Pa. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman Says Life Without Parole Isn't Justified In Cases Of 2nd-Degree Murder
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Pennsylvania Lt. Governor John Fetterman released a study he says shows that life without parole isn't justified in cases of second-degree murder.
The study comes as Gov. Tom Wolf commuted the life sentences of 13 Pennsylvania inmates on Friday. Among them was 71-year-old Charles Goldblum of Pittsburgh. He was convicted of stabbing a man to death, but lingering questions remain about his guilt or innocence.
Fetterman says it serves no purpose for Goldblum to remain behind bars.
"When someone served 45 years of their lives, he was wheelchair-bound when interviewed," Fetterman said. "He's not a threat to public safety. At that point, when does justice become vengeance?"
While the lieutenant governor favors life for first-degree cases, he says second-degree cases are clogging our prisons with aging inmates and costing millions of dollars.
"We have freed individuals whose crime was being an 18-year-old sitting in a getaway car, having no idea what was going on inside. We freed a man who did 51 years and he never took a life," Fetterman said.
Fetterman chairs the state's Board of Pardons. He's a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2022.