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A man convicted in connection with the heartless murder of an 8-year-old boy and his mother in Bridgeport, Conn., has been released from prison after being granted clemency by former President Joe Biden.
Adrian Peeler, 49, conspired with his brother Russell Peeler Jr. to shoot and kill 8-year-old Leroy “B.J.” Brown and his mother Karen Clarke in 1999 and was sentenced to a combined 60 years in state and federal prison.
After completing his state sentence in January 2022, Peeler was granted clemency by the outgoing Biden administration for his 35-year federal sentence on separate drug charges, which would have had him wearing prison stripes until at least 2033, NBC Connecticut reported.
The release has shocked state lawmakers, including liberal Democrat and Biden supporter Senator Richard Blumenthal, who was Connecticut’s attorney general at the time of the ghastly crime.
“It seems to me that someone dropped the ball here to let this person get released,” Blumenthal said in a statement, the CT Post reported.
“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,” the senator added.
Little BJ and Clarke, his mother, were slated to testify against Peeler’s drug-dealing brother, who was on trial for killing Clarke’s boyfriend Rudolf Snead, a fellow drug dealer, according to the Hartford Courant.
BJ was prepared to testify that he was in the car when Russell Peeler Jr. shot Snead in a drive-by shooting in 1997.
But before that could happen, the Peeler brothers ambushed the mother and son at their Bridgeport apartment – shooting the boy to death at the top of the stairs and leaving his mother in a pool of blood in the bedroom where she attempted to call for help.
Both Peelers were charged by the state with capital felony and murder.
Despite Adrian Peeler being the alleged shooter, a jury convicted him only of murder conspiracy, NBC Connecticut reported.
The horrific slayings inspired the Nutmeg State to create its own witness protection program.
The family of Clarke and BJ was apoplectic when Peelers’ release was announced.
“We’ve been blindsided. Where is the justice for my family?” Oswald Clarke, Karen’s brother, told the 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.”
Peeler previously sought to have his sentence reduced under 2018’s First Step Act, but was excoriated by a judge in 2021 for lacking remorse.
“I take full responsibility for all my actions that led me to be here today,” Peeler told Judge Janet Bond Arterton during a 2021 hearing.
“I sold drugs to the community… It is something I think of every day,” he said.
Judge Arterton called the convicted conspirator out for failing to address the killings.
“Shockingly missing was an expression of remorse or apology to the families of Miss Clarke and B.J.,” the judge said. “He didn’t turn around to face them and simply say, ‘I’m sorry.’”
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