Native American rights activist Leonard Peltier was detained for nearly half a century for the murder of two FBI agents and was released from federal prisons in Central Florida Tuesday morning.
Mr. Peltier, 80, serves the remainder of his two life sentences in his home confinement in North Dakota, where he is a member of Chippewa's Turtle Mountain Band.
The commutive of Mr. Peltier's declaration was one of the final acts of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Those who encouraged generosity to the poorly healthy and partially blind Mr. Peltier included Nobel Peace Prize winners. A former law enforcement officer, including one of the lead prosecutors in the case. Human rights group; celebrities like Stephen Van Zandt, guitarist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.
FBI agents, including former agency director Christopher Ray, strongly opposed Mr. Peltier's generosity, saying it was a betrayal of fallen agents, Jack Coller and Ronald Williams. Mr. Ray called Mr. Peltier “a meditative murderer.”
At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Peltier's lawyer, who maintains his innocence, said he should not even submit to a home arrest. “We still have work to do,” said his lead lawyer, Jennifer Jones. “It is our proposition that Leonard's detention is illegal.”
While Native Americans were not unanimous in their support of Mr. Peltier, the congratulatory press conference embraced him as a respected man who was unfairly imprisoned. “Leonard has spent 50 years for us, and tomorrow we will welcome him as our home hero,” said Chase Iron Eye, a Native American civil rights lawyer.
Mr. Peltier is a member of the American Indian Movement, or purpose, and is a group that focuses on government Native American abuse. He was convicted in 1975 of his role in a shootout between an activist and an FBI agent on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, killing two agents and an activist. Prosecutors said the agent was shot dead in bliss.
Mr. Peltier admitted to firing a gun from afar, but he claimed he acted in self-defense and did not kill the agent.
Of the more than 30 people attending the shootout, Mr. Peltier was the only person convicted of a crime. The other two AIM members were brought to trial for murder but were acquitted for acting in self-defense. The clear evidence that was granted in their trial was removed from Mr. Peltier. His supporters argue that his trial is one way in which he is unfair.
The Court of Appeal said in 1986 the government withheld evidence containing details of ballistic analysis from the scene, but that disclosure of the evidence “probably” had not changed the ju apprentice's conviction.
James Reynolds, a former federal prosecutor whose office handled the prosecution and appeal in 2021, was one of those who wrote letters to Biden, urging Peltier's tolerance. He said prosecutors were unable to prove that Mr. Peltier committed the crime and had little consideration of “the FBI's role in creating dangerous situations” regarding bookings for the day.
