A Native American activist who has been incarcerated for nearly 50 years was released from a Florida prison Tuesday after former President Joe Biden commuted his life sentences.
Leonard Peltier, an enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1977 for the killing of two FBI agents during a 1975 shootout at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Peltier has maintained his innocence and his case has been plagued with allegations of trial misconduct, conflicting testimonies, withheld evidence and potential bias among jurors.
The 80-year-old, who suffers from diabetes, hypertension and complications from multiple bouts of COVID-19, will be allowed to live under house arrest. Peltier did not speak to supporters or the media before he departed in a motorcade from a federal detention center in Coleman, North Florida on Tuesday morning, but he expressed gratitude in a statement released by the NDN Collective, an activist group that is bringing him back to his tribal homelands in North Dakota.
“Today I am finally free! They may have imprisoned me but they never took my spirit!” Peltier said. “Thank you to all my supporters throughout the world who fought for my freedom. I am finally going home. I look forward to seeing my friends, my family, and my community. It’s a good day today.”
On Wednesday, the organization will host a celebratory event to welcome Peltier back to his homelands.
Calls for clemency for Peltier came from the prosecutor who oversaw the case’s appeal, famous figures like Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu as well as human rights organizations including Amnesty International and the United Nations.
“Leonard Peltier’s release is the right thing to do given the serious and ongoing human rights concerns about the fairness of his trial, his nearly 50 years behind bars, his health and his age,” said Paul O’Brien, executive director at Amnesty International USA.
Biden commuted Peltier’s sentence on his last day in office, following a slew of other 11th hour clemency actions. In December, he commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 others in what the White House called “the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. Biden also commuted the sentences of most of the inmates on federal death row, and pardoned prominent figures including the late civil rights leader Marcus Garvey.
NDN Collective said in a statement that Peltier’s release was the result of decades of organizing and advocacy and thanked Biden and former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland for responding to the calls.
“Peltier’s liberation is invaluable in and of itself – yet just as his wrongful incarceration represented the oppression of Indigenous Peoples everywhere, his release today is a symbol of our collective power and inherent freedom,” Nick Tilsen, NDN Collective Founder and CEO, said in a statement.
Despite the scrutiny the case has drawn over the decades, Peltier was denied parole in July and his commutation sparked renewed outrage from some. Natalie Bara, president of The FBI Agents Association, said last month the loss of the agents is felt as deeply now as it was in 1975 and that Peltier “has never expressed remorse for his actions.”
“This last-second, disgraceful act by then-President Biden, which does not change Peltier’s guilt but does release him from prison, is cowardly and lacks accountability,” Bara said in a statement. “It is a cruel betrayal to the families and colleagues of these fallen Agents and is a slap in the face of law enforcement.”
