Re: Dem Senate Candidate Voted To Free Convicted Murderer Who Killed 18-Year-Old for Heroin Money

In article <[email protected]>
<[email protected]> wrote:
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> Add Fetterman to the cull list.
>

Wayne Covington was sentenced to life in prison after he shot 
and killed an 18-year-old for money to buy heroin. Pennsylvania 
Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman wants him to walk free.

In June 2021, Fetterman was the only member of the state's Board 
of Pardons—which he chairs as lieutenant governor—to vote to 
commute Covington's sentence, according to records reviewed by 
the Washington Free Beacon. In 1970, Covington admitted to 
shooting 18-year-old George Rudnycky to death while high, as 
Covington and an accomplice were robbing Rudnycky for drug 
money. Covington pleaded guilty to first-degree murder to avoid 
the death penalty and was sentenced to life imprisonment. 
Fetterman cast his vote over the pleas of Rudnycky’s family 
members, who opposed Covington's release at the killer’s 
commutation hearing.

One year after the controversial vote, Fetterman is placing his 
Board of Pardons record at the center of his campaign against 
Republican Mehmet Oz. His campaign site boasts that he 
"transformed" the lieutenant governor position "into a bully 
pulpit for criminal justice reform" and "led the fight to free 
the wrongfully convicted and give second chances to deserving 
longtime inmates." Fetterman, who has said he ran for lieutenant 
governor solely to lead the Board of Pardons, has specifically 
called to end life sentences for second-degree murderers who 
participated in a killing but did not "pull the trigger."

But in Covington's case, Fetterman took no issue with voting to 
release a triggerman who admitted to shooting his young victim—a 
vote that Pennsylvania attorney general and Democratic 
gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro did not reciprocate. A review 
of Fetterman's tenure on the board, meanwhile, shows that the 
Democrat has voted to release an array of violent criminals 
jailed for their roles in brutal murders, a far cry from the 
"innocent" people Fetterman often says he works to release. 
Those votes—as well as Fetterman's unabashed support for George 
Soros-funded Philadelphia district attorney Larry 
Krasner—prompted a letter from 13 Pennsylvania sheriffs who said 
Fetterman’s crime policy positions "would add to already rising 
crime rates in Pennsylvania." Their criticism of Fetterman could 
plague the Democrat's campaign as Pennsylvanians deal with a 
record murder spike.

Fetterman's campaign did not return a request for comment. The 
Board of Pardons denied the Free Beacon’s public records request 
for a video or transcript of the June 2021 hearing, saying that 
records of the public event are "confidential." Fetterman's 
office, which issued the denial, did not respond to a request 
for comment.

Beyond his support for Covington's commutation, Fetterman has 
supported the release of violent criminals Denise Crump and 
Anthony Eberhardt, pardon board votes reviewed by the Free 
Beacon show. Crump received life in prison in the late 1980s 
after she and an accomplice killed a 46-year-old man to "steal 
his television set, which was then sold for $60 to buy cocaine," 
according to the Philadelphia Daily News. Eberhardt also 
participated in a robbery-murder, which led to the shooting 
death of a beer distributor.

Pennsylvania's Board of Pardons has faced high-profile 
recidivism issues in the past. In 1992, board members voted to 
commute the sentence of serial killer Reginald McFadden, who 
immediately went on a murdering spree, killing two and 
kidnapping and raping a third within three months of his 
release. After that ordeal, Pennsylvanians voted to raise the 
board's approval standard from a majority vote to a unanimous 
one, a move that caused life-sentence commutations to plummet.

Fetterman has called McFadden's actions "unthinkable." But the 
infamous murderer's post-release killing spree has not stopped 
the Democrat from backing an amendment to lower the board's vote 
threshold to 4-1. Since 2019, Fetterman has cast the sole vote 
to pardon or commute a sentence at least 27 times, pardon board 
records reviewed by the Free Beacon show.

In January, Fetterman appointed his campaign political director, 
Celeste Trusty, as secretary of the Board of Pardons. Trusty 
supports many of the same criminal justice reform policies as 
Fetterman, and has called to "disarm the police." She worked on 
Fetterman’s campaign through this January, according to Federal 
Election Commission records.

Published under: Crime, Drugs, John Fetterman, Murder, 
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/dem-senate-candidate-voted-to-
free-convicted-murderer-who-killed-18-year-old-for-heroin-money/