RFK Killer Seeks Release, Attorneys Say 'Formidable Evidence' Proves Sirhan's Innocence
Attorneys for the man convicted of killing Sen. Robert F. Kennedy are asking for their client to be set free or given a trial based on new evidence they claim proves his innocence.
Sirhan Sirhan's attorneys, William F. Pepper and Laurie D. Dusek, said they have "formidable evidence" proving his innocence in court papers filed last week.
The attorneys claim the evidence indicates two guns were fired in the assassination and Sirhan's revolver was not the gun that was used to shoot Kennedy.
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Pepper told CNN last week that audio from the night Kennedy was killed "clearly showed that 13 shots were fired in the pantry, and Sirhan’s gun had only eight shots, so it definitely means there was a second shooter."
Pepper and Dusek allege fraud was committed when during the original 1969 trial when the court permitted a substitute bullet to be used as evidence for a real bullet removed from Kennedy's neck. They also said Sirhan was brainwashed.
“Involuntary participant in the crimes being committed because he was subjected to sophisticated hypno programming and memory implantation techniques, which rendered him unable to consciously control his thoughts and actions at the time the crimes were being committed,” said the court papers.
"The public has been shielded from the darker side of the practice. The average person is unaware that hypnosis can and is used to induct antisocial conduct in humans," the court papers added.
Sirhan was convicted of killing Kennedy and wounding five others in the assassination on June 5, 1968. He was given a life sentence in Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, Calif.
Kennedy just finished announcing his victory in the California primary at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when he was shot and killed.
