Jump to content

Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan stabbed in California prison

Add links
Checked
From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!
Related articles
Crime and law
Crime and law
Collaborate!

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

It was reported on Saturday Sirhan Sirhan was stabbed in the neck while in prison. Sirhan, 75, is serving a life sentence for the 1968 assassination of United States senator and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.

Sirhan was serving his time at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County, California. He was reported to be in stable condition.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) did not identify Sirhan as the victim. Rather, government sources confirmed his identity to various news outlets anonymously.

The Department issued a statement that an inmate had been stabbed: "There was an assault on an inmate on Friday, August 30 at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility at 2:21 p.m. [...] Officers responded quickly and found an inmate with stab wound injuries [...] He was transported to an outside hospital for medical care, and is currently in stable condition." They also said they believed they had identified the attacker, who was being held in isolation pending investigation.

Sirhan, an ethnic Palestinian from Jordan, opposed Senator Kennedy's pro-Israel position. Sirhan later claimed to have no memory of the night Kennedy was shot or of his own confession to the crime. For many years, Sirhan was held protectively separate from most prisoners at Corcoran State Prison because of his fame. At his own request, Sirhan was eventually transferred to the general population at Donovan.

Robert F. Kennedy was the brother of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, who had himself been assassinated in 1963. Robert was killed in June 1968, while seeking the Democratic nomination for president. Sirhan shot him in the head just after midnight, while he was walking through a hotel kitchen. Sirhan's initial death sentence was commuted to life in prison when, for a time, California outlawed the death penalty.

  • Sirhan in 1969 (Image: CDCR)
    Sirhan in 1969 (Image: CDCR)
  • Sirhan in 2016 (Image: CDCR)
    Sirhan in 2016 (Image: CDCR)


Sources

Share this:  E-mail this story Share on Facebook Share on reddit.com Share on LinkedIn.com Share on twitter.com


This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Kennedy_assassin_Sirhan_Sirhan_stabbed_in_California_prison&oldid=4539309"