By Dan Murphy
On Aug. 15, a California parole board granted parole to Sirhan Sirhan, who was convicted of killing U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. Sirhan, 77, has served 53 years in prison and has been denied parole for the past 15 years. The ruling is under normal review by the parole board and will then go to Governor Gavin Newsome, who will have 30 days to decide whether to grant it, reverse it or modify it.
The CA parole board found that Sirhan no longer poses a threat to society. “We think that you have grown,” Parole Board Commissioner Robert Barton said.
RFK and Ethel Kennedy had eleven children, nine are still alive today, and are divided on whether Sirhan should be freed after half a century. And two of RFK’s children who called Westchester home, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Kerry Kennedy, also have different views.
RFK Jr. supports Sirhan’s release, and he and brother Douglas Kennedy, met recently with Sirhan. “I’m overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr. Sirhan face to face. I’ve lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love,” said Douglas Kennedy, who attended Sirhan’s parole hearing.
RFK Jr. wrote a letter to the parole board said he was “impressed by the genuineness of [Sirhan’s] remorse for the indisputable part he played in my father’s assassination. Sirhan wept, clenched my hands and asked for forgiveness. While nobody can speak definitively on behalf of my father, I firmly believe that based on his own consuming commitment to fairness and justice, that he would strongly encourage this board to release Mr Sirhan because of Sirhan’s impressive record of rehabilitation.”
But six of RFK’s children signed a letter opposing the release of Sirhan. RFK’s oldest son, former congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II, issued his own statement and signed the letter with his siblings.”Two commissioners of the 18-member California Parole Board made a grievous error last Friday in recommending the release of the man who murdered my father. I understand that there are differing views about ending the sentence of this killer, including within my own family. But emotions and opinions do not change facts or history. I hope the full parole board will reverse the decision over the ongoing review period and that the California governor, if faced with the choice to release him, will keep him in prison to serve out his full life sentence,” Kennedy wrote.
The letter signed by Joseph P Kennedy II, Courtney Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Christopher G Kennedy, Maxwell T Kennedy and Rory Kennedy reads “As children of Robert F. Kennedy, we are devastated that the man who murdered our father has been recommended for parole. Our father’s death is a very difficult matter for us to discuss publicly and for the past many decades we have declined to engage directly in the parole process.”
“Given the unexpected recommendation by the California parole board after 15 previous decisions to deny release, we feel compelled to make our position clear. We adamantly oppose the parole and release of Sirhan Sirhan and are shocked by a ruling that we believe ignores the standards for parole of a confessed, first-degree murderer in the state of California. He took our father from our family and he took him from America. We are in disbelief that this man would be recommended for release.”
“Our father’s death impacted our family in ways that can never adequately be articulated and today’s decision by a two-member parole board has inflicted enormous additional pain. We urge the Parole Board staff, the full Board, and ultimately, Governor Newsom, to reverse this initial recommendation. It is a recommendation we intended to challenge every step of the way, and we hope that those who also hold the memory of our father in their hearts will stand with us,” end of statment.
Maxwell Kennedy also wrote an Op-Ed in the LA Times, which read in party, “On behalf of my mother and all Americans whose lives were altered by this appalling crime, I condemn this unwarranted recommendation and urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to do the right thing and publicly reject the panel’s decision. I commit myself to doing everything within my power to stop his release,”
The Op-Ed is important because for the first time, it gives insight into the thoughts from Ethel Kennedy, Bobby’s widow, on Sirhan’s release.
RFK’s oldest daughter, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, has not commented on Sirhan’s parole.
Appearing by video from a San Diego county prison, Sirhan said: “Senator Kennedy was the hope of the world … and I harmed all of them and it pains me to experience that, the knowledge for such a horrible deed, if I did in fact do that.”
The parole board noted that Sirhan had enrolled in 20 prison programs, inclduing anger management and alcoholics anonymous.
RFK Jr. and Kerry Kennedy have called Westchester home. Kerry Kennedy, lived in Bedford with her children with husband Andrew Cuomo, but has recently been living on Cape Cod. RFK Jr. also lived in Bedford for many years, and worked as a Law Professor at Pace Law School, and as an environmental advocate for Riverkeeper. He now lives in California.
