Lawyers seek new trial for RFK assassin

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Lawyers for the man convicted in the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles say their client should be freed because he is innocent.

Sirhan Sirhan, 67, is serving a life sentence at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, Calif., for the shooting. Attorneys William F. Pepper and Laurie D. Dusek say Sirhan was hypnotically influenced to fire shots at the senator as a diversion while the real gunman fired from another spot at the former Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, CNN reported Saturday.

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 filed by Pepper and Dusek said.

The lawyers argue audio recordings from the incident back up their assertion that there was a second gunman.

The recordings "clearly showed that 13 shots were fired in the pantry, and Sirhan's gun had only eight shots, so it definitely means there was a second shooter," Pepper told CNN.