Kennedy assassin to remain in
San Diego
By Matt Potter, Jan. 8, 2015
One of San Diego's most
notorious inmates will remain behind the walls of the state's Donovan
Correctional Facility here following a federal judge's ruling that evidence of
a possible conspiracy does not absolve Sirhan Bishara Sirhan of guilt in the
June 1968 slaying of Robert F. Kennedy.
The convicted assassin
"has failed to meet his burden of establishing actual innocence,"
wrote judge Beverly Reid O'Connell in her January 5 order denying a bid by
Sirhan for a writ of habeas corpus.
“Likewise, Petitioner has
failed to demonstrate that he falls within the narrow exception warranting an
evidentiary hearing at this stage."
The latest in a long string of
legal efforts by Sirhan, now 70, was filed in May 2000. Despite multiple
rejections by federal courts, his attorneys have continued to appeal the case,
asserting in part that others were behind the killing of the Democratic presidential
candidate.
"Though Petitioner
advances a number of theories regarding the events of June 5, 1968,"
O'Connell's ruling says, "Petitioner does not dispute that he fired eight
rounds of gunfire in the kitchen pantry of the Ambassador Hotel.
"After reviewing the
evidence, the Court agrees with the findings of Magistrate Judge Wistrich.
Petitioner does not show that it is more likely than not that no juror, acting
reasonably, would have found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."
Much of Sirhan's latest bid for
freedom has been based on testimony of eyewitness Nina Rhodes-Hughes, which was
not presented at Sirhan's 1969 trial.
"What has to come out is
that there was another shooter to my right," Rhodes-Hughes, a television
actress, told CNN in April 2012. "The truth has got to be told. No more
cover-ups."
O'Connell's ruling dismisses
that argument. "Ms. Rhodes-Hughes disputes the location and number of
gunfire shots; yet, importantly, she does not assert that Petitioner is
innocent.
"First, Ms.
Rhodes-Hughes’s recollection was recorded decades after the events took place,
which calls into question its reliability. Second, her declaration confirms
that Petitioner was a shooter that evening," the judge wrote.
"Ms. Rhodes-Hughes states
that she was in the kitchen, she saw Petitioner fire his gun, and she witnessed
men attempt to subdue him. Ms. Rhodes-Hughes does not state that she saw a
second shooter.
“She suggests that there was
more than one shooter because she counted twelve to fourteen shots rather than
eight, and she testifies that gunfire originated in both the left and right
sides of the room….
"Ms. Rhodes-Hughes
describes how she fainted, was trampled by individuals in the kitchen, awoke
with a wet dress, and had one shoe knocked off her foot.
“A jury reasonably may have
concluded that witnesses could not be expected to pinpoint the exact location
of those two parties in the midst of such chaos."
Questions regarding a second
shooter and how many shots were fired have long dogged the case, but
O'Connell's ruling rejected evidence presented by skeptics, including an audio
tape of the assassination that one expert witness has maintained proves there
were two shooters.
"At most, Petitioner
creates a sense of doubt about the number of gunshots fired in the kitchen on
June 5, 1968," said the judge, "but contemporaneous eyewitness
statements do not support a second shooter theory."
Arguments that Sirhan was
hypnotically programmed, perhaps by the Central Intelligence Agency or other
anti-Kennedy government or mob actors, were also rejected.
Sirhan’s next legal steps have
not been announced, but the latest ruling is unlikely to silence skeptics, who
have included one-time San Diego Tribune reporter Robert Blair Kaiser and
author of the book R.F.K. Must Die.
"I am more convinced than
ever that Sirhan Sirhan didn’t think this up all by himself, and that he killed
Kennedy in a trance," writes Kaiser in the epilogue to the 2008 edition of
the book.
"Yes, that he was
programmed to kill Senator Kennedy and programmed to forget he was programmed.
Of course Sirhan was lying much of the time. He was programmed to lie. That was
part of the cover-up.
"Of course, he was a
psychotic when he killed Kennedy. His programmers induced the psychosis. But it
only lasted for a time. Sirhan worked through that sickness (if you need to
call it that) as he gradually came to see himself as an Arab hero, giving
himself a sense of importance that he had never felt before."