Los Angeles, California - Robert F. Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, was again denied parole Wednesday, 55 years after he shot and killed the then-presidential candidate in Los Angeles.

The latest denial by a California board in San Diego came after Sirhan was found suitable for parole by a two-person parole panel in 2021, but that decision was reversed by the state's governor, Gavin Newsom.

In an op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times in January 2022, Newsom wrote that Sirhan, who fatally shot Kennedy and wounded five others at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, remained a threat to the public.

Sirhan remains incarcerated at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.

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Sirhan's attorney, Angela Berry, said Wednesday's denial by the two-person parole board was influenced by Newsom's stringent opposition to the 78-year-old's release.

The decision "suggests that they kowtowed to the political whims of the governor," Berry said in an interview with The LA Times.

At Wednesday's hearing, several people spoke against Sirhan's release, including members of the Kennedy family and its attorney, Berry said.

"We didn't have the presence of Paul Schrade this year. (He) was the last surviving victim who was in favor of parole," Berry said.

Schrade, a prominent union official who was wounded in the 1968 shooting, died in November. He had repeatedly advocated for Sirhan's release and believed that more than one gunman was involved in the incident.

His sister, Louise "Weezie" Stone Duff, did speak Wednesday in favor of Sirhan's release, according to Berry.

Berry said she was unsure of what the next steps will be taken on Sirhan's behalf.

An appeal of Newsom's parole denial is making its way through the court, and there is reluctance to file another appeal of Wednesday's denial.

"The argument would be... (Sirhan) was found suitable, and there's been nothing in the intervening year and a half that would suggest that he has taken a downward spiral to make him unsuitable," Berry said. "Yet they came to a contrary decision that is not supported by the record," Berry added.

Sirhan was initially sentenced to death in 1969, but this was commuted to life in prison three years later.