Clemency Denied For Convicted Bucks Co. Murderer

BRISTOL TOWNSHIP, PA — The Pennsylvania Board of Pardons on Thursday denied clemency to a man who claims he was wrongly convicted of a Bristol Township woman's 1990 murder.

In a 4-1 vote, the board denied the clemency request of John Brookins, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the Dec. 20, 1990 killing of 58-year-old Sheila Ginsberg in her apartment.

Brookins maintains his innocence in the case. But the Bucks County District Atttorney's Office, which calls the evidence against him overwhelming, celebrated the board's decision.

"The Board of Pardons is not the proper venue for Mr. Brookins to attempt to adjudicate guilt or innocence — the courts of law are," said Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub. "And every court that has reviewed Mr. Brookins’ innocence claims over the past three decades, including his most recent request for DNA testing, has rejected his ever-changing claims.

"Our office remains unshaken in our confidence that John Brookins is guilty of the murder of which he was convicted, and that justice has again prevailed."

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.

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