After nearly 50 years in federal prison, Leonard Peltier is free to go home.
On Monday, outgoing President Joe Biden commuted the sentence of the Native American activist for his role in a 1970s shootout with FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Peltier will serve the remainder of his sentence on home confinement.
“It’s finally over – I’m going home,” said Leonard Peltier in a statement. “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.”
A presidential pardon was seen as the last chance to free Peltier from, who is 80 and is in failing health.
Peltier is seen by some as one of America’s longest serving political prisoners. He’s been a symbol for human rights as well as Native American criminal justice rights.
“President Biden was right to commute the life sentence of Indigenous elder and activist Leonard Peltier given the serious human rights concerns about the fairness of his trial,” said Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA.
Peltier was convicted for the murder of two FBI agents, Ronald Williams and Jack Coler, resulting from a shootout near the town of Oglala on Pine Ridge. Peltier has always maintained his innocence.
Not everyone is happy with Biden’s commutation.
“Leonard Peltier brutally murdered two FBI agents, and commuting his sentence is yet another reckless and irresponsible move by President Biden on his way out of office,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-SD.
In July, the US Parole Commission denied Peltier parole. Then-FBI director Christopher Wray said Peltier fatally shot the two agents and has never accepted responsibility for the incident.
“It was the right thing to do, and it took way too long for a president to realize that clemency was at least an appropriate remedy,” said Bruce Ellison, one of Peltier’s lawyers in the original case against him 50 years ago. Ellison said there was conflicting evidence against Peltier.
Ellison said Peltier’s release is still overwhelming for him—he was 25 when he started working on the case.
“It’s a lot of time working to try and right an injustice. Trial courts. Courts of Appeals. US Supreme Court refused to look at it. The overwhelming evidence of outrageous government conduct, which by itself is a legal term that can require reversal of conviction,” Ellison said. “That the courts refused to look at seriously—they talked about it rhetorically, but they refused to look at it seriously.”
But it’s the failure of overturning Peltier’s case through the legal system that has some disappointed in Biden’s commutation.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley is disappointed in Peltier’s release. He was a trial lawyer in the Annie Mae Aquash murder trial—a separate incident—where he says witnesses describe Peltier’s confession to shooting the FBI agents.
“He has served time, but he was a very dangerous man that did very dangerous and bad things," Jackley said. "I believe that the jury made the right decision, and the 22 federal judges ensured that he had every bit of fairness in his trial and due process.”
Jackley said executing two federal agents is worthy of a life sentence.
Peltier’s pardon came as a surprise to retired FBI agent Ed Woods, who for weeks watched for Peltier’s pardon. Woods runs the blog NoParolePeltier.com. He said he was confident Peltier would not be released but saw the news at the last minute.
Woods said Peltier’s home confinement does little to ease his disappointment because the two FBI agents are still dead.
“Then, Peltier made that fateful decision that affected the rest of his life, and he spent his best 50 years behind bars," Woods said. "Whether he goes back to the reservation—he’s in poor health—Jack and Ron are still dead. Peltier has to live with the aging process just like the rest of us.”
Last week, 120 tribal leaders sent a letter to President Biden urging him to grant clemency.
Jean Roach was there when the shootout took place at the Jumping Bull Ranch. She was 14.
The Mnicoujou Lakota said Peltier’s release will be hard to believe until she sees him leave the prison.
“We are really excited for Leonard to be coming home,” Roach said. “The genocide still continues, and our work is not done until all of our people are treated with the basic human rights that we all deserve.”
During Peltier’s parole hearing in the summer, NDN Collective announced it had purchased a home for Peltier on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota, where Peltier is enrolled.
The group outlined a reentry plan, including helping him get signed up for programming services through Indian Health Service.
“Leonard Peltier’s freedom today is the result of 50 years of intergenerational resistance, organizing, and advocacy,” said Nick Tilsen, NDN Collective Founder and CEO. “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.”
Biden’s commutation will take effect on Feb. 18.
