Sirhan Lawyer Asks Review of Parole Denial
Sirhan B. Sirhan’s attorney today called for reconsideration of a three-minute state parole board decision that once again denied parole to the convicted assassin of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy 17 years ago.
During the board’s deliberations at the state prison in Soledad, reporters overheard one member of the panel say, “We’ll send his ass down there (to the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo) for as long as possible.”
Sirhan’s lawyer, Luke McKissack, said at a news conference today that he is mailing a 20-page petition to the Board of Prison Terms challenging the actions of the three-member panel on June 26.
Reporters who had viewed the hearing via closed-circuit television from an adjoining room heard the Sirhan discussion by accident when someone evidently forgot to disconnect the microphone before the deliberations began.
McKissack played a tape of the panel’s discussion and handed reporters a transcript.
“To me, this is the first case I know in American jurisprudence where we have a record of the deliberations of a panel and here we hear them laughing like hyenas, deciding the case in less than three minutes. . . .
“I think it’s just more than a joke. . . . Basically, it is a sentence of death.”
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