Other DAs upbraid LA’s Gascón for neutrality on Sirhan parole

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón is remaining neutral on whether the assassin of U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy should be paroled on Friday.

Several fellow district attorneys have criticized Gascón's decision not to oppose parole for Sirhan Sirhan, convicted and sentenced to death in 1969 for killing Kennedy and shooting five other people.

Other district attorneys disagree with Gascón's view that the prosecutors' job ends at sentencing and some agree with him.

"It's outrageous and irresponsible for a district attorney in a case of this magnitude or any case involving the killing of another human being to discard their solemn duty and responsibility to attend those hearings and present on the case," said Gregory D. Totten, chief executive officer of the California District Attorneys Association DAs association and former Ventura County DA.

Friday is the 16th time Sirhan has appeared before the California Parole Board and the first time no prosecutors will be present. His last appearance was in 2016, when the board denied parole, finding that he "continues to pose a threat to public safety" based on the nature of his offense.

Sirhan is represented by Angela M. Berry of Encino, who did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday. People v. Sirhan B. Sirhan, A233421 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed June 20, 1968).

Under the prisons and rehabilitation department policy, the names of people who have asked to appear and any pre-hearing briefs submitted to the board are not publicly available. Former Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said Thursday a group of victims' attorneys from the Marsy's Law group offered the victims and relatives of victims representation for Friday's proceedings, but they declined.

The board has all the pertinent facts and evaluations at their disposal, said Alex Bastian, special adviser to Gascón. "The parole board's sole purpose is to objectively determine whether someone is suitable for release," Bastian said. "If someone is the same person that committed an atrocious crime, that person will correctly not be found suitable for release."

Gascón's Directive 20-14 states his policy to not have prosecutors attend parole hearings and to support in writing the grant of parole for those that have served their minimum period of incarceration with the exception of those deemed at high risk of recidivism by the department of corrections. In those cases, the deputy district attorney handling the case may take a neutral position on the grant of parole. The office also provides trauma services to crime victims including providing them with victim advocates at parole hearings.

Critics of Gascón's policy include the California District Attorneys Association immediate past president Vern Pierson, who is the El Dorado County DA. He said a district attorney's responsibilities in a case last from the onset of a case through parole hearings.

Pierson said Thursday in an interview, "In recognition of that responsibility, the DA has access to information that other parties do not have access to. The obvious purpose is so we can advise the parole board what our take is on suitability for release."

He explained, "It's one thing to direct your deputy district attorney not to oppose, but to simply abandon the responsibility to appear at these, to abandon the responsibility to crime victims who regularly appear at these is disgraceful."

"I think it's despicable," Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, who is running for California attorney general, said in a statement. "It's a complete, wholesale abandonment of his responsibility as district attorney ... and it's outrageous to crime victims, in my opinion."

Cristine Soto DeBerry, executive director of the Prosecutors Alliance of California, of which Gascón is a member, said Thursday that while the alliance does not have an official stance on parole hearings, she believes Gascón's approach is appropriate and agreed parole is not the responsibility of prosecutors.

Trusting the prisons department "and the very capable professionals around the parole process is the right answer," DeBerry said in an interview Thursday. "They are the people, who have the most current information about the individual, whether they have engaged in a rehabilitative pathway or not, whether they continue to pose dangers or not."

Referring to Sirhan's case, she said, "It's been decades," adding nobody in the DA's office "has current real knowledge about the individual or their pathway since leaving the courtroom with their convictions."

Lynn Compton, the lead Los Angeles County prosecutor who won Sirhan's conviction and death sentence died in 2012. Superior Court Judge Herbert Walker, who sentenced Sirhan, died in 1976.