Willie Frank Peterson, Dothan, Alabama man, repeat drug dealer whose prison sentence was commuted by Joe Biden arrested on drugs & weapons charges.
That wasn’t long…. An Alabama man and habitual drug dealer whose prison sentence was commuted by former President Joe Biden during his final days in office was this week once again arrested on gun and drugs charges.
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 prison sentence of six years, after being convicted in 2023 on conspiracy to distribute cocaine 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. But it was not to be.
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.
Peterson was apprehended at his home in Dothan, WTVY reported. 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. It remained unclear (or did it?) why Biden had commuted Peterson, a repeat drug dealer’s sentence.
Biden showed significant leniency with the number of criminals whose sentences he commuted. He boasted about completing the ‘largest single-day grant of clemency’ on Dec. 12, when he commuted sentences for 1,500 people and pardoned 39 others.
On Jan. 17, he commuted the sentences of nearly 2,500 inmates, primarily those convicted of non-violent drug offenses.
‘Today’s clemency action provides relief for individuals who received lengthy sentences based on discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine, as well as outdated sentencing enhancements for drug crimes,’ Biden said at the time.
‘With this action, I have now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any president in US history.’
