In one of his last acts before leaving office Tuesday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy issued a pardon to Harris Jacobs, the son of politically influential Atlantic City attorney and Democratic power broker Joe Jacobs.
Harris Jacobs, 28, was convicted Tuesday of leaving the scene of a fatal motor vehicle accident after 76‑year‑old Orlando Fraga-Seruti was struck and killed in 2022.
Prosecutors said surveillance footage showed Harris Jacobs get out of his car, lean over Fraga-Seruti twice, then drive off without calling police.
Fraga-Seruti worked as a security officer at the Claridge and Sands Casinos after emigrating from Cuba, according to an online obituary.
A jury found Harris Jacobs guilty, but the conviction was rendered moot with the pardon issued by Murphy the same day.
Murphy’s office notified Harris Jacobs’ attorney early that morning that a pardon had already been issued — before the jury reached a verdict, defense attorney Lou Barbone told BreakingAC, a local news site.
Harris Jacobs was facing a mandatory sentence of five to 10 years in prison.
The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office criticized the pardon.
“Unfortunately, when politics pervades justice, the rule of law becomes subordinate to influence and power,” the office said in a statement. “A conviction can be rendered meaningless not by the verdict of a jury, but by the intervention of political power and connections.”
Harris and Joe Jacobs did not immediately respond to a request to comment.
Joe Jacobs previously raised more than $100,000 at an event at his house for former First Lady Tammy Murphy’s failed U.S. Senate campaign in 2023, InsiderNJ reported at the time.
The pardon was one of 51 commutations and 97 pardons issued by Murphy, a Democrat, on his final day in office. That was the most issued in a single day in modern state history.
The ACLU of New Jersey praised Murphy for the pardons and commutations, which included 16 of the group’s clients.
ACLU-NJ officials said the action brings the total number of people granted clemency under Murphy to 455, including 37 represented by the group.
“These historic grants of clemency have made our state stronger and fairer,” ACLU-NJ Executive Director Amol Sinha said, urging new Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration to continue to prioritize clemency.
The ACLU’s Clemency Project, launched in 2024, focuses on ending excessive sentencing, especially in cases involving domestic‑violence survivors and defendants who received steep penalties after declining plea offers.
The 16 ACLU-NJ clients granted commutations this week included several people who had served decades longer than the plea deals originally offered to them, including Pablo Acevedo.
Acevedo was offered a sentence of 10 years to plead guilty to burglary, robbery and conspiracy. But he was sentenced to 30 years in prison after he turned down the plea offer and was found guilty, the ACLU said.
“I have changed my life completely for the better and grown into a rehabilitated human being. I humbly believe clemency is appropriate based on the large amount of time I have already served, and the disparity in the sentences I received for going to trial in comparison to what was offered by the state,” Acevedo said in a statement.
He will be released immediately, the group said.
Multiple domestic‑violence survivors — including Briann Lindsey and Germania Terrero — also received commutations.
Lindsey, who attacked her abuser in self-defense, had accepted a 15-year plea deal for aggravated manslaughter before Murphy’s commutation, the ACLU said.
Terrero is a survivor of domestic violence who rejected a plea deal of 12 years if she pleaded guilty to conspiracy and murder charges related to the killing of her abuser, the ACLU said. She was later sentenced to 30 years.
“For the past three years, I have had the privilege to connect with clients, hear their stories, and help create an infrastructure where their dreams could come true,” said ACLU-NJ Clemency Project director Rebecca Uwakwe.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.