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‘IT’S FINALLY OVER, I’M GOING HOME’: BIDEN GRANTS COMMUTATION
FOR LEONARD PELTIER  
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Brett Wilkins
January 20, 2025
Common Dreams
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_ "The victory of freeing Leonard Peltier is a symbol of our
collective strength—and our resistance will never stop," vowed one
Indigenous organizer. _

Native American Activist Leonard Peltier, who had spent almost half a
century in prison, speaks at an interview in Leavenworth Penitentiary
in 1999., Joe Ledford/The Kansas City Star via AP

 

Just minutes before leaving office, Joe Biden on Monday commuted the
life prison sentence of Leonard Peltier, the elderly American Indian
Movement activist who supporters say was framed for the murder of two
federal agents during a 1975 reservation shootout.

"It's finally over, I'm going home," Peltier, who is 80 years old,
said in a statement
[[link removed]] released
by the Indigenous-led activist group NDN Collective. "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."

While not the full pardon for which he and his defenders have long
fought, the outgoing Democratic president's commutation will allow
Peltier—who has been imprisoned for nearly a half-century—to
"spend his remaining days in home confinement," according to Biden's
statement, which was no longer posted on the White House website after
Republican President Donald Trump
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afternoon.

"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," Biden explained
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Biden Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Indigenous cabinet
secretary in U.S. history, said in a statement
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words about the commutation of Leonard Peltier. His release from
prison signifies a measure of justice that has long evaded so many
Native Americans for so many decades. I am grateful that Leonard can
now go home to his family. I applaud President Biden for this action
and understanding what this means to Indian Country."

Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who last month led 34 U.S.
lawmakers in a letter
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clemency for Peltier, said in a statement that "for too long, Mr.
Peltier has been denied both justice and the pursuit of a full,
healthy life at the hands of the U.S. government, but today, he is
finally able to go home."

"President Biden's decision is not just the right, merciful, and
decent one—it is a testament to Mr. Peltier's resilience and the
unwavering support of the countless global leaders, Indigenous voices,
civil rights and legal experts, and so many others who have advocated
so tirelessly for his release," Grijalva added. "While there is still
much work to be done to fix the system that allowed this wrong and so
many others against Indian Country, especially as we face the coming
years, let us today celebrate Mr. Peltier's return home."

NDN Collective founder and CEO Nick Tilsen said
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that "Leonard Peltier's freedom today is the result of 50 years of
intergenerational resistance, organizing, and advocacy."

"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," Tilsen continued.

"Let Leonard's freedom be a reminder that the entire so-called United
States is built on the stolen lands of Indigenous people—and that
Indigenous people have successfully resisted every attempt to oppress,
silence, and colonize us," Tilsen added. "The victory of freeing
Leonard Peltier is a symbol of our collective strength—and our
resistance will never stop."

Amnesty International
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executive director Paul O'Brien said that "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."

While Peltier admits to having participated in the June 26, 1975
gunfight at the Oglala Sioux Reservation at Pine Ridge, South Dakota,
he denies killing Federal Bureau of Investigation agents Jack Coler
and Ronald Williams.

As _HuffPost_ senior political reporter Jennifer Bendery recapped
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There was never evidence
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Peltier committed a crime, and the U.S. government never did figure
out
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shot those agents. But federal officials needed someone to take the
fall. The FBI had just lost two agents, and Peltier's co-defendants
were all acquitted based on self-defense. So, Peltier became their
guy.

His trial was rife with misconduct. The FBI threatened and coerced
witnesses into lying. Federal prosecutors hid evidence that exonerated
Peltier. A juror acknowledged on the second day of the trial that she
had "prejudice against Indians,
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but she was kept on anyway.

The government's case fell apart
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these revelations, so it simply revised its charges against Peltier to
"aiding and abetting" whoever did kill the agents—based entirely on
the fact that he was one of dozens of people present when the shootout
took place. Peltier was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive
life terms.

American Indian Movement (AIM) activist Joe Stuntz Killsright
was also killed
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Pine Ridge when a U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs agent sniper shot him
in the head after Coler and Williams were killed. Stuntz' death has
never been investigated.

Some Indigenous activists welcomed Peltier's commutation while
also remembering
[[link removed]] Annie Mae
Pictou Aquash, an Mi'kmaq activist who was kidnapped and murdered
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Pine Ridge in December 1975 by her fellow AIM members. Some of
Aquash's defenders believe her killing to be an assassination ordered
by AIM leaders who feared she was an FBI informant.

Before leaving office, Biden issued a flurry of eleventh-hour
preemptive pardons meant to protect numerous relatives
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officials
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Trump and his allies have threatened with politically motivated legal
action.

However, the outgoing president dashed the hopes of figures including
Steven Donziger, Charles Littlejohn, and descendants of Ethel
Rosenberg, who were seeking
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pardons or commutations.

_Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams._

* Leonard Peltier
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* Commutation
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* Joe Biden
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