Connecticut
Face the Facts: Discussing how clemency is granted in the US
Earlier this week, a man convicted in the killing of an 8-year-old boy and his mother in Bridgeport in 1999 has been granted clemency by now former president Joe Biden.
Senator Richard Blumenthal was our state attorney general at the time. He was one of many lawmakers shocked by this pardon.
He spoke with NBC Connecticut’s Mike Hydeck about his take on the pardon.
Mike Hydeck: Senator, welcome back. Earlier this week, you talked about how you were attorney general back in 1999 when this case was tried. You said this case actually changed Connecticut laws. How?
Richard Blumenthal: This case changed Connecticut laws because the victims here, an 8-year-old boy and his mom, Karen Clarke, were potential witnesses in a very serious crime. They were murdered so that they could not testify in court, and as a result, Connecticut adopted a witness protection program named after BJ Brown and his mom, Karen Clarke. And I was shocked and appalled that clemency was accorded to the culprit in this case, who was convicted in state court of conspiracy to murder and then in federal court of federal drug crimes, and that’s why I am pushing again for reforms to the pardon system, which led to clemency to Adrian Peeler, the convicted murderer here.
Mike Hydeck: How do we go about changing the pardon power of the president so this doesn’t happen again? It’s clear that he had served time for the state charge and he was still in prison on the federal drug charge, but it seems like, is there a pardon board that overlooks these or does President Biden just get handed one and then he signs it? It seems as if somebody read past the headline, we would have figured this out.
Richard Blumenthal: That’s really the question of the moment, and a very important question. You know, the pardon power in our federal government is accorded absolutely without any checks and balances, to the president of the United States. It is a relic, in a sense, of the pardon power exercised by the monarchy in England, and the founders gave it to the president without any requirements for transparency or accountability. In the state of Connecticut, we have a Board of Pardons and Paroles, 10 people working full time with set criteria relating to the impact on the victim and the opinion of the prosecutors and the severity of the offense. There’s no such board at the federal level, and so it is completely within the discretion of the president whether to accord clemency, commutation of sentences, reprieve for fines. And that’s why I am proposing that we actually impose some guardrails on the president of the United States, requiring an explanation, at the very least, some explanation for why pardon has been accorded, and some notice to the prosecutors. For example, in the Peeler case, the Department of Justice had an opportunity for the victims, the Clarke family, to come forward and present their opinion, their views, on whether there ought to be clemency. So providing some guardrails at the federal level, as we do in Connecticut and other states do at the state level is really critical, and in the long run, I’m proposing a constitutional amendment that would curb or cut this absolute power of the president. It has to be a constitutional amendment because the pardon power is part of our federal Constitution. But I think the time has come for this absolute power on the part of the president of the United States to be eliminated.
Mike Hydeck: Senator, is there any way to revisit the Peeler case now that Biden is out of office? Or is that pretty much a done deal because of the power of the pardon?
Richard Blumenthal: We probably should look into why there was this pardon for Adrian Peeler. But we also should keep in mind that President Trump granted pardons to some 1,500 convicted or accused rioters who assaulted police officers, many of them injuring severely those police officers, and in some cases actually killing, causing their deaths. So the pardon power used to grant clemency to those rioters who cause those kinds of injuries and death is also part of the picture here, and we should move forward to restrict and cut and curb the presidential powers. And at the same time, perhaps look at why the pardon for Peeler was granted. But the answer to your question is, there’s probably nothing to do right now, actually, to reverse that decision, because it has already been made and there’s no review, which again, points the need for reform here.
Mike Hydeck: Senator Blumenthal, we have to leave it there. We’re looking forward to when that legislation is drafted. We’d like to have you back on when it is.
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A man has been arrested for murder in connection with the death of a Duxbury, Massachusetts woman, months after her body was found in a Connecticut home under suspicious circumstances.
This week, the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the cause of death for Janina Brooke Murphy to be blunt force injury of head and the manner, homicide.
On Tuesday, Connecticut State Police arrested 28-year-old Cole Werhan of Burlington, Connecticut and charged him with murder.
Brooke Murphy, as she is referred to by her mother, was found at the bottom of a staircase in March inside the Burlington, Connecticut home where she was living. At the time, Connecticut State Police called the 26-year-old’s death suspicious.
“Another detective got on the phone. He said, ‘I want you to know something. Your daughter didn’t just fall down the stairs. She had wounds all over her,’” Brooke’s mother, Beth Murphy, told WBZ.
Murphy said her daughter and Werhan were dating, and she is determined to seek justice. “It’s confirmed, it wasn’t an accident. So that part, really, that’s tough,” Murphy said.
Murphy described her daughter as kind and artistic.
“So many people said she was my best friend. Like, pretty much everybody said Brooke was my best friend. She had a heart of gold,” Murphy said.
Brooke Murphy’s 27th birthday fell on June 17. Connecticut State Police said they are continuing to actively investigate the circumstances surrounding her death.
Werhan was held on a $5,000,000 cash bond and is scheduled to appear in Torrington Superior Court in Connecticut on Wednesday morning.
Merrill Lynch has hired a veteran Morgan Stanley manager to help oversee branches in Connecticut, western Massachusetts and portions of New York.
Jairzinho “Jazz” Skair joined Merrill as a market manager overseeing offices in Hartford, New Haven, Springfield, Glastonbury, West Hartford, Farmington, Mystic, Guilford, Southbury and Ridgefield, a Merrill spokesperson confirmed. He reports to Central Shoreline Connecticut Market Executive William Cholawa, who returned to the thundering herd in 2024 after around a decade at UBS.
Skair had most recently been a branch manager for Morgan Stanley in Hartford, according to his LinkedIn. He had started his career in the legal department at UBS Wealth Management USA in 1998 and served in a number of finance, sales and management roles, including branch manager in Westport, before joining Morgan Stanley in 2023.
“I had the opportunity to work closely with Jazz during my time at UBS and saw firsthand his passion for coaching, developing people, and driving results,” Cholawa said in a LinkedIn post announcing the hire. “He is a servant leader who believes in being Authentic, Present, and Useful, and those principles are reflected in the way he leads and supports others.”
A Morgan Stanley spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
Merrill and its wirehouse peers have been shuffling and poaching field leaders as they seek to bolster recruiting in an increasingly competitive market.
To that end, Merrill said it had hired two father-son teams with a combined $560 million in client assets. Both joined on June 17.
Roy Savarick and his son, Evan, joined Merrill from Wells Fargo Advisors where they managed around $280 million in assets, according to the Merrill spokesperson. They generated around $2.3 million in annual revenue.
The elder Savarick, a 44-year industry veteran, is based in the firm’s Florida Tropics market led by Jason Edelmann. Evan, who has 12 years of experience, works in New York City from Merrill’s Park Avenue office led by Joe Doonan. They had joined Wells in 2022 from Morgan Stanley, according to BrokerCheck records.
Separately, Brandon K. Pribyl and his sons, Tobey and Bailey, joined Merrill from Baird Private Wealth Management. They had around $280 million in assets and are based in Davenport, Iowa, according to the spokesperson.
The team, which generated around $1.9 million in annual revenue, is part of the Mid Land Market led by Will Cohen. The senior Pribyl had spent the first decade of his career at Merrill. He was not registered between 2009 and 2016 when he joined with Baird, according to BrokerCheck.
(Updated with clarification on the market manager role.)
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