Fetterman and felony murder
Oz claimed that Fetterman wants to release all people convicted of second-degree murder, also known as felony murder.
“John Fetterman, during this crime wave, has been trying to get as many murderers convicted and sentenced to life in prison out of jail as possible,” he said.
This is false.
Oz is referring to an out-of-context clip of Fetterman talking to a criminal justice advocacy group in 2020 about two specific inmates.
“The Horton brothers were called the two finest inmates in our state prison system, the two you know? I have made getting them out of prison, like the most, you know, critical thing I’ll ever do,” he said. “There isn’t anything that I won’t do within the limits of the law and my office, to make sure that they are free.”
The Horton brothers were convicted of felony murder in 1993, after picking up a friend in their car who they were unaware had just committed a murder. The police arrested all three men and charged the brothers with 2nd degree felony murder, a mandatory life sentence in Pa. Fetterman advocated for their release after they served 27 years in prison, which they were granted last year.
Audio from that clip has been used in attack ads paid for by the Senate Leadership Fund, which supports Republican candidates.
Fetterman has never advocated for freeing everybody convicted of felony murder.
He’s said he wants to end mandatory life-without-parole sentences for felony murder convictions for defendants who are accessories in a killing, like the Horton brothers accidentally were. He’d like to give judges discretion in sentencing.
Pennsylvanians can be charged with felony murder when police believe someone committed a felony that led to death, even if they didn’t commit the murder themselves. Pennsylvania is one of nine states in which felony murder convictions carry mandatory life-without-parole sentences.
Both have changed their minds about fracking
When asked by the moderators about his history of flip-flopping on fracking, Fetterman said he’s always supported it.
“I do support fracking,” he said. “I support fracking, and I stand, and I do support fracking.”
This appears to be a change in his stance, since he opposed it during an interview in 2018.
“I don’t support fracking and I never have,” he told the progressive YouTube channel Real Progress in Action.
He did discuss his support for two Allegheny County mills responsible for thousands of jobs.
“My opposition to something does not outweigh your right to earn and to provide food, shelter and a living that takes care of you and your family,” he said during the interview.
Moderators also pressed Oz on his history of opposing fracking.
Oz wrote a column in 2014 calling for Pennsylvania to stop fracking until the health effects were better understood.
He didn’t directly acknowledge that in his response.
“I’ve been very consistent,” he said. “Fracking has been demonstrated, it’s a very old technology, to be safe. It is a lifeline for this commonwealth to be able to build wealth.”