Bucks DA Opposes Clemency For Convicted Murderer

BRISTOL TOWNSHIP, PA — Bucks County's district attorney is speaking out against proposed clemency for a man convicted of the 1990 murder of a woman in Bristol Township.

John Brookins will appear Thursday before the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons seeking clemency. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the Dec. 20, 1990 murder of 58-year-old Sheila Ginsberg in her apartment.

Brookins maintains his innocence in the case and has picked up supporters calling for his release. But District Attorney Matthew Weintraub remains unswayed.

"Mr. Brookins’ petition to be absolved of his murderous conduct in the killing of Ms. Ginsberg would subvert justice," Weintraub said Wednesday in a news release. "Mr. Brookins was convicted of first-degree murder for killing Ms. Ginsberg, by a jury of his peers and after offering a full defense. There is no basis in law, or in fact, to absolve him of his guilt, or to let him go free."

On a website created to support Brookins, he casts blame on Ginsberg's daughter and alleges that she was not investigated because she had a personal relationship with a detective assigned to the case.

An appeal filed on his behalf goes on to claim detectives tried to force a confession out of him after he had taken Xanax and drunk a six-pack of beer, hit him and attempted to plant a handgun on him during his arrest. It claims that DNA testing, which Brookins says would exonerate him, was never conducted on a pair of bloody gloves found after the killing.

A petition on Change.org asking Gov. Tom Wolf and the pardons board to commute Brookins' sentence has collected more than 8,000 signatures.

The petition notes his behavior since going to prison, which includes becoming a certified yoga instructor, earning a degree from Pennsylvania State College of Horticulture and creating a fitness and wellness program used at Phoenix State Correctional Institution, in Collegeville, where he is incarcerated.

But, in a letter to the Board of Pardons, Bucks County Chief Deputy District Attorney Jill Graziano laid out her office's case. It says Brookins' fingerprints were found at the crime scene, including a bloody fingerprint found on a television remote near Ginsberg's body.

She says Brookins repeatedly changed his story during three police interviews in 1991 and claims he made up a story about walking in on Ginsberg's daughter attacking her mother.

According to the letter, no physical evidence was ever found linking Ginsberg's daughter to the killing.

"His repeated denials, his ever-changing account of events and his failure to report to police or anyone else his apparent discovery of Sheila Ginsberg's murder makes his attempt to explain away the physical evidence against him wholly unbelievable," Graziano wrote. "The Bucks County District Attorney's Office asks this Board not to be swayed by conjecture or the false specter of an innocent man in prison. John Brookins is not innocent, and he does not deserve clemency in the murder of Sheila Ginsberg."

The letter goes on to say evidence showed Ginsberg's injuries would have required a "great deal" or "considerable amount" of force unlikely from her daughter, who was 5 feet tall and weighed between 80-90 pounds.

Brookins request is scheduled for a Board of Pardons session set to start at 3 p.m. Thursday. The session may be viewed online.

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