Voices: River City

Governor Gavin Newsom has three weeks to decide if he will sign off on a parole panel's recommendation to release 77-year-old Sirhan Sirhan, the man who has spent over half a century in federal prison after being convicted for the killing of Senator Robert F Kennedy in 1968. This story is proving itself to be a case study on the question of mainstream Democrats actually practicing what they preach. By all legal and personal accounts, Sirhan has proven himself rehabilitated, and is ready to spend his final years with his brother in California. Indeed, two of RFK's sons--as well as Paul Schrade, an old friend of the late senator and the last surviving victim from the shooting 53 years ago--agree with the parole panel's ruling. But others do not, such as Kerry Kennedy, who is both RFK's daughter and the president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. While her nonprofit insists it is against mass incarceration, Kerry doesn't seem to think that principle applies to at least one septuagenarian. Last month the Sac