Fetterman’s Commutation Vote on Convicted Murderer
A Republican super PAC’s ad labels Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman “dangerously liberal on crime,” citing a case in which Fetterman, the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, voted to recommend the commutation of a life sentence for a man convicted of murder in 1970.
The narrator in the ad says, “He shot a teenager in cold blood, killing him for money to buy heroin. And John Fetterman wanted him to walk free. As chairman of the Board of Pardons, Fetterman says he’s trying to get as many criminals out of prison as he can. Over the pleas of the victim’s family, John Fetterman was the only vote to release the murderer, the only one.”
The ad from Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC established by allies of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to support Republican Senate candidates, is referring to the case of Wayne Covington, who was convicted of shooting and killing an 18-year-old man during a robbery in 1969. Covington, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Nothing in the Senate Leadership Fund ad is factually inaccurate, but since the ad is in high rotation on Pennsylvania’s TV and radio airwaves and on social media — and Fetterman has made criminal justice a centerpiece of his campaign — we thought readers may want
