The Russell Peeler case in the late 1990s was one of the first that career prosecutor Joseph Corradino worked. And it had a profound impact on Corradino, whom the Criminal Justice Commission Thursday named state’s attorney for the Fairfield Judicial District.

Peeler was convicted of ordering the murder of 8-year-old B.J. Brown and his mother, Karen Clarke. The case received statewide publicity, and affected Corradino, then the father of a 3-year-old girl, in a way that stays with him today.