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 received clemency as part of former President Joe Biden’s clemency for nearly 2,500 federal inmates he described as “non-violent.”
Adrian Peeler, a Bridgeport drug trafficker, killed a woman named Karen Clarke and her 8-year-old son just weeks before they were supposed to testify against his brother, who was accused of shooting Clarke’s boyfriend in front of the child.
The mother and son were ambushed as they returned home to their apartment in January 1999. Police found the boy with a bullet hole in the back of his head on the stairs and Clarke riddled with gunshot wounds and her outstretched hand inches from a phone, according to CT Post.
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Oswald Clarke, left, brother of Karen Clarke, is helped at the side of her casket by funeral home employee Kevin Mitchell, Jan. 20, 1999, during services at the Community Church of God in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (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 took a plea deal on federal cocaine trafficking charges. After finishing his Connecticut sentence, he was transferred to federal custody to serve more time.
Peeler’s latest appeal was denied in October of last year, but he previously convinced a judge to knock 20 years off of his sentence due to good behavior and the young age at which he committed the murders. He would have been released in 2034.
The last-minute clemency from Biden also caught Clarke’s family by surprise.
“I’m sick and tired, and I’m disgusted,” her brother, Oswald Clarke, told The Associated Press. “It’s a very shocking thing. My family is very distraught about it. It’s like we’re being traumatized all over again.”
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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 release for ordering the murders of an 8-year-old murder trial witness and the boy’s mother in 1999. His brother, Adrian Peeler, was the alleged shooter. (Ned Gerard/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool, File)
On Jan. 17, the White House boasted that Biden had issued more pardons and commutations “than any president in U.S. history.”
“Today, I am commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug offenses who are serving disproportionately long sentences compared to the sentences they would receive today under current law, policy, and practice,” Biden said in a statement.
Even top Democrats seemed surprised by the move.
“It seems to me that someone dropped the ball here to let this person get released,” Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal told CT Post. “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 murders prompted Connecticut officials to beef up the state’s witness protection program, and Bridgeport officials named a park in Clarke’s honor, according to the outlet.
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Peeler’s brother, Russell Peeler, was sentenced to death for ordering the murders but had his punishment commuted to life in prison without parole after Connecticut abolished capital punishment.
The list of Biden’s “non-violent” clemency recipients, released separately, included more violent offenders than just Peeler.
Two Virginia men serving life prison sentences in connection with a drug case that left a Sussex County police officer dead in 1998 were also set free.
Ferrone Claiborne and Terence Richardson, known as the “Waverly Two,” both admitted to playing a role in the death of Officer Allen Gibson but were later acquitted of murder at trial due to an apparent lack of evidence. But they were convicted of lesser charges and sentenced to life in prison anyway.
President Joe Biden at a Department of Defense farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Jan. 16, 2025, in Arlington, Va. In his final days in office, he granted thousands of clemency requests. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Gibson, 25, stumbled upon a back alley drug deal in Waverly involving Richardson and Claiborne. According to authorities, the two attacked and disarmed him. He was later found with a gunshot wound to his stomach, right below his bulletproof vest.
Richardson pleaded guilty to state charges for involuntary manslaughter and Claiborne pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact. They later went to trial in federal court, where prosecutors failed to convince the jury they were guilty of murder but secured convictions on drug trafficking charges.
“I am absolutely outraged by what has happened,” Crissana Gibson, the slain officer’s daughter, said in a statement released by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. “My heart is shattered knowing that the men that killed my father are going to be released from prison and can walk the streets freely.”
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Separate from the “non-violent” commutations, Biden ignored pleas from former FBI Director Christopher Wray and ordered the release of Leonard Peltier, a left-wing activist convicted for his role in an ambush shooting that left two FBI agents dead in South Dakota in 1975.
On his last day in office, he commuted Peltier’s life prison sentence and gave last-minute preemptive pardons to his family members and allies, including his siblings, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Mark Milley and members of the January 6 Committee. He had previously pardoned his son, Hunter.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
