A day after holding off a recall effort to oust him from office, California Gov. Gavin Newsom may have tipped his hand on a highly-anticipated decision regarding parole for a notorious political assassin.
During a post-election visit to an Oakland school on Wednesday, the governor was asked about possible parole for Robert F. Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, stemming from a California panel’s recommendation in August.
Newsom – who caught attention in quoting Robert F. Kennedy in his post-election remarks on Tuesday night – responded in reciting his affection for the one-time presidential candidate and political icon.
"You walk into my office…and it's photographs, iconic photographs, of the funeral procession of Bobby Kennedy," Newsom described. "You go in my home office…you'll see half a dozen Bobby Kennedy photos on the wall, the most previous being of my father and Bobby Kennedy signed to my mother, Tessa." While the parole recommendation has yet to make it to the governor's desk, many believed Newsom's likely survival in California's recall election could determine whether Sirhan would be released.
Newsom is now free to make a decision without a looming election.
"I think that gives you a sense of where I might be leaning," the governor teased in his first lengthy comments on the matter. "But right now, I don't want to lean into that process and create problems."
The request has yet to come to the governor formally, one reason Newsom was coy in answering questions about Kennedy's convicted assassin.
"This is very raw and emotional for people," he added.
Sirhan was convicted of shooting Kennedy on June 5, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles as he walked through the hotel's pantry after a speech. He had just won the California Democratic presidential primary and was a former Attorney General and sitting U.S. Senator at the time of his tragic death, shaking an already weary nation.
"The stories, emails and text messages I've gotten from people," Newsom shared. "People aren't just giving an opinion about 'yes' or 'no,' they're expressing their memories of that time."
Newsom went on to call them "many memories people want to suppress."
Two of Kennedy's children support Sirhan's release. Others vehemently oppose it, including Joseph P. Kennedy II, who called possible parole for the convicted murderer "a grievous error."
Sirhan, 77, was originally was given the death sentence. It was eventually commuted to a life sentence. He has been denied parole 15 times.
Related
