William F. Pepper and Laurie D. Dusek attorneys for Robert F. Kennedy's assassin Sirhan Sirhan have presented the Manchurian defense on behalf of their infamous client. The Manchurian defense derives from the movie The Manchurian Candidate released by MGM in 1962. The movie portrayed a supposed war hero who was brainwashed into becoming a unwitting assassin.
Sirhan is now 67-years-old and remains in prison for the 1968 assassination in a Los Angeles Hotel. Attorneys say Sirhan should be released from prison because he was hypno-programmed to be a diversion for Kennedy's real assassin. The Manchurian defense did not work with the California Parole Board.
Sirhan Sirhan "was an involuntary participant in the crimes being committed because he was subjected to sophisticated hypno programming and memory implantation techniques which rendered him unable to consciously control his thoughts and actions at the time the crimes were being committed," court papers said, reported CNN.
.
Three bullets struck Kennedy's body while a fourth bullet passed through the shoulder of his suit coat. Kennedy, the most seriously wounded of the six victims, died the next day. The other five people survived their wounds.
Fifty years later we learn that The Manchurian Candidate is not science fiction but actually mainstream science according to a Harvard professor. Daniel Brown, an associate clinical professor in psychology at Harvard Medical School who submitted a statement to the parole board after interviewing Sirhan for 60 hours over a three-year period, reported CNN. Brown says Sirhan now remembers that when he fired his shots in the pantry he believed he was at a gun range and shooting at circular targets, according to Pepper.
Brown believes Sirhan was programmed to do this so as to cause a distraction in the pantry, allowing a second gunman to secretly shoot Kennedy from behind, according to Sirhan's attorneys. Brown is described in Sirhan's court papers as "one of the world's foremost experts in hypno programming."
CNN reported that Brown says Sirhan now remembers hearing loud sounds he describes as "the thunderclap of other bullets" being fired by another gun in the pantry, the defense attorneys said. Brown says Sirhan also recalls seeing flashes in front of him that he associates with gunfire inside the pantry but not coming from his own weapon, according to Pepper.
Hey, the twinkie defense worked for Dan White after he assassinated San Fransisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978. Time will tell if the Manchurian defense will work for Sirhan Sirhan.
To read more: http://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-26/justice/justice_california-sirhan-rfk_1_sirhan-sirhan-assassination-bullet?_s=PM:JUSTICE
No comments:
Post a Comment