A Connecticut drug kingpin convicted in the deaths of an 8-year-old boy and his mother was granted clemency by former President Joe Biden — in a stunning 11th-hour move slammed by fellow Democrats.
Adrian Peeler, 48, of Bridgeport, served 25 years in state prison on conspiracy charges in the deaths of Karen Clarke and her 8-year-old son, Leroy “BJ” Brown, in January 1999, CT Mirror reported.
The two had been slated to testify a month later against Peeler’s brother, fellow drug gang leader Russell Peeler, who was on trial for killing Clarke’s boyfriend and rival dealer Rudolf Snead, the Hartford Courant said.
Little BJ had told cops that he and another boy were sitting in Snead’s car when Russell shot and wounded Snead in a 1997 drive-by, the outlet said. Snead survived the attack but was later killed.
To keep him from telling his story in court, Peeler allegedly ambushed the mom and son as they came back to their Bridgeport apartment, court documents said. Authorities found Brown face down at the top of the stairs, while Clarke was found shot to death in a nearby bedroom where she’d tried to call for help.
But there was reportedly only one witness to the killings, and Peeler beat the murder and capital felony raps — but was convicted on the lesser charge of conspiracy to commit murder.
Peeler served his 25 years on the conspiracy conviction, and was transferred to the federal prison system to serve out his 35-year sentence for dealing cocaine, which ran concurrently.
On Friday, one of his final days in office, Biden commuted Peeler’s drug sentence, ordering him free on July 16, according to The Courant.
The stunning move was met with immediate outrage.
“We’ve been blindsided, where is the justice for my family?” Oswald Clarke, Karen Clarke’s brother, told CT Examiner. “It’s like we are hearing of BJ and Karen’s deaths all over again — but this time their killer is going free.”
Even Democrats were shocked by the move.
“It seems to me that someone dropped the ball here to let his person get released,” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who was the state’s attorney general when the murders were committed, said afterward.
“This was a really vicious murder that changed our laws. It also highlights how we need to take a look at the pardon system to see how it can be improved.”
Vincent Candelora, the GOP minority leader in the state’s House of Representatives, pilloried the move as a “disgusting miscarriage of justice.”
“Peeler’s conviction tied to brutal murders that prompted the creation of Connecticut’s witness protection program makes any leniency — federal or otherwise — utterly indefensible,” he said.
“This reckless act by Joe Biden dismisses the pain of the victims’ families and erodes public trust in the principles of justice. Such a careless decision at the close of his term should generate outrage here and throughout the nation.”
Peeler’s crimes eventually led the state to create a witness protection program.
“Wow — are you … kidding me? Biden did that?” former Deputy Chief State’s Attorney Christopher Morano, who developed the witness protection program after the killings, told the outlet when he found out about Biden’s move.
“Where’s the prosecutor screaming and yelling about this?” he asked, adding that he thought it unfathomable that no one checked Peeler’s criminal history before the commutation.
But Joseph Corradino, the Bridgeport State’s Attorney, told the outlet Tuesday that Peeler “received the maximum sentence in state court and completed it.”
He declined to comment further and referred questions to the US Attorney’s Office.
If not for the commutation, Peeler would’ve been jailed until October 2033, the Courant said. He’ll still have a criminal record — but he’ll be free.
Peeler sought to have his sentence reduced three years ago under 2018’s First Step Act, which reformed the federal prisons and their sentencing guidelines, among other things.
“I take full responsibility for all my actions that led me to be here today,” Peeler told Judge Janet Bond Arterton during the 2021 hearing, the CT Examiner reported. “I sold drugs in the community…It is something I think of every day.”
Arterton cut his federal sentence to 15 years instead. But she was stunned at his apparent lack of regret.
“Shockingly missing was an expression of remorse or apology to the families of Miss Clarke and B.J.,” Arterton said. “He didn’t turn around to face them and simply say ‘I’m sorry.’”
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