Prosecutors Condemn Murphy For Freeing Convicted NJ Killer: 'Truly Offensive'

CAMDEN COUNTY, NJ — Prosecutors said they strongly object to Gov. Phil Murphy's decision to commute the sentence of a woman convicted of stabbing her 21-year-old boyfriend to death in the kitchen of her family's Audubon Park home in 2010.

Murphy granted a commutation last week in the prison sentence of Paige Pfefferle, who was found guilty of murder in the fatal stabbing of her high school boyfriend, Matthew Hus. She was freed from Edna Mahan Correctional Facility on Thursday, court records show.

The Camden County Prosecutor's Office "strenuously objected" to her release, with officials saying that Pfefferle, who was 19 at the time of the killing, has continuously lied about the facts of the case.

"Clearly, the defendant was not a suitable candidate for clemency or commutation," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Advocates say Pfefferle was defending herself against abuse she'd suffered as a teen. At trial, she testified Hus had been controlling and abusive during their relationship, and had struck her with both a tire iron and the claw end of a hammer.

Pfefferle initially told paramedics she didn’t know how Hus was injured, before later admitting he had been stabbed—but she claimed to have been holding the knife by her hip, and he walked into it. In 2013, she was sentenced to 30 years in prison without parole after a jury convicted her of first-degree murder.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey has advocated for Pfefferle, calling her "a survivor who defended herself against her abuser when she was 19 years old."

"I'm grateful to be granted clemency so I can advocate for those who suffer from mental health issues and women and young girls who are survivors of domestic abuse," she said in a statement released through the ACLU-NJ.

But the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office said that Pfefferle was actually the aggressor in the relationship, and that her statement "is truly offensive to actual victims of domestic violence."

During trial, Pfefferle's friends testified that she would "berate, push, and shove" Hus in their presence, prosecutors said.

"She is a violent criminal, who not only murdered a 21-year-old young man, but she attempted to attack his good character to cover up her heinous act, which she continues to do," prosecutors said. "Paige Pfefferle was not a battered woman – she was the batterer."

"Her repeated lies from the night of the murder throughout both her appeal and post-conviction processes demonstrate that she has not been rehabilitated," prosecutors continued. "She refuses to take responsibility for her violent actions and asserts repeated lies to cover them up."