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.
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.
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
“To say this is overdue is an understatement, and the massive effort to push for Leonard’s freedom by so many is unparalleled,“ said Robert Gifford, a criminal defense attorney who has worked to secure Peltier’s clemency for more than four years.
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. “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. “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.
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 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.
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 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.
