TV Ad Twists Facts to Fit Narrative in Attack on Beshear in Kentucky Governor’s Race
A TV ad from a conservative super PAC attacks Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s decision during the COVID-19 pandemic to release more than 1,800 prisoners convicted of non-violent or non-sexual felonies. But the details of the case featured in the ad don’t fit the ad’s narrative.
The ad from School Freedom Fund highlights the case of what the narrator says was a “predatory felon” whose early release by Beshear allowed the man to strike “again.”
The featured felon, , was charged in March 2021 with sexually assaulting a child under 12 years old, and other crimes. Where the ad goes astray, however, is in its implication that Nickell was in prison for a similar offense when he was released early from prison in August 2020. At that time, Nickell was serving an 18-month sentence for heroin the Louisville Courier Journal. (The story is behind a paywall.)
