The U.S. Parole Commission is denying parole for Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who has served 49 years in federal prison.
Peltier is serving two life sentences for an incident in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Reservation that led to a shootout between American Indian Movement activists and two FBI agents.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said in June that Peltier fatally shot Jack Coler and Ronald Williams. Wray says Peltier has never accepted responsibility or shown remorse for the incident and is wholly unfit for parole.
“It’s been a long process for everybody," said Ed Woods, a retired FBI agent with the No Parole Peltier Association. He’s fought for decades to keep Peltier behind bars. "There’s been enough from Peltier that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that he’s guilty—no matter how much he tries to pretend otherwise. As far as I’m concerned, justice spoke and continues.”
Amnesty International calls Peltier’s continued incarceration a human rights travesty.
Some see Peltier, who is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, as a symbol of racism and oppression against Native Americans by the US criminal justice system. He’s considered a champion for Native American civil rights.
Nick Tilsen, president and CEO of NDN Collective, characterizes the parole denial like a death sentence.
“They have chosen to take a boarding school survivor, taking America’s longest serving political prisoner in American history that’s indigenous and keep him in prison for a crime that they have no physical evidence against him on," Tilsen added.
Tilsen said the organization will now push for clemency from President Joe Biden. Peltier’s lawyers say appealing the parole decision could take years. Time to free Peltier from prison is limited. Supporters say Peltier is in declining health.
