Back in 2021, now-Senate candidate John Fetterman called for clemency for second-degree murderers, people who are just one rung on the criminal justice ladder away from one of the worst, and certainly most harshly punished, crime of all: first-degree murder.
Apparently, Fetterman (though he’s now trying to walk his past arguments back) has a soft spot in his heart for killers. The New York Post, reporting on that argument of his, said:
Fetterman, the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor who chairs the state’s Board of Pardons (BOP), commissioned two reports last year released by Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity (PLSE) that recommended the BOP consider merit-based clemency for currently incarcerated second-degree murderers, as well as for the state legislature to reform the law that mandates life sentences without parole for second-degree murder convictions.
Fetterman said at the time that he commissioned the reports in a call for “mercy for the deserving and rehabilitated.”
During a PLSE press conference on March 1, 2021, Fetterman said the reports documented “the lives that are destroyed” and “the resources that are wasted” due to Pennsylvania’s statute, and that he hoped the reports’ findings would “lead to a conversation” that would free close to 1,200 people.
“I hope that it could lead to a conversation that would free close to 1,200 people of a legacy that never made sense, that encompasses victims’ input, encompasses their conduct and behavior in prison, it takes a look at the resources that are wasted that…,” he said.
Fetterman also posted about the issue on social media, saying: “If you did not take a life, Pennsylvania should not take yours by incarceration. For the 1st time in PA, my office is proactively evaluating and encouraging commutations for those condemned to die in prison. Justice should allow for redemption.”
Well, while Fetterman might want mercy for criminals, those who have had loved ones killed by the criminals Fetterman would free aren’t so interested in his soft on crime ideas. Among them was the wife of a slain police officer who had this to say:
As you can hear in the video, she, slamming Fetterman, said:
“That is just infuriating to me. I don’t know what John Fetterman’s doing, but I think the Philadelphia people, the Pennsylvania people better really take a look at what they are going to do if they put John Fetterman in. The city is already destroyed. It’s going to be in shambles by the time Fetterman’s done with it.”
“I’ve been listening to it for over 40 years. I was 24 years old when my husband was murdered, shot in the head, point-blank, by Mumia Abu-Jamal. He did it with malice and did it with premeditation, and there’s no doubt in my mind. I went to every single court hearing, and if anyone wanted to know who murdered my husband, it was me.
“I wanted to know who murdered Danny, and it was Mumia. He did it with such malice. I mean, he executed him.
“Everywhere I go, anything I do, his name is brought up. He’s on walls, and he’s in newspapers. I’ve been haunted for so many years of my life from this man. To be honest, I will not be at peace until he’s six feet under.”
In other words, the wife of a victim of one of Fetterman’s criminals doesn’t want the cop-killer turned out back on the streets. She wants him good and dead.
Fox News, adding context to the video, said:
In a recent interview with Fox News Digital, Maureen Faulkner blasted Fetterman for advocating for the release of convicted criminals onto the streets and his appointment of Celeste Trusty to serve on the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, saying her husband, Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, was “shot in the head, point-blank by Mumia Abu-Jamal” in 1981.
Abu-Jamal was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1982 for Faulkner’s murder, however, after numerous appeals, a federal court overturned his sentence. In 2011, prosecution agreed to a sentence of life imprisonment for Abu-Jamal without the possibility of parole.
Abu-Jamal’s case has been popularized by several individuals who have advocated for his release, including Trusty, who now serves as the secretary of the pardons board after she was appointed by Fetterman, the state’s current lieutenant governor, to the role in January.
By: Gen Z Conservative
Left side of featured image screenshot from Rumble
This story syndicated with permission from Gen Z Conservative