Sirhan Sirhan To Face Parole Board
CNN reports:
Los Angeles (CNN) -- One of the surviving shooting victims in the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy said he will not object to Sirhan B. Sirhan's release if a parole panel OKs it.
Sirhan, who was convicted of the slaying, will appear before a California parole board for the first time in at least nine years on Wednesday, supported by two psychologists' reports saying he no longer poses a threat to society, his attorney said.
Retired TV journalist William Weisel, who shared with CNN his prepared statement to the parole board, said he was hit by a stray bullet in the abdomen "on that terrible evening" a quarter past midnight on June 5, 1968, after Kennedy had just won the California primary in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Now 73, Weisel, of Healdsburg, California, was an ABC News associate director at the time of the shooting.
"I'm advised that two reputable psychologists, one representing the state of California and the other from Harvard University, have concluded, after examining him -- Sirhan Sirhan -- that if he is granted parole, he would not be a threat to himself and others, and the community at large. If this is a fact and the board is inclined to grant him parole after him being in prison for nearly 43 years, I would not be opposed to the decision," Weisel said in a telephone interview with CNN.
Even so, the release of Sirhan, 66, now serving a life sentence, is a long shot, with only about 10% of California's life-sentenced convicts being granted parole, said Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney David Dahle, who added he plans to oppose Sirhan's release at Wednesday's hearing.
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