Robert F. Kennedy was shot dead in an L.A. hotel in 1968, just moments after winning California’s Democratic primary election. The facts beyond that may be in the air if “new” evidence of a second shooter is allowed in court for the first time, 44 years later.
The convicted lone gunman Sirhan Sirhan is appealing his life sentence on the grounds of new evidence, and currently awaits a U.S. District Court ruling which could see him released, re-tried or granted a hearing, according to the U.K. Daily Mail.
Sirhan was the only person ever arrested in the case, and this is the first time he has contested his single-shooter conviction. The U.K. Daily Mail reports that witness Nina Rhodes-Hughes, now 78, was a volunteer on Kennedy’s campaign at the time and is adamant that she heard 12-14 shots, many more than the max 8 Sirhan could have fired with his small-caliber handgun.
Sirhan’s lawyer William Pepper called the alleged FBI alteration of Rhodes-Hughes’ story ‘deplorable’ and ‘criminal’ and said it ‘mirrors the experience of other witnesses’. If granted, the hearing would illuminate Rhodes-Hughes’ and others’ eyewitness accounts which swear by more than 8 shots, as recorded in L.A. Police summaries but contradicted by FBI reports.
