Family angry after Connecticut man convicted of murder gets leniency from Biden in drug case

Relatives of an 8-year-old boy and his mother killed by a gang in Connecticut are outraged that the man convicted of murder was one of nearly 2,500 people whose drug sentences were commuted by former President Joe Biden. last days at the office.

Adrian Peeler was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring to kill Leroy “BJ” Brown and his mother, Karen Clarke, in 1999 in Bridgeport – a slaying that shocked the city and led to increased federal witness protection. Prosecutors say Brown and his mother were killed to prevent the child from testifying in another murder case.

In December 2021, Peeler completed his federal sentence but began serving a 15-year federal prison sentence for selling a large amount of cocaine.

The federal sentence would have kept him behind bars until 2033. He is now set to be released in July.

Clarke’s brother, Oswald Clarke, said the ups and downs had left his family stunned and devastated.

“I’m sick and tired and disgusted,” he told The Associated Press in a phone interview Wednesday. “It’s a very shocking thing. My family is very worried about it. It’s like we’re suffering again.”

It was not immediately clear how Peeler, now 48, came to Biden’s attention, and the former president did not publicly disclose the specific reasons for Peeler’s reduced sentence. Email and social media messages were left with former White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre and White House spokesman Harrison Fields.

When he announced this act of compassion on Friday, Biden said that he was commuting the sentences of people convicted of non-violent drug crimes, saying that their prison sentences were too severe. The Democrat said he wants to reverse “sentences that are disproportionately long compared to the sentences they will receive today under current law, policy and practice.”

Peeler’s capital charge in the drug case did not allege murder, only that he and others conspired to sell multi-kilograms of crack cocaine.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who was the state’s attorney general when Brown and her mother were killed, said “someone dropped the ball” on Peeler’s clemency. He and other political leaders in Connecticut, including Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, criticized the change.

“This was a truly brutal murder that changed our laws,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “It also highlights how we need to look at the amnesty system to see how it can be improved.”

State Sen. Stephen Harding, the leader of the Republican minority, called the pardon “a slap in the face to all Connecticut victims of violent crime and their families.”

Peeler’s attorney, Michael Brown, declined to comment on the leniency. He said Peeler has worked hard to improve morale in prison and is a different person than he was a century ago.

“This guy did a lot of work for himself and helped a lot of people when he was incarcerated,” said Brown.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Connecticut, which prosecuted the drug case against Peeler, said Wednesday that it had not been discussed or notified in advance about Peeler’s plea. The office declined to comment.

Prosecutors say Peeler, at the behest of his older brother, Russell Peeler, shot Brown and Clarke at their Bridgeport home Jan. 7, 1999. Authorities said the brothers wanted to eliminate Brown as a witness against Russell Peeler in 1998. Clarke’s boyfriend, Rudolph Snead.

Brown had identified Russell Peeler to police as the person who shot Snead in the 1997 attack that Snead survived. The boy, who was riding in Snead’s car when he was shot, was expected to testify about the assault at Russell Peeler’s trial for again attacking Snead and killing him at the barbershop.

Both Peelers have been indicted federally for murder and face the death penalty. Although Adrian Peeler is the accused in the shooting, the judge only convicted him of conspiracy to murder and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for this crime and five more on other charges.

Russell Peeler was convicted and sentenced to death for ordering the murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2016 because the state abolished the death penalty. He was also sentenced to 105 years in prison for killing Snead.

In response to these murders, the state legislature passed legislation creating a new witness protection program that includes special protections for children.

Federal authorities said Russell Peeler operated a high-level crack cocaine operation in Bridgeport with a group that included his brother. Prior to the murder, prosecutors said Adrian Peeler had a criminal record that included firing an automatic weapon into an apartment with four young children inside but not being injured, jumping out of a central building and assaulting a correctional officer.

In the drug case, Adrian Peeler pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess drugs with intent to distribute and distribute cocaine and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. A judge in 2021 reduced the sentence to 15 years, citing revised sentencing guidelines intended to end the prison disparity between those convicted of powder cocaine and those incarcerated for crack.

“We’ve been trying for years and years to keep this guy off the streets,” Oswald Clarke said. “And it’s a huge disgrace in every way, and the entire state of Connecticut should be shocked, shocked and ashamed, and the federal government regardless of who’s in charge, they should all be ashamed of the kinds of things they’re doing.”