An Alabama drug dealer who was freed from prison after being granted clemency by former President Joe Biden was arrested again this week.
Willie Frank Peterson, 52, was arrested on Monday for alleged drug possession and having a gun. He was arrested in Dothan, a city of about 70,000 people in Southeast Alabama. Peterson faces two counts of unlawful possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, three counts of illegally being in possession of a gun, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Peterson was previously freed from prison in January after Biden granted clemency to thousands of people convicted on drug charges.
In March 2023, Peterson pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and he was later sentenced to 75 months in prison. Biden committed his sentence to 20 months and he was no longer in Bureau of Prison custody as of January 21, 2025.
According to the Justice Department, Peterson sold cocaine to a man named Kenneth Cherden Glasgow in 2018 and 2019. Glasgow, the half-brother of leftist activist Al Sharpton, was charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison for tax evasion, mail fraud, and drug charges.
Peterson’s clemency came as part of Biden’s decision to commute the sentences of more than 2,500 drug offenders in his final days in office.
Biden said that those whose sentences were commuted were “non-violent” offenders who had been given “disproportionately long sentences.”
“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 at the time. “With this action, I have now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any president in U.S. history.”
Biden said the individuals had “received lengthy sentences based on discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine” and “outdated sentencing enhancements for drug crimes.”
That action came after Biden commuted the sentences of 1,500 people, issued 39 pardons for individuals convicted of non-violent crimes, and gave a mass pardon for people convicted of marijuana possession.
