Saturday, April 17, 2010

Sirhan Sirhan Convicted & Sentenced to Death

Sirhan Bishara Sirhan (born March 19, 1944) is the convicted assassin of United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He is serving a life sentence at Pleasant Valley State Prison, California for the 1968 killing of Robert F. Kennedy .

Sirhan was convicted on April 17, 1969, and was sentenced six days later to death in a gas chamber. Three years later, his sentence was commuted to life in prison, due to the California Supreme Court's decision in People v. Anderson, (The People of the State of California v. Robert Page Anderson, 493 P.2d 880, 6 Cal. 3d 628 (Cal. 1972), which ruled capital punishment a violation of the California Constitution's prohibition of cruel or unusual punishment. The California Supreme Court declared in the Anderson case that its decision was retroactive, thereby invalidating all death sentences imposed in California.


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