Jourdan Bennett-Begaye
ICT
WASHINGTON — In one of his final acts while in office, outgoing President Joe Biden commuted the life sentence for activist Leonard Peltier, who has already served 49 years in prison in the shooting deaths of two federal agents during a standoff at Pine Ridge in 1975.
Peltier, who has suffered ongoing health problems, will be allowed to live out his life at home, according to a statement issued by the White House.
“The President is commuting the life sentence imposed on Leonard Peltier so that he serves the remainder of his sentence in home confinement,” according to the White House statement. “He is now 80 years old, suffers from severe health ailments, and has spent the majority of his life (nearly half a century) in prison.
“The White House news release disappeared, and the link responded with a 404 error, after President Donald J. Trump was sworn into office Monday.
“It’s finally over – I’m going home,” Peltier is quoted as saying in an NDN Collective news release. “I want to show the world I’m a good person with a good heart. I want to help the people, just like my grandmother taught me.”
NDN Collective’s founder and chief executive officer Nick Tilsen, who has fought for Peltier’s clemency, is looking forward to Peltier going home, though he said officials have indicated Peltier may not be released for several weeks.
“Leonard Peltier’s freedom … is the result of 50 years of intergenerational resistance, organizing, and advocacy,” Tilsen said in a statement. “Leonard Peltier’s liberation is our liberation – we will honor him by bringing him back to his homelands to live out the rest of his days surrounded by loved ones, healing, and reconnecting with his land and culture.
Tilsen has called Peltier “the longest living Indigenous political prisoner in the history of the United States.”
U.S. Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz from Hawai’i, who has pushed for compassionate release for Peltier, praised the decision.
“If there were ever a case that merited compassionate release, Leonard Peltier’s was it,” said Schatz, who serves as vice chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, in a statement.
“President Biden did the right thing by showing this aging man in poor health mercy and allowing him to return home to spend whatever days he has remaining with his loved ones,” Schatz said. “I thank President Biden and the countless advocates who’ve worked tirelessly over the years to secure Peltier’s release.”
Schatz made a four-minute plea on the Senate floor on Dec. 4 asking Biden to grant clemency to Peltier. “The process that led to his conviction had major issues and inaccuracies from the start,” he said.
The release of Peltier, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, has drawn support from a number of human rights organizations and activists, including Amnesty International USA, Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama and others.
Others, however, have questioned his role in the violence committed by the American Indian Movement during the Wounded Knee era in the 1970s, which included the deaths of the two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents. The Assembly of First Nations recently rescinded its 40-year support of Peltier because of his alleged role in the murder of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, Mik’maq. Peltier has maintained he had no involvement in her death.
Peltier was not convicted of murder in the deaths of the FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams. He was convicted of aiding and abetting the murder of federal officers, plus received a seven-year sentence for an escape attempt. Schatz has said Peltier’s constitutional rights were violated during the trial.
Until Biden’s last-minute action, Peltier had repeatedly been denied parole, pardon, clemency, and compassionate release.
“I’m still hoping it’s real,” said Jean Roach, who as a 14 year old was a witness to the 1975 shootout in Oglala on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. “Fifty years is a long time to wait.”
Roach, Miniconjou Lakota, is co-director of the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee that has coordinated the campaign to win Peltier’s release.
Roach said her mother, Evelyn Hand Boy, was a good friend of Peltier’s and that Peltier had been asked to come to Oglala to protect members of the American Indian Movement who were taking a stand against supporters of Oglala Lakota Chairman Dick Wilson.
“The AIM people were scared,” said Roach. “(Peltier) saved our lives.”
Roach, who said she hoped to see Peltier soon on his home reservation in North Dakota, said the long campaign to free him was difficult. “The FBI threw everything at us,” she said. “They painted a picture that was no negative that the public began to believe it.”
Former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, applauded Biden.
“I am beyond words about the commutation of Leonard Peltier. His release from prison signifies a measure of justice that has long evaded so many Native Americans for so many decades,” she wrote on social media. “I am grateful that Leonard can now go home to his family. I applaud President Biden for this action and understanding what this means to Indian Country.”
Related stories:
— Leonard Peltier released from hospital after four-day stay
— Leonard Peltier supporters: ‘This is what mercy is for’
Native people across the country celebrated Peltier’s clemency and those who fought for it over the years.
“We applaud President Biden and this Administration for its bravery and righteousness in extending clemency to Mr. Peltier in the sunset of his life,” said United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc. President Kirk Francis in a statement. “While nothing can truly set right the violation of his rights and decades of wrongful captivity, this action of compassion brings some healing and justice to Mr. Peltier and his family, as well as this painful chapter in the history of Tribal Nation-United States relations.”
Attorney Kevin Sharp of Nashville, who filed Peltier’s first bid for clemency in 2019 and again in 2021, likewise praised the Biden decision.
“President Biden took an enormous step toward healing and reconciliation with the Native American people in this country,” Sharp said in a statement. “It took nearly 50 years to acknowledge the injustice of Leonard Peltier’s conviction and continued incarceration, but with the President’s act of mercy Leonard can finally return to his reservation and live out his remaining days.”
Sharp, a former federal judge in the Middle District of Tennessee, represented Peltier for five years until NDN Collective took over the effort.
Stay updated at ictnews.org for more developments.
ICT’s Stewart Huntington contributed to this report.
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