Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. and Democratic Senate candidate
John Fetterman last year cast the lone vote in a failed bid to commute the sentence of a man convicted of murdering a woman with a pair of scissors.
The district attorney in the case alleged during an interview with Fox News Digital on Thursday that Fetterman "had a predetermined agenda" to get the man released, and that
he tried to use his power as chair of the state's Board of Pardons to substitute the "power of the jury and the criminal justice system."
John David Brookins was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 1992 for the 1990 killing of his girlfriend’s mother, Sharon Ginsberg, who was found with a pair of large scissors lodged in her chest.
An autopsy at the time revealed that Ginsberg was not only stabbed in the chest, but also had "eight significant internal injuries, including skull penetration consistent with an object such as scissors, protruding wounds, and bone fractures," and that she was also likely strangled, according to court documents.
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Fetterman later admitted to the Bucks County Courier Times that Brookins’ testimony during the hearing, which was confidential, "wasn’t particularly strong."
The lieutenant governor cast a vote for clemency anyway. He told the Courier Times that he could not imagine Brookins committed the crime, due to his 30 years of good behavior in prison, and the fact that he holds a bachelor’s degree in horticulture and teaches yoga.
"That doesn’t square with me," Fetterman told the outlet.
The board ended up voting 4-1 against Brookins’ clemency request, with Fetterman casting the lone vote in favor.
In an interview Thursday, Weintraub weighed in on the case and
blasted Fetterman as "completely disrespectful and unprofessional" at the hearing, which occurred over Zoom due to COVID-19.
"It seemed to me that he had a predetermined agenda to try to get this guy released without listening to anything anybody had to say about it beforehand," Weintraub told Fox News Digital. "I started my remarks by saying that this is an important case for us, for the victims, for the survivors, for the citizens of Buncombe County to get some finality in this case, and I said I would hope that the members of this pardons board not have not prejudged this case."
"He took an insult to that," he continued. "And then I responded and said, ‘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 concern.’ And he really got upset about that. This was on a Zoom call, and he shut off his screen. It was the equivalent of a child in a child's game taking his ball and going home."
Fetterman had repeatedly tweeted about Brookins, calling for "justice" for him.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fet...woman-scissors
Fetterman cast lone vote in failed bid to free man convicted of murdering woman with scissors; DA speaks out
