Republicans Blast Fetterman After Man Exonerated of Murder Was Allegedly Involved in Another Murder

President Joe Biden speaks with Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a Democratic candida
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Nick Gilbertson

Republicans are blasting Pennsylvania’s Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman because a man — exonerated of a murder conviction and released from prison through Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), which Fetterman supports — was allegedly involved in another murder in September.

On Thursday, Fox 29 Philadelphia reported that Jahmir Harris, 32, who was released from prison last year, is wanted for his alleged role in the murder of 50-year-old Charles Gossett in September.

“Prosecutors say Harris was identified by security footage as the driver of a vehicle that two gunman exited before shooting 50-year-old Charles Gossett in the back of the head around 2 a.m.,” Fox 29’s Steve Keeley and Kelly Rule reported. On Friday afternoon, Keeley tweeted that Harris turned himself in.

Donald Trump Jr. took to Twitter to slam Fetterman, stating that this is what the Democrat “supports” and that “He has blood on his hands!!!”

Republican strategist Arthur Schwartz also ripped Fetterman. Schwartz posted Harris’s mugshot and asked Fetterman, “Is this Morgan Freeman?” The Democrat has drawn criticism for suggesting the 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption, in which Freeman starred, justifies releasing convicted killers from prison.

“VOTE REPUBLICAN,” tweeted Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to former President Donald Trump.

Harris was convicted of the December 2012 murder of Louis Porter, who was shot in the head in front of his own five-year-old son. He was sentenced to life without parole in 2015 but was exonerated and released through Krasner’s CIU last year, which Fetterman lauded earlier this week while speaking with David Weigel of Semafor:

There’s plenty of things that I agree with him about. One thing about him that I did support is that he’s freed, I think it is about two dozen innocently convicted individuals that spent decades in prison. I think that really is justice. It’s not being hard on crime to allow innocent people to to die in prison. But there’s other issues that we disagree on.

As lieutenant governor, Fetterman oversees Pennsylvania’s five-person Board of Pardons, which saw scores of commutation recommendations under his watch. Between March 2019 through April 2022, the board sent at least 46 recommendations to Gov. Tom Wolf (D), as the Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Julia Terruso reported in May.

“That’s compared with just six in Wolf’s first term, none under former Republican Gov. Tom Corbett’s one term, and only five during former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell’s eight years in office,” Terruso wrote.

Fetterman has also said that Pennsylvania should have been freeing convicts “all along” during the 2020 Chinese coronavirus jailbreak and stated that he believes Pennsylvania could empty its prisons by one-third “and not make anyone less safe.”

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