REVERSAL

Gavin Newsom Denies RFK Killer Sirhan Sirhan Parole

California’s parole commissioners granted the assassin’s request for parole in August, but the governor has overruled them.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has denied parole to Sirhan Sirhan, Robert F. Kennedy’s killer. The assassin, now 77, has been locked up for nearly 50 years, but California parole commissioners granted his request for release in August. On recommending release, the commissioners wrote that he demonstrated “impressive extensive record of rehabilitation over the last half-century.” In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times published Thursday, Newsom took a different view: “I have determined that Sirhan has not developed the accountability and insight required to support his safe release into the community. I must reverse Sirhan’s parole grant... The most glaring proof of Sirhan’s deficient insight is his shifting narrative about his assassination of Kennedy, and his current refusal to accept responsibility for it.” Newsom has called RFK his own “political hero.”