Robert F. Kennedy’s widow said on Tuesday she opposes the release of his murderer, Sirhan Sirhan, who has been recommended for parole.
“Bobby believed that we should work to ’tame human savagery and calm the lives of the world,’” 93-year-old Ethel Kennedy said in a statement.
“He wanted to end the war in Vietnam and bring people together to build a better, stronger country. More than anything, he wanted to be a good father and loving husband.
“Our family and our country suffered an unspeakable loss due to the inhumanity of one man. We believe in the gentleness that spared his life, but in taming his act of violence, he should not have the opportunity to terrorize again.
“He should not be paroled,” Ethel Kennedy concluded.
Attached to her statement is a picture of her and RFK together in a car on their wedding day.
The California Parole Committee last month recommended Sirhan Sirhan’s release.
Sirhan assassinated Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in June 1968.
At the time RFK was a New York senator running for president in the Democratic primary.
Sirhan, 77, was offered parole on his 16th attempt on Aug. 27.
But that does not mean Sirhan, imprisoned in San Diego County, will be freed.
The decision will undergo a 120-day review period and go to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom has 30 days to decide whether to uphold, reject or amend the decision.
Sirhan’s nomination for parole has divided his kids.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Doug Kennedy have expressed support for Sirhan’s parole.
But six of Kennedy’s other children issued a statement against Sirhan’s release.
Sirhan, a Palestinian from Jordan, was initially sentenced to death.
But his life was spared and he was sentenced to life imprisonment after the courts declared the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972.
RFK’s brother, then-President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1963.