Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier was released from a Florida prison on Tuesday, after former President Biden commuted his life sentence for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents, a decision that elated Peltier's supporters while angering law enforcement officials who believe he's guilty. For nearly 50 years, Peltier's imprisonment has symbolized systemic injustice for Native Americans in the US who believe in his innocence. The decision to release the 80-year-old to home confinement was celebrated by supporters. "He represents every person who's been roughed up by a cop, profiled, had their children harassed at school," said Nick Estes, a professor of American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota and a member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe.
But the last-minute move as Biden was leaving office also prompted criticism from those who say Peltier is guilty, including former FBI Director Christopher Wray, who called him "a remorseless killer" in a letter to Biden obtained by the AP. "Granting Peltier any relief from his conviction or sentence is wholly unjustified and would be an affront to the rule of law," Wray wrote. The commutation wasn't a pardon for crimes committed, something Peltier's advocates have hoped for, as he has always maintained his innocence.
Biden commuted Peltier's sentence on Jan. 20, noting he'd spent most of his life in prison and was now in ill health. Peltier, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota, was active in the American Indian Movement, which, beginning in the 1960s, fought for Native American treaty rights and tribal self-determination. Peltier's conviction stemmed from a June 1975 confrontation on the Oglala Sioux Indian Reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, in which FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams were killed. Prosecutors maintained that Peltier shot both agents in the head at point-blank range.
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Peltier acknowledged being present and firing a gun at a distance but said he fired in self-defense. A woman who claimed to have seen Peltier shoot the agents later recanted her testimony, saying it had been coerced. He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and given two consecutive life sentences.
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