Another article on it.
Christie commutes sentence in celebrated gun-possession case | APP.com | Asbury Park Press
Christie commutes sentence in celebrated gun-possession case
By GEORGE MAST • STAFF WRITER • December 20, 2010
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Buzz up!Twitter FarkIt Type Size A A A MOUNT LAUREL — Gov. Chris Christie announced Monday he had commuted the sentence of Brian D. Aitken, the 27-year-old Mount Laurel who man had been serving a seven-year prison term after being found with guns he'd purchased legally in Colorado.
"We're overjoyed," Aitken's fiancee, Jenna Bostock, said Monday evening. "I can't believe he is going to be home for Christmas."
Christie, who had earlier said he would make a decision on the much-debated Aitken case by Christmas, signed the commutation around 4:30 p.m. At around 6 p.m., Bostock said she was waiting on a phone call from Aitken from Mid State Correctional Facility in Wrightstown so she could tell him he would be coming home.
"I can't wait to hear his reaction when I get to tell him," Bostock said.
Aitken, an entrepreneur and media consultant, has been jailed since he was sentenced to seven years in prison on Aug. 27.
Aitken was arrested on Jan. 2, 2009, when he muttered to his mother life wasn't worth living, then left her home in Mount Laurel. She called police, who found two handguns, both locked and unloaded, and ammunition in the trunk of his car.
Aitken argued he was in the process of moving to Hoboken, which would exempt him from a weapon-registration law. However, state Superior Court Judge James Morley did not allow the argument in trial this year. Aitken, a graduate student with no prior record, was convicted and then sent off to prison in August.
Christie later declined to reappoint Morley because of an unrelated case.
Aitken's case garnered a large following among the media and gun-rights advocates.
Bostock said she has nearly made a full-time job out of posting information and eliciting support on a "Free Brian Aitken" Facebook page.
"It has been really, really hard and now all of our hard work has paid off and it feels amazing that the injustice was corrected," Bostock said.
A spokesman for the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office declined to comment about the matter Monday.
Aitken's father, Larry Aitken, said his son's attorney is still fighting to have the conviction reversed.
The commutation Monday only dismisses the remainder of the prison sentence. Larry Aitken said the family will keep fighting until his son's name is cleared. Larry Aitken said he personally wrote the governor a letter asking for clemency over the summer.
"I'm still stunned," Larry Aitken said Monday evening. "It's kind of like the clock just ran out. The game is over and we won."
According to the commutation order, Aitken is ordered to be released from jail as "soon as administratively possible."
Amid her giddiness over Aitken's imminent release, Bostock also thought Monday evening of a few things she needed to get done.
Aitken's suit would need to be dry cleaned before she picked him up from prison.
And one other thing.
"Now I have to go find a Christmas present," she said.