The widow of Robert F. Kennedy said Tuesday that his killer, Sirhan Sirhan, should not be released from prison, despite a recommendation from a parole board handed down earlier this month.
"Our family and our country suffered an unspeakable loss due to the inhumanity of one man. We believe in the gentleness that spared his life, but in taming his act of violence, he should not have the opportunity to terrorize again," Ethel Kennedy, 93, said in a statement.
“He should not be paroled,” she said.
Sirhan was recommended for parole on Aug. 27. However, that decision does not guarantee the assassin, who is currently being held at a San Diego County prison, will be released. A 120-day review period will follow, after which the governor’s office will have 30 days to decide whether to uphold, reject or modify the parole board’s determination.
Six of the former U.S. Senator and 1968 candidate for president’s children echoed their mother in a joint statement released Aug. 27.
“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. But beyond just us, six of Robert Kennedy's nine surviving children, Sirhan Sirhan committed a crime against our nation and its people. He took our father from our family and he took him from America,” the group, including U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy II of Massachusetts, said.
Two of Kennedy’s nine children have publicly supported parole for Sirhan. Douglas Kennedy, who was a toddler when his father was killed in 1968, said he found Sirhan’s remorse for the incident to be genuine, and that he should be released so long as he does not pose a threat to society.
If released, it is possible Sirhan will be placed in the home of his brother, who presently lives in Pasadena.
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