April 23, 1969. Sirhan Sirhan is given the death sentence following his conviction in the shooting death of Democrat Robert F. Kennedy. After California abolished the death penalty in 1972, Sirhan’s sentence was reduced to life in prison. RF Kennedy, a U.S. senator from New York who had just won the Democratic presidential primary in California, delivered a victory speech in the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles early on June 5, 1968. Kennedy was shot three times at close range with a.22 caliber revolver by Sirhan Sirhan after the speech as he was heading toward the hotel … Continue reading Sirhan Sirhan is sentenced to Death for killing RF Kennedy.