Attorney argues for Sirhan retrial
By Robert Jablon, Associated Press, Jun 5, 2003

LOS ANGELES – On the 35th anniversary of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's assassination, the lawyer for convicted killer Sirhan Sirhan argued Thursday that his client was hypnotized and framed, possibly by a government conspiracy.

"This guy was set up. He was a clay pigeon," Lawrence Teeter said. "There's an innocent man sitting there in prison."

Teeter has been trying since 1994 to have state and federal courts overturn the conviction of Sirhan for the June 5, 1968, shooting of Kennedy at the now-defunct Ambassador Hotel.

"The integrity of the judicial process is at stake," Teeter said.

Kennedy, 42, was shot after declaring victory in California's Democratic presidential primary. He died the next day.

A memorial service was held Thursday at Good Samaritan Hospital, where Kennedy was taken after the shooting. A hospital chaplain, Jerry Anderson, conducted the service in the chapel.

The hospital was "an unintentional witness to a dark and sad day in the history of this country," said Andrew B. Leeka, hospital president and chief executive. "This hospital welcomes you today as we remember the courage, the quiet sorrow of this man that many simply called Bobby."

"What Robert Kennedy stood for has to live on," said Paul Schrade, a member of Kennedy's campaign.

Sirhan is serving a life sentence at a state prison in Corcoran. He has been denied parole 12 times, most recently last March. At trial, Sirhan said that he killed Kennedy "premeditatedly with 20 years of malice aforethought," and has apologized for the killing at parole hearings. However, Teeter said Sirhan remembers nothing about the shooting.

Teeter is petitioning a federal court in Los Angeles to grant Sirhan a new trial. He has a June 30 hearing on a motion to move the case from Los Angeles to Fresno. He contends that Sirhan cannot get a fair hearing in Los Angeles, where a man who helped prosecute Sirhan is now a federal judge.

Teeter has maintained that Sirhan was hypnotized into firing at Kennedy and that he may have been using blanks; that Sirhan couldn't possibly have fired the fatal shot from where he was standing; that prosecutors blackmailed his defense attorney to throw the case and that police and government agencies whitewashed or bungled investigations.

"I covered the trial (as a reporter) and I don't think so. I think that the person that shot and killed Robert Kennedy was convicted and sentenced properly – absolutely, after a fair trial," said Sandi Gibbons, now a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney. "I do not believe that there was a conspiracy. I think that there'll always be conspiracy theorists and people who try to revise history. I think Sirhan killed him, and killed him alone."

Teeter said he personally believes that the "military-industrial complex" was involved in the senator's murder.

"The people who wanted Robert Kennedy killed were those who were not satisfied with his promise to end the war in Vietnam," he said.

SIRHAN RESEARCHER FOR BOBBY

QUEST FOR SIRHAN HYPNOTIST

Kennedy's killer demands retrial (victim of hypnotic programming). National Post, Jun 11, 2003

Go to RFK DEATH COINCIDENCES

Sirhan Sirhan denied parole (was hypnotized to be there but another gunman shot RFK). Tampa Bay, Mar 6, 2003

THE ROBERT F KENNEDY ASSASSINATION; SIRHAN NOW SAYS 'I AM INNOCENT', by Lisa Pease, Probe Magazine

SIRHAN AND THE RFK ASSASSINATION PART 1: THE GRAND ILLUSION, by Lisa Pease, Probe Magazine

SIRHAN AND THE RFK ASSASSINATION PART 11: RUBRICK'S CUBE, by Lisa Pease, Probe Magazine

~ THE ENEMY WITHIN, by Robert Francis Kennedy

MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, CONSPIRACY THEORY, ZOOLANDER (movies about mind-controlled assassins)

JFK & RFK ASSASSINATION DETAILS

JFK TRUTHS & LIES