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Prosecutors fight sentence reduction for Adrian Peeler, convicted of killing a boy and his mother

Peeler is serving a 25-year state prison sentence for the 1999 killings of an 8-year-old murder trial witness, B.J. Brown, and the boy's mother, Karen Clarke.
Credit: AP
FILE - In this July 1, 2016 file photo, Russell Peeler Jr., speaks in Bridgeport Superior Court, in Bridgeport, Conn., where he was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of release. Connecticut and federal prosecutors are fighting a proposed prison sentence reduction for Peeler, a former Bridgeport drug dealer convicted in the killing of an 8-year-old murder trial witness and the boy's mother. (Ned Gerard/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool, File)

Federal prosecutors in Connecticut are fighting a proposed prison sentence reduction for former Bridgeport drug dealer Adrian Peeler that would allow him to walk free next year. 

Peeler is serving a 25-year state prison sentence for the 1999 killings of an 8-year-old murder trial witness, B.J. Brown, and the boy's mother, Karen Clarke. That sentence ends next year and is supposed to be followed by a 35-year federal prison sentence for drug dealing. 

But Peeler is asking a judge to reduce the federal sentence to time served in state prison, under a federal criminal justice reform law. Prosecutors say the law wasn't intended for violent offenders. 

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