Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of assassinating presidential candidate Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 is seeking release from prison or a retrial based on what his attorneys say is evidence asserting his innocence and show human rights violations.
In a U.S. District Court brief that Sirhan's lawyers filed this week, the attorneys say that there is new, recently uncovered evidence that says Sirhan's revolver wasn't the one that shot Kennedy. They also allege that during the trial, the court allowed a substitute bullet to be admitted as evidence, a form of fraud, according to a report from CNN. The bullet substitute, which was supposedly from the neck of Kennedy, was alleged to be from Sirhan's gun.
Instead of committing the crime, say the attorneys, Sirhan was being used as a diversion for the real assassin, because with his Arab background - he is a Christian Palestinian born in Jerusalem who grew up in the U.S. - he would be easily blamed for the crime.
The papers go on to say Sirhan was a victim of hypno-programming, a process where, through various memory implantation techniques, Sirhan was left unable to control his thoughts or actions during the crime.
Sirhan is the only assassin accounted for in the crime. Investigators at the time say his gun fired eight shots that killed Kennedy and injured 5 others. Audio tape uncovered in 2004 reveals that more than eight shots were fired, and experts say that some of the shots are too close together for all to be from Sirhan's gun.
A previous attempt at parole for Sirhan Sirhan failed. He is serving a life sentence. Since the beginning of the investigation, he claimed he could not remember the events of that evening.
