Paroled
-
AP: A panel has voted to grant parole to Sirhan Sirhan, U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's assassin. The ruling faces a 90-day review, then will go to the California governor's office for consideration. Two of RFK's sons spoke in favor of parole.
-
I wasn't aware of this:
Though Sirhan admitted at his trial in 1969 that he shot Kennedy, he claimed from the start that he had no memory of doing so. And midway through Sirhan’s trial, prosecutors provided his lawyers with an autopsy report that launched five decades of controversy: Kennedy was shot at point-blank range from behind, including a fatal shot behind his ear. But Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian immigrant, was standing in front of him.
Was there a second gunman? The debate rages to this day.
But the legal system has not entertained doubts. A jury convicted Sirhan of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death in 1969, which was commuted to a life term in 1972. Sirhan’s appeals have been rejected at every level, as recently as 2016, even with the courts considering new evidence that has emerged over the years that as many as 13 shots were fired — Sirhan’s gun held only eight bullets — and that Sirhan may have been subjected to coercive hypnosis, in a real-life version of “The Manchurian Candidate.”
In the final court rejection of Sirhan’s appeals, U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Wistrich ruled, “Even if the second shooter’s bullet was the one that killed Senator Kennedy, [Sirhan] would be liable [for murder] as an aider and abettor.” And if Sirhan was unaware of the second shooter, Wistrich wrote that the scenario of a second gunman who shot Kennedy “at close range with the same type of gun and ammunition as [Sirhan] was using, but managed to escape the crowded room without notice of almost any of the roomful of witnesses, lacks any evidentiary support.”
-
I wasn't aware of this:
Though Sirhan admitted at his trial in 1969 that he shot Kennedy, he claimed from the start that he had no memory of doing so. And midway through Sirhan’s trial, prosecutors provided his lawyers with an autopsy report that launched five decades of controversy: Kennedy was shot at point-blank range from behind, including a fatal shot behind his ear. But Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian immigrant, was standing in front of him.
Was there a second gunman? The debate rages to this day.
But the legal system has not entertained doubts. A jury convicted Sirhan of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death in 1969, which was commuted to a life term in 1972. Sirhan’s appeals have been rejected at every level, as recently as 2016, even with the courts considering new evidence that has emerged over the years that as many as 13 shots were fired — Sirhan’s gun held only eight bullets — and that Sirhan may have been subjected to coercive hypnosis, in a real-life version of “The Manchurian Candidate.”
In the final court rejection of Sirhan’s appeals, U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Wistrich ruled, “Even if the second shooter’s bullet was the one that killed Senator Kennedy, [Sirhan] would be liable [for murder] as an aider and abettor.” And if Sirhan was unaware of the second shooter, Wistrich wrote that the scenario of a second gunman who shot Kennedy “at close range with the same type of gun and ammunition as [Sirhan] was using, but managed to escape the crowded room without notice of almost any of the roomful of witnesses, lacks any evidentiary support.”
-
-
@mik This is me wearing my conspiracist hat: It could be that there was a general agreement to make Sirhan the fall guy so as to avoid the risk of massive public uprising, given the protests already in train at the time. 13 bullets might have acted as a tinderbox. So Sirhan's gun had to kind of get lost, or something.
A wild guess.
-
There is some doubt about the shot count
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Robert_F._Kennedy
In 2007, it was revealed that forensic expert Philip Van Praag had analyzed an audiotape of the shooting known as the Pruszynski recording in which Van Praag had discovered acoustic evidence that a second gun had been involved in the assassination. Van Praag found that 13 shots were fired even though Sirhan's gun held only eight rounds, its maximum bullet capacity, and Sirhan had no opportunity to reload it.[67][72] Van Praag states the recording also reveals at least two cases where the timing between shots was shorter than physically possible from Sirhan's gun alone. Forensic audio specialists Wes Dooley and Paul Pegas of Audio Engineering Associates in Pasadena examined Van Praag's findings and corroborated the presence of more than eight gunshots on the tape along with over-lapping shots, all of this indicating the presence of a second shooter.
Similar corroboration came from forensic audio and ballistics expert Eddy B. Brixen in Copenhagen[73][74] and audio specialist Phil Spencer Whitehead of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.[75]
Other acoustic experts, however, have claimed that they could find no more than eight shots recorded on the audiotape.[76]
The Pruszynski recording was uncovered[colloquialism] in 2004 by CNN's Brad Johnson; its existence had been unknown to the general public previously.[77]
-
6 out of 9 Kennedys disapprove:
https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000017b-8eb1-d290-a57b-8ef37f6a0000
-
Personally, I think it was Elvis.
