Sirhan’s parole reconsidered

Press, 18 November 1981, Page 8

Sirhan’s parole reconsidered

NZPASacramento, California A California parole board has voted unanimously to reconsider its decision to grant a 1984 parole date to Sirhan Sirhan, convicted of the assassination in 1968 of Senator Robert Kennedy. The eight-member Board of Prison Terms acted at the request of the Los Angeles District Attorney (Mr John van de Kamp), who said he had information that Sirhan had threatened to harm Kennedy’s brother. Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, and other people if released. The board’s decision did not cancel Sirhan’s parole. That decision will -be made at a yet-unscheduled hearing by a state panel whose members have not been selected. Sirhan has denied allegations that he would hurt anyone. . Earlier, the man who set the release date for Sirhan said he had “no real choice in the matter.” He personally felt Sirhan should have been executed.

James Hoover, a former state parole board member, blamed the California Supreme Court and slate parole board rules for forcing his hand in 1975, he said in an interview published in the “Los Angeles Times.” Sirhan was sentenced to death after his conviction for the June 5, 1968, assassination of Kennedy, a leading Democratic contender for the 1968 democratic presidential nomination, in Los Angeles. But the . California Supreme Court struck down California’s capital punishment law as unconstitutional in 1972. That automatically commuted Sirhan’s sentence to life with eligibility for parole after seven years. February 23, 1986, was then set as the parole date for Sirhan. With credit for “good time,” Sirhan’s scheduled release was moved up to September 8, 1984, despite the state AttorneyGeneral’s petition to have the parole date revoked.