By Jeremy Appel, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
(ANNews) – In one of his final acts in office, U.S. President Joe Biden commuted the sentence of Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist who was convicted of killing two federal officers on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in 1975.
Biden didn’t outright pardon Peltier, an 80-year-old elder of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa who survived the federal Indian boarding school system—the U.S. equivalent of residential schools—but permitted him to serve the rest of his sentence from home.
A Jan. 20 statement from Biden cited Peltier’s age, poor health and the fact that he “has spent the majority of his life (nearly half a century) in prison.”
Biden commuted Peltier’s sentence over the objection of Christopher Wray, his FBI director, who wrote a letter to the president in early 2024 calling Peltier a “remorseless killer,” although Peltier has consistently maintained his innocence.
Peltier was a leader in the American Indian Movement (AIM), which in 1973 led an occupation of Wounded Knee, the site in South Dakota where the U.S. military massacred 300 Lakota people in 1890, to protest violations of their Treaty rights.
In response, U.S. law enforcement spent the next three years engaged in a campaign of surveillance, harassment and violence against local AIM members, killing 64 people.
In this context, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents Jack Coler and Ron Williams entered Jumping Bull Ranch on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to arrest a young Native man in June 1975. There were 30 AIM members gathered on the ranch, including Peltier, who had been invited by elders.
A shootout ensued, resulting in the deaths of Coler and Williams, as well as local Native Joe Stuntz, whose death was never investigated.
Peltier was charged in the officers’ deaths, as were fellow AIM members Dino Butler and Bob Robideau. Fearing an unfair trial, Peltier fled to Canada, where he was extradited by the RCMP and returned to the U.S. to stand trial in February 1976.
Peltier was convicted in 1977, despite prosecutors admitting they had no direct evidence tying him to the officers’ killing.
Documents obtained by his lawyers through a 1980 freedom of information request revealed that key ballistics evidence that called into question whether his gun was used to kill the officers was withheld from the defence, but the Court of Appeal denied a 1986 request for a re-trial.
Amnesty International USA executive director Paul O’Brien cited “serious human rights concerns about the fairness of his trial” in a Jan. 20 statement applauding Biden for commuting Peltier’s sentence, although Amnesty has long called for full clemency.
Peltier’s release was applauded by the National Congress of American Indians, who called him “one of the longest incarcerated Native American political prisoners.”
“After nearly 50 years of unjust imprisonment, President Biden’s decision to grant Leonard Peltier the opportunity to return home is a powerful act of compassion and an important step toward healing,” said NCAI president Mark Macarro in a statement.
Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe who became the first Native American cabinet secretary when Biden appointed her secretary of the interior in 2021, said she was “beyond words” about the commutation of Peltier’s sentence.
“His release from prison signifies a measure of justice that has long evaded so many Native Americans for so many decades,” Haaland wrote on Twitter.
Musician and activist Tom Morello, who played guitar in the American rap-metal band Rage Against the Machine (RATM), celebrated Peltier’s release on Twitter, posting a link to the music video for his band’s 1992 song “Freedom,” which brought attention to Peltier’s plight.
“For almost 5 decades human rights organizations, Native American activists, average everyday people and bands like RATM have lobbied for the release of political prisoner, [sic] Leonard Peltier,” wrote Morello.
“Leonard has become a friend over the years and I am so glad at 80 years old and in poor health he will be able to spend his remaining years with family and friends.”
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