California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing a tough choice. But then again, it shouldn’t be a tough choice to decide whether to parole Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin who killed Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in June of 1968.

The killing of Robert Kennedy, just five years after the assassination of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, and just a couple of months after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, shook this country, and set the nation on a vastly different path politically.

Kennedy was seeking the Democratic nomination for president. After his death, Hubert Humphrey was nominated to run against Richard Nixon and lost. Kennedy might have pulled off the win. Sirhan Sirhan prevented that.

Sirhan, now 77, had been up for parole 15 times without success, until a parole board this past fall recommended he be paroled, saying he was no longer a danger to anyone. It is up to Newsom to allow or block the parole.

It is not a hard decision. Sirhan should remain in prison for the rest of his life for the damage and pain he inflicted on a whole country.

Sirhan has already had mercy shown to him. Originally sentenced to death, his sentence was commuted to life in prison when California briefly outlawed capital punishment in 1972.

Those who believe Sirhan is worthy of compassion and forgiveness, including some of Robert Kennedy’s children, are free to offer him forgiveness while he waits in prison for the end of his term to come, and he goes to face his final judgment.