A 48-year-old Connecticut drug kingpin who killed a mother and her 8-year-old son so she wouldn’t testify against his brother has been pardoned as part of former President Joe Biden’s pardon for nearly 2,500 federal prisoners he called “non-violent.”
Bridgeport drug trafficker Adrian Peeler killed a woman named Karen Clark and her 8-year-old son just weeks before he was to testify against her brother, who was accused of shooting Clark’s boyfriend in front of the child.
In January 1999, the mother and son were attacked when they returned home to their apartment. Police found the boy on the stairs with a bullet hole in the back of his head and the clerk with a gunshot wound and his arm extended inches from the phone. from CT post.
Biden Pardons ‘Cop Killers’
Oswald Clark, left, is helped by funeral home employee Kevin Mitchell, brother of Karen Clark, next to her casket during services at Community Church of God in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Jan. 20, 1999. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
Peeler, the alleged shooter, beat the top charge of murder and served 25 years in state prison for conspiracy to commit murder. He also pleaded guilty to federal cocaine trafficking charges. After serving his Connecticut sentence, he was transferred to federal custody to serve more time.
Peeler’s latest appeal was rejected in October last year, but he previously persuaded a judge to shave 20 years off his sentence because of good behavior and the young age he committed the murders. He would have been released in 2034.
Biden’s last-minute apology also surprised Clark’s family.
“I’m sick and tired, and I’m upset,” her brother Oswald Clark told The Associated Press. “It’s a very shocking thing. My family is very upset about it. It’s like we’ve been traumatized again.”
Biden frees radical left-wing killer convicted of killing FBI agents during last hours as president
In this July 1, 2016 file photo, Russell Peeler Jr. speaks in Bridgeport Superior Court in Bridgeport, Conn., where he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for ordering the killing in an 8-year-old murder case. In 1999, Sakshi and the boy’s mother. His brother, Adrian Peeler, was the alleged shooter. (Ned Garrard/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool, File)
On 17 January, the The White House boasted That Biden issued more pardons and commutations “than any president in US history”.
“today, I am commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug crimes who are serving disproportionately long sentences under current law, policy and practice,” Biden said in a statement.
Even top Democrats were surprised by the move.
“I feel like somebody dropped the ball here to get this guy off,” Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said. CT post. “This was truly a hate killing that changed our law. It also shows how we need to take a look at the amnesty system to see how it can be improved.”
The murders prompted Connecticut officials to beef up the state’s witness protection program, and Bridgeport officials named a park in Clark’s honor, according to the outlet.
Full list of Biden’s pardon and commutation recipients released
Peeler’s brother, Russell Peeler, was sentenced to death for ordering the murder but his sentence was commuted to life in prison without parole after Connecticut abolished the death penalty.
Biden’s list of “non-violent” pardon recipients, which was released separately, includes more violent offenders than just Peeler.
Two Virginia men serving life sentences in the 1998 drug-related death of a Sussex County police officer were also freed.
Fearon Claiborne and Terence Richardson, known as the “Waverly Two”, both admitted to playing a role in the death of Officer Alan Gibson but were later acquitted of murder charges at trial due to an apparent lack of evidence. But they were convicted of lesser charges and sentenced to life in prison anyway.
Arlington, Va. on January 16, 2025. President Joe Biden at a Department of Defense farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in In his final days in office, he granted thousands of pardon requests. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Gibson, 25, stumbles upon a back alley drug deal in Waverly involving Richardson and Claiborne. According to officials, the two assaulted him and disarmed him. He was later found with a gunshot wound to his stomach, under his bulletproof vest.
Richardson pleaded guilty to state charges of involuntary manslaughter and Claiborne pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact. He later went to trial in federal court, where prosecutors failed to convince the jury he was guilty of murder but was convicted on drug trafficking charges.
“I am absolutely disgusted by what happened,” Chrisanna Gibson, the daughter of the dead officer, said in a statement issued by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miares. “It breaks my heart to know that the men who killed my father are going to be released from prison and can walk the streets freely.”
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Separated from “non-violent” changes, Biden ignored the pleas of former FBI Director Christopher Wray and ordered the release of Leonard Peltier, a left-wing activist convicted of his role in an ambush shooting that killed two FBI agents in South Dakota. 1975.
On his last day in office, he commuted Peltier’s life sentence and granted a last-minute preemptive pardon to his family members and allies, including his siblings. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Mark Milley and members of the January 6 Committee. He had previously forgiven his son Hunter.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
