Sirhan Sirhan - Imprisonment - Applications For Parole

Applications For Parole

In a 1980 interview with M.T. Mehdi, Sirhan claimed his actions were fueled by liquor and anger. He then complained that the parole board was not taking these "mitigating" circumstances into account when they continually denied his parole.

On May 10, 1982, Sirhan told the parole board: "I sincerely believe that if Robert Kennedy were alive today, I believe he would not countenance singling me out for this kind of treatment. I think he would be among the first to say that, however horrible the deed I committed 14 years ago was, that it should not be the cause for denying me equal treatment under the laws of this country."

A parole hearing for Sirhan is now scheduled every five years. On March 2, 2011, after 42 years in prison, Sirhan's 14th parole hearing was held, with Sirhan represented by his current attorney, William Francis Pepper. At his parole hearing, Sirhan testified that he continues to have no memory of the assassination nor of any details of his 1969 trial and confession. Pepper also repeated the claim, that Sirhan's lawyers previously stated in the past, that Sirhan's mind was "programmed" and then "wiped" by an unknown conspiracy behind the assassination which is why Sirhan has no memory of the murder or of the aftermath. His parole was denied on the grounds that Sirhan still does not understand the full ramifications of his crime.