What to Know About Leonard Peltier, Activist Released From Prison by Biden

New York Times

18-02-2025

Leonard Peltier, a Native American rights activist, left federal prison in Central Florida Tuesday morning after nearly 50 years behind bars, in a victory for supporters who have criticized his prosecution as unjust and campaigned for his release.
Mr. Peltier was serving two life sentences for murder in connection with the deaths of two F.B.I. agents during a shootout on a reservation in 1975. For decades, Mr. Peltier's supporters tried to win his release through parole or a presidential pardon or commutation. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. commuted his sentence in January.
Here is what to know about his case.
Who is Leonard Peltier?
Mr. Peltier is a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and grew up in North Dakota. He was a member of the American Indian Movement, an advocacy organization founded in 1968 that promoted civil rights and opposed police brutality and other abuses.
The group sought to call attention to the federal government's history of violating treaties it had made with Native American tribes. In the 1970s, militant members of the group clashed with federal authorities on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, including forcibly seizing control of the Sioux village of Wounded Knee and holding off the authorities for 71 days.
What led to his imprisonment?
Two years after the Wounded Knee standoff, with the relationship between Native American activists and federal law enforcement agencies still tense, two F.B.I. agents — Jack Coler and Ronald Williams — tried to execute an arrest warrant for a robbery suspect on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
A shootout ensued, leaving the two agents and one activist dead.
Mr. Peltier, who has admitted to taking part in the shootout, was accused of murder, tried and convicted. He was sentenced to two life terms.
Why were his prosecution and trial criticized?
Of the more than 30 people who were present during the shootout, only Mr. Peltier was convicted of a crime. Two other Native American activists who were put on trial were acquitted.
Mr. Peltier and his supporters claim his trial was unfair in several ways. They said some witnesses against him were coerced by the F.B.I., and that exculpatory evidence that was admitted in the trials of the two acquitted activists was excluded from Mr. Peltier's trial.
Prosecutors said in the trial that the two agents were shot at point-blank range. Mr. Peltier said he fired shots only at a distance, and did so in self-defense, and did not kill the agents.
His case became a cause célèbre, with supporters including the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, the actors Robert Redford and Danny Glover, the musician Steven Van Zandt and several members of Congress calling for his early release.
A former U.S. attorney whose office oversaw Mr. Peltier's original prosecution said the conviction rested on his presence at the shootout with a weapon — not on any evidence that he had fired a fatal shot — and joined the calls for his release.
Why is he out of prison now?
Shortly before leaving office on Jan. 20, President Biden commuted Mr. Peltier's sentence, one of thousands of requests for clemency that he granted in the final weeks of his presidency.
The commutation did not change his sentence, only where he will be. Mr. Peltier will now serve out the rest of his sentence in home confinement in North Dakota. He is in poor health and partially blind from diabetes, a stroke, an aortic aneurysm and repeated bouts of Covid-19.
Who opposed clemency for him?
Mr. Peltier's requests for clemency were repeatedly rejected over the years, including most recently by the U.S. Parole Commission in July.
Christopher Wray, who led the F.B.I. from 2017 until January, strongly opposed granting clemency, calling Mr. Peltier 'a remorseless killer.' South Dakota's attorney general also opposed clemency.
Natalie Bara, president of the F.B.I. Agents Association, a nonprofit that serves the bureau's current and former special agents, blasted President Biden's decision in January as 'a cruel betrayal to the families and colleagues of these fallen agents.'