| When does a person who has committed a terrible crime deserve clemency? Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was 24 when he assassinated Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968 — as columnist Charles Lane describes it, "leaving 11 children fatherless, snuffing out a remarkable career and decapitating a political movement." Sirhan has spent the ensuing 53 years behind bars, avoiding execution after the California Supreme Court declared the state's death penalty illegal. Sirhan has sought parole 16 times over the years, only to be denied each time. Until a panel of the state parole board recommended release last month, giving weight to Sirhan's advanced age — he's now 77 — and his youth at the time of the crime. Lane weighs in on the parole debate — the panel recommendation may be overturned by the full parole board or the governor — and uses it as a meditation on punishment and mercy. "Sirhan's case raises complex questions about punishment and redemption," he writes. "It centers, or should center, on remorse, which is the key to unlocking any decent society's store of forgiveness — while honoring its pain and preserving the truth." Lane, going through Sirhan's parole board statements and other interviews over the years, convinced me that Sirhan falls far short of deserving clemency. "To read transcripts of Sirhan's parole hearings and other public statements is to look in vain for clear and convincing repentance," he writes. I was convinced, but I also wonder: Even if he had demonstrated the remorse, should a man who committed a crime so shattering to a family and a country ever go free?  (George Brich/AP) The killer of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 should be denied parole absent his clear and convincing repentance. By Charles Lane ● Read more » | | | | Democrats want to make the U.S. tax rates some of the highest in the world. By Henry Olsen ● Read more » | | | | Blinken, in his testimony Tuesday, didn't know what Jim Risch was talking about — because it didn't happen. By Dana Milbank ● Read more » | | | Melania Trump and Kyrsten Sinema have played this trick before. By Molly Roberts ● Read more » | | | | Can the Met Gala be saved? By Kathleen Parker ● Read more » | | | | The reconciliation bill is far from perfect, but it does the right thing by raising taxes on the wealthy. By Paul Waldman ● Read more » | | | She isn't partisan. She has a philosophy. By Alexandra Petri ● Read more » | | | | The truly problematic hackery isn't so much political as judicial. By Ruth Marcus ● Read more » | | | The latest Trump revelations show the need to limit the president's nuclear authority. By Max Boot ● Read more » | | | | The new details will also shape how the Jan. 6 select committee conducts its investigation. By Greg Sargent ● Read more » | | | Among Hilleman's achievements: vaccines for flu, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, pneumonia, measles, mumps and rubella. By David Von Drehle ● Read more » | | | | Safety has always been a core union goal. The covid-19 pandemic is no different. By Sara Nelson ● Read more » | | | | We can get through this, but let's do it holding hands, not pitchforks. By Trent Bowers ● Read more » | | | |
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