NEW Fox News articles can now be heard on audio! Last year, an unsuccessful effort to reduce the sentence of a man convicted of murdering a lady with a pair of scissors resulted from the one vote made by Democratic Senate candidate and Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania John Fetterman.
In an interview with Fox News Digital on Thursday, the district attorney in the case claimed that Fetterman “had a predetermined agenda” to free the man and that he attempted to substitute the “power of the jury and the criminal justice system” with his authority as chair of the state’s Board of Pardons.
For the 1990 slaying of Sharon Ginsberg, the mother of his girlfriend, John David Brookins was found guilty of first-degree murder and given a life sentence in prison. Sharon Ginsberg was discovered with a pair of huge scissors impaled in her chest.
In addition to being stabbed in the chest, Ginsberg also had “eight major internal injuries,” including “protruding wounds and bone fractures,” according to an autopsy performed at the time. Ginsberg was also likely strangled, according to court documents .
DEM SENATE CANDIDATE FETTERMAN IS PRESSED TO RELEASE A PERSON WHO WAS CONVICTED OF KILLING AND STABBING A VICTIM.
Brookins asked for a commuted sentence last year, arguing that a DNA test on the murder weapon would clear him.
The district attorney for Bucks County, Matt Weintraub, resisted a DNA test, claiming that it would not disprove other compelling evidence that had been used to convict Brookins.
The Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, at Fetterman’s direction, decided in February 2021 to hold Brookins’ public hearing on March 4, 2021.
Brookin’s testimony during the private hearing, which Fetterman later acknowledged to the Bucks County Courier Times , “wasn’t particularly strong,” he said.
Nevertheless, the lieutenant governor cast a vote in favor of mercy. According to him, Brookins could not have committed the crime given his 30 years of good behavior in jail, his bachelor’s degree in horticulture, and the fact that he teaches yoga, according to the Courier Times.
That doesn’t make sense to me, Fetterman told the publication.
I AGREE WITH CUTTING PRISON POPULATION BY ONE-THIRD IN UNEARTHED CLIP, SAYS DEM SENATE CANDIDATE FETTERMAN
In the end, the board rejected Brookins’ bid for clemency 4-1, with Fetterman giving the lone affirmative vote.
Weintraub commented on the situation in an interview on Thursday, calling Fetterman’s conduct at the hearing, which was conducted through Zoom owing to COVID-19, “extremely disrespectful and unprofessional.”
Weintraub told Fox News Digital, “It looked to me that he had a set goal to attempt to get this guy released without listening to anything anybody had to say about it beforehand.” “I began my remarks by expressing that I hoped the members of this pardons board would refrain from prejudging this case, as I believe it is vital for us, the victims, the survivors, and the inhabitants of Buncombe County to receive some closure in this matter.”
He continued, “He took exception to that. “Then I reacted by saying, “Well, I have a tweet from you, Mr. Fetterman, from a month before this hearing that presupposed that Brookins was innocent and should be released from jail, and that was my issue.” That was when Mr. Fetterman’s tweet caught my attention. And that truly irritated him. He turned off his screen as he said this while on a Zoom call. It was the same as a toddler leaving a game he was playing with his ball.”
Brookins had received numerous requests for “justice” from Fetterman in his tweets about him.
Weintraub claimed that a little while later, Fetterman re-entered the call and continuously urged Weintraub to return his time to the board. Weintraub said that the other board members stepped up for him, allowing him to conclude his statements before the victim’s son’s testimony was heard. The victim’s family, according to Weintraub, was “totally opposed” to Brookins’ bid for clemency.
He claimed that Mr. Fetterman was unfairly attempting to replace the authority of the jury and the criminal justice system with that of the “pardons” boards. Because Mr. Brookins maintained his innocence notwithstanding a jury’s verdict to the contrary and numerous judicial rulings to the contrary.
SANCTUARY CITIES MAKE EVERYONE SAFER, PENNSYLVANIA LT. GOV. FETTERMAN, A CANDIDATE FOR THE SENATE, SAID
Weintraub expressed his “fear” that Fetterman’s past behaviour may influence how he will behave in the Senate.
He claimed that “he does not like to be crossed or opposed.” “Regardless of how the system had previously decided on these cases, he was approaching this as his own unique chance to make up for perceived wrongs. And if he continued to act in that manner in the future, I would be worried.”
Joe Calvello, a spokesman for the Fetterman campaign, supported the Democratic party’s clemency policy.
“John is proud of the fact that he helped non-violent prisoners and others who were unfairly convicted by serving on the Board of Pardons. Democrats and Republicans alike have applauded his efforts on the board, “added Calvello.
John voted to give mercy in many of the instances that were presented before the board, while also voting to deny pardon in thousands of other cases.
As the election between Fetterman and Mehmet Oz, a Republican opponent, heats up, Fetterman’s record on crime has come under question.
Raymond Johnson was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of first- and second-degree murder in a 1973 York County killing. Fetterman successfully advocated for Johnson’s early release. The Fetterman Board of Pardons unanimously decided to commute Johnson’s sentence on September 13, 2019, and Governor Tom Wolf approved the request in December, freeing Johnson from prison.
