[News] Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier granted clemency by President Biden

[Anti-Imperialist News]

mprnews.org
<https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/01/19/leonard-peltier-indigenous-activist-clemency-released-by-president-biden>
Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier granted clemency by President Biden
Allison Herrera, Melissa Olson
January 20, 2025
------------------------------
[image: A man holds a microphone]

Leonard Peltier, citizen of Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe, gave an
interview to MIGIZI Communications while standing trial in Wisconsin for
the attempted murder of a police officer. Peltier was acquitted of the
charge in 1978.

Courtesy of MIGIZI

In one of his last official acts before leaving the White House, President
Joe Biden released Leonard Peltier from prison. The action is an
extraordinary move that ends a decades-long push by Indigenous activists,
international religious leaders, human rights organizations and Hollywood
insiders who argued that the 80-year-old Native American activist was
wrongly convicted.

The commutation was widely opposed by law enforcement who insisted that
Peltier’s actions were cold-blooded, and he should remain imprisoned for
the rest of his life for murdering FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald
Williams in 1975. The agents’ deaths came at a time when tensions were high
over a nationwide struggle between the U.S. government and activists for
Native American civil and treaty rights.

“Tribal Nations, Nobel Peace laureates, former law enforcement officials
(including the former U.S. Attorney whose office oversaw Mr. Peltier’s
prosecution and appeal), dozens of lawmakers, and human rights
organizations strongly support granting Mr. Peltier clemency, citing his
advanced age, illnesses, his close ties to and leadership in the Native
American community, and the substantial length of time he has already spent
in prison.” said Biden in a statement today
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2025/01/20/statement-from-president-joe-biden-16/>
.

Nick Tilsen, the executive director of NDN Collective, an Indigenous led
non-profit, says Peltier’s release is a historic moment that comes after
many years of organizing and lobbying across the globe.

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“Leonard Peltier now gets to go home. Every Indian person ever, ever wanted
to do, was go home and back to their people. And now he's going to have an
opportunity to do that,” Tilsen said.
[image: A man talks to a room of journalists]

Leonard Peltier, citizen of Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe, gave an
interview to journalists while standing trial in Wisconsin for the
attempted murder of a police officer. Peltier was acquitted of the charge
in 1978.

Courtesy of MIGIZI

Biden’s action isn’t a pardon that forgives Peltier’s offense, but rather a
commutation – which lessens his sentence and effectively frees him from
prison. Peltier suffers from complications related to diabetes, kidney
disease and near blindness, and his attorneys argued that he would not
survive much longer in prison.

Peltier has been held in Florida at Coleman 1, a federal detention center
in Sumter County. He admitted shooting at the agents but always maintained
his innocence.

“I did not kill those agents,” Peltier told former Minnesota Public Radio
Broadcaster Gary Eichten in a 1991 interview. Peltier was working on an
appeal at that time.

Gary Eichten interviews Leonard Peltier in 1991

Peltier’s latest bid for parole was denied last July. He wasn’t eligible
for another hearing until June 2026.

Biden’s move is certain to anger many in the law enforcement community. FBI
Director Christopher Wray lobbied against Peltier’s most recent parole
request.

"Over the last 45 years, no fewer than 22 federal judges have evaluated the
evidence and considered Peltier’s legal arguments." Wray wrote in a letter
opposing Peltier's 2024 parole request
<https://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/director-wrays-letter-in-opposition-to-leonard-peltiers-application-for-parole>.
“Each has reached the same conclusion: Peltier’s claims are meritless, and
his convictions and sentence must stand."

The FBI also discouraged past presidents from pardoning or granting
clemency to Peltier.

"They were down, they were wounded, they were helpless and he shot them
point blank," Mike Clark, president of the Society of Former Special Agents
of the FBI, told The Associated Press last summer
<https://apnews.com/article/leonard-peltier-parole-hearing-2d0df4e4997d988ec229b05de9dba648>.
"It is a heinous crime."

The July 2024 AP article also shared a photo from a demonstration on Dec.
15, 2000 of 500 agents marching towards the White House, protesting
clemency for Peltier. An agent carried a photo of Coler and Williams.

Coler and Williams were shot on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota
while serving an arrest warrant for someone else.

The shooting of the two agents followed a tense two years on the Pine Ridge
reservation. At the time, leaders of the American Indian Movement (AIM)
demanded better treatment of Native people living on and off the
reservation-including jobs, better healthcare and education. AIM was
founded in 1968 in Minneapolis during a nationwide struggle for civil
rights. Peltier, a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North
Dakota, joined the movement in 1972.
[image: A storefront for the American Indian Movement]

The American Indian Movement had a storefront office located on East
Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis during the late 1960s and 1970s.

Courtesy of MIGIZI

In February of 1973 the tension culminated at Wounded Knee when members of
AIM and other Indigenous people took over the town. A stand-off between
members of AIM and federal law enforcement lasted for 71 days.

After the Wounded Knee occupation ended, a wave of violence overtook Pine
Ridge. According to reports, more than 20 people were killed on the
reservation.

In the late morning of June 26, 1975, agents spotted and followed what was
described as a red pickup truck. Peltier and a few other men were in the
truck, which turned into Jumping Bull Ranch in Oglala, South Dakota, where
Peltier and other AIM members were camping. A firefight ensued.

Just before noon, agents radioed for backup, saying they were under fire
and needed assistance. Other agents were miles away and also under duress.
Within minutes, both Coler and Williams had been shot and killed. It took
hours for their bodies to be recovered. According to the FBI, “a total of
five rounds had been fired from both Williams’ and Coler’s weapons. The
agents’ vehicles alone had 125 bullet holes.” Williams was shot in the
foot, his body and head while Coler was shot twice in the head after
sustaining other bullet wounds, the FBI said.

Williams' car was later taken as well as the agent's weapons. The FBI
alleges that Darrelle Butler took Williams' handgun, Peltier took Coler's,
and Robert Robideau took Coler's rifle and shotgun.

Another person was also killed in the gunfight. Joseph Bedell Stuntz Sr.
was 23-years-old and a tribal citizen originally from Forks and Port
Angeles in Washington. According to FBI reports, Stuntz was shot by law
enforcement during the altercation.

Butler, Peltier and Robideau were charged with two counts of first-degree
murder and aiding and abetting. Peltier, who already had an outstanding
warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, fled to Canada. He was
placed on the FBI’s ten most wanted list in 1975. In 1976, he was captured
by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and was extradited to the United
States. His trial took place a year later in Fargo, North Dakota.

After a five-week trial, Peltier was found guilty and sentenced to two
consecutive life terms in prison. Butler and Robideau were acquitted in
1976 on grounds of self-defense.

Peltier’s version of the event also changed over time. In the book written
by Peter Matthiessen titled, “In the Spirit of Crazy Horse” Peltier said he
was working on a car nowhere near Jumping Bull when the incident occurred.
In another account, he said he was awakened by the sound of gunfire. In his
1999 memoir, “Prison Writing, My Life is My Sundance,” Peltier admitted to
shooting at the agents but maintained he did not kill them.
Advocates have called for Peltier’s release for decades

Biden’s action comes after years of public pressure from Native American
tribes and groups.

Earlier this month, a group of 120 former and current tribal elected
leaders signed a letter
<https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/01/14/minnesota-tribal-leaders-call-for-biden-to-commute-leonard-peltier-sentence>asking
Biden to release Peltier.

“Our standing in the world as a champion of freedom, justice and human
rights cannot be maintained in a system that allows Leonard Peltier to die
in prison,” read the letter from tribal elected officials published on NDN
Collective’s website.
[image: People protest at the white house]

Activists participate in a protest to urge U.S. President Joe Biden to
grant Native American activist Leonard Peltier clemency outside of the
White House on September 12, 2023 in Washington, DC. Activists, who cite
anti-Indigenous bias surrounding Peltier’s trial, want the President to
give leniency to Peltier who is serving two life sentences for the murder
of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in
1975.

Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images

Activists with the American Indian Movement lobbied for Peltier’s release
since he was first imprisoned. AIM members, alongside the advocacy
organization NDN Collective, walked from Minneapolis to DC as recently as
2022
<https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2022/11/23/minnesotans-walk-to-washington-dc-calling-to-free-leonard-peltier-in-walk-to-justice>
to bring awareness to Peltier’s case and his bid for clemency.

His conviction and sentence also inspired international support ranging
from the human rights group Amnesty International to the United Nations
Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Others including Pope Francis, Robert
Redford, and the members of the band, Rage Against the Machine, have also
called for Peltier’s release. That advocacy increased in recent years as
Peltier’s health has worsened after spending more than half of his life
behind bars.

“He’s of old age and in poor health and he poses little threat to society.
If there was ever a case that merited compassionate release, Leonard
Peltier’s is it,” U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) remarked from the floor
of the U.S. Senate last month. “This is exactly what that awesome power is
for. To right a historic wrong. And if not that, then just to show mercy
and let an old man die with his family.”

Schatz was one of more than two dozen members of Congress who wrote to
Biden and urged him to “rectify this grave injustice that has long troubled
human rights advocates and Native Peoples.” The letter was signed by
several prominent Minnesota Democrats including U.S. Sen. Tina Smith and
U.S. Representatives Ilhan Omar and Betty McCollum.

Several of those who have called for Peltier’s release have referenced
another letter written by James Reynolds. A former federal prosecutor for
the District of South Dakota, Reynold’s office led the first case against
Peltier and a later appeal.

In 2021, Reynolds wrote to Biden to say he believed the government had not
made its case against Peltier. The former prosecutor expressed a sense of
remorse for having put him behind bars.

“With time and the benefit of hindsight, I have realized that the
prosecution and continued incarceration of Mr. Peltier was and is unjust.
We were not able to prove that Mr. Peltier personally committed any offense
on the Pine Ridge Reservation,” Reynold’s wrote.

Calls for lessening Peltier’s sentence stretch back even further.

In 1991, Gerald Heaney, the late federal judge who penned the opinion in
Peltier’s 1986 appeal, wrote to the late Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii
saying he believed then that former President George W. Bush had a basis
for shortening Peltier’s sentence.

“The FBI used improper tactics in securing Peltier’s extradition from
Canada and in otherwise investigating and trying Peltier’s case,” Heaney
wrote.

While Heaney did not send the letter to former President George Bush
himself, Heaney granted permission to Inouye to share his letter with Bush.

In 2017 an attorney for Peltier petitioned former president Obama for
clemency in the final days of his term. Similar petitions were made to
former presidents going back to President Jimmy Carter.

Tilsen, who’s organization has purchased a home for Peltier to live in on
the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, says this moment cannot be
understated.

“I think that this moment is historic…. really, it's emotional, because
this represents 50 years of organizing,” said Tilsen.
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