Sirhan Sirhan - Assassinated Robert F. Kennedy
April 23, 1969 | R.F.K. Assassin Sirhan Sirhan Sentenced to Death
By The Learning Network - April 23, 2012
On April 23, 1969, six days after finding him guilty of murder, a Los Angeles jury sentenced the Palestinian Christian refugee Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, 25, to death for assassinating Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York.
The New York Times noted that “it is extremely unlikely, that Sirhan will die in the gas chamber in the near future because of various appeals and the unofficial ban on executions in the state.” Indeed, the state did outlaw the death penalty in a 1972 state Supreme Court case, and Mr. Sirhan’s sentence was commuted to life in prison. He remains in prison today.
Mr. Sirhan killed Senator Kennedy less than a year earlier, on June 5, 1968. Mr. Kennedy, running for the Democratic nomination for president, had made a campaign speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California state primary. Shortly after midnight, as Mr. Kennedy walked by the hotel kitchen after completing his speech, Mr. Sirhan approached the senator and fired at him from close range.
Mr. Sirhan shot Mr. Kennedy three times before being wrestled to the ground by several men, including the author George Plimpton, the Olympic gold medalist Rafer Johnson and the former pro football lineman Rosey Grier. Mr. Kennedy was rushed to a hospital with two bullets lodged in him, including one in his brain. Surgeons operated on him overnight. Though Mr. Kennedy was able to regain the ability to breathe on his own, he did not regain consciousness.
The June 7 New York Times reported that in the evening, “Hopes had risen slightly when more than eight hours went by without a new medical bulletin.” However, at about 2 a.m. on June 6, the Kennedy press secretary Frank Mankiewicz announced to the media that Robert Kennedy had died.
Mr. Kennedy’s death stunned the nation, particularly the American left, which was still recovering from the assassination of Martin Luther King just two months earlier and the assassination of Robert Kennedy’s brother, President John F. Kennedy, in 1963.
The New York Times obituary of Robert Kennedy noted that he had had a “brief but extraordinary political career,” serving as attorney general and New York senator. He was perhaps best known for his strong support of civil rights, exerting federal power to enforce the rights of blacks in the South during his tenure as attorney general. He was also known for his support of the poor, his opposition to organized crime, and his opposition to the Vietnam War. His opponents believed him to be a radical and a political opportunist.
“Mr. Kennedy called forth sharply opposed evaluations of himself,” the obituary reported. “For those who found him charming, brilliant and sincerely devoted to the welfare of his country there were others who vehemently asserted that he was calculating, overly ambitious and ruthless.”