(Trends Wide) — Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of assassinating Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, was again denied parole Wednesday, more than a year after the California governor canceled an earlier recommendation for his release.
The California Board of Parole Hearings decided Wednesday to deny Sirhan parole for three years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told Trends Wide.
This proceeding was Sirhan’s 17th parole suitability hearing, said Tessa Outhyse, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections. In August 2021, after 15 denials, the board had recommended Sirhan’s parole, but the governor denied it in January 2022.
The department can’t comment on the reasons for Wednesday’s board’s decision, but a copy of the hearing transcript will be sent and will be available in a few weeks, Outhyse said.
Trends Wide has sought comment from Sirhan’s attorney.
Sirhan Sirhan was charged with the 1968 assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles.
The Sirhan case and the RFK murder
Sirhan shot Robert F. Kennedy in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles following a campaign event at which Kennedy celebrated primary victories in his race for the 1968 Democratic nomination for president.
Sirhan – who was 24 at the time of the shooting – was originally sentenced to death, but received a commuted sentence of life imprisonment in 1972.
Sirhan, now 78, will remain at the RJ Donovan Correctional Center in San Diego, Outhyse said.
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In 1968, Kennedy, 42, the younger brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, was a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination against Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Senator Eugene McCarthy.
Sirhan Sirhan is led out of the Ambassador Hotel after the shooting of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
On June 5, the night of his assassination, Kennedy had just appeared live on television in a ballroom at the Ambassador Hotel, where he had proclaimed victory over McCarthy in the California primary. Moments later, he was fatally shot in the hotel’s service pantry while addressing a press conference set up in a small banquet hall just beyond the pantry. The shooting in the pantry was not caught on any camera.
Sirhan was convicted of killing Kennedy and injuring five other people.
Three bullets struck Kennedy’s body, while a fourth bullet harmlessly passed through the shoulder of his suit jacket. Kennedy died the next day.
— Trends Wide’s Ray Sanchez and Cheri Mossburg contributed to this report.
