- Ethel Kennedy, the widow of the late Robert F. Kennedy, said Sirhan Sirhan, who was convicted of killing her husband in California in 1968, should not be released from prison
- Her statement further divided the Kennedy family on whether Sirhan, 77, should be freed on parole
- Last month, the California Parole Board decided Sirhan, who has served 53 years of a life sentence, is no longer a threat to society
NEW YORK CITY, New York: Ethel Kennedy, the widow of the late Robert F. Kennedy, said Sirhan Sirhan, who was convicted of killing her husband in Los Angeles, California in 1968, should not be released from prison.
Her statement further divided the Kennedy family on whether Sirhan, 77, should be freed on parole.
On Tuesday, Ethel Kennedy, 93, founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, said, “He should not be paroled,” in a statement released on Twitter by her daughter, lawyer and activist Kerry Kennedy.
“Bobby believed we should work to ‘tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of the world,'” she wrote.
“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,” she added.
She made her statement one week after former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, Robert Kennedy’s oldest son, also condemned Sirhan’s potential parole. However, two of Kennedy’s other children, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Douglas Kennedy, support the release.
Last month, the California Parole Board decided Sirhan, who has served 53 years of a life sentence, is no longer a threat to society.
The board will review the ruling over the next four months, before sending their recommendation to Governor Gavin Newsom, who will have 30 days to make a final decision.
Robert Kennedy, who was the senator from New York and brother of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination when he was killed at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1968.
The attack wounded five others.
