted with personal bias, incorporated the wrong law, ignored mitigation evidence, and did not afford Sirhan the same rights as othe🌠rs eligible for parole.”
Newsom overruled two parole commissioners who had found that Sirhan . Among other factors, Newsom said the Chr𓂃istian Palestinian who immigrated fro▨m Jordan has failed to disclaim violence committed in his name, adding to the risk that he could incite political violence.
The ruling split the iconic Kennedy family, with two of RFK’s sons — Douglas Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — supporting his release. But RFK’s wife, Ethel Kennedy♛, and six♚ of Kennedy’s nine surviving children opposed his parole.
Newsom has cited RFK as his political hero and keeps RFK photos in both his official and home offices, including one of K𝄹ennedy with his late father. Berry accused him of politicizing the parole process.
Berry accused Newsom of pꦅutting his “political goals and agenda above that of the Constitution.”
Newsom’s office did not respond to a re📖quest for comment. Newsom, a Democrat, has in recent months sought more national recognition in calling out Republicans, particularly the governors of Florida and . Newsom is running for reelection in November but he also has that he has presidential ambitions, something that he has repeatedly denied.
It’s unclear how quickly a judge might rule on Berry’s petition, and either side could appeal an adverse decision. but Sirhan is set for a new parole hearing on March 1.
Sirhan🍬 originally was sentenced to death, but that sentence was commuted to life when the California Supreme Court briefly outlawed capital punishment in 1972.
