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Left: President Joe Biden speaks from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Sunday, July 14, 2024 (AP Photo/Susan Walsh). Right: Willie Frank Peterson (Dothan (Ala.) Police Department).
An Alabama man whose prison sentence was commuted by former President Joe Biden during his final days in office has allegedly found himself on the wrong side of the law again.
Willie Frank Peterson, 52, was among the thousands to receive presidential clemency from Biden on Jan. 17, 2025. At the time, Peterson was serving a sentence of more than six years, according to federal records. He had pleaded guilty in March 2023 to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and was sentenced in August of that year by U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker, Jr., a Donald Trump appointee.
Peterson’s name is listed among some two dozen people whose sentences Biden commuted to 20 months, leading to his prison release. Under Huffaker’s sentence, Peterson would have been eligible for supervised release after serving three years,
According to police in Dothan, a city located around 110 miles southeast of Montgomery, Peterson was arrested on March 17 — two months after Biden’s commutation grant — and charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, being in possession of a firearm despite being forbidden from doing so, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
More from Law&Crime: ‘This is a bad cat’: Drug pusher granted clemency by Biden arrested days after being released from prison for allegedly trying to fake urine test with bag of watered-down coffee
Peterson was apprehended at his home in Dothan, local CBS affiliate WTVY reported, citing arrest warrants. He was indicted in October 2021 alongside Kenneth Glasgow, a minister and half brother of the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Glasgow pleaded guilty to tax evasion, mail fraud and drug conspiracy charges in February 2023 and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison.
Peterson was released from local custody after posting bond, the WTVY report said.
