Just moments before leaving office, US President Joe Biden commuted the life sentence of Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, who was convicted of killing two FBI agents in 1975.
Peltier was only denied parole in July and would not be eligible for parole until 2026. He was serving a life sentence for the agents’ deaths during a standoff on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
He will go into home isolation, Biden said in a statement.
Biden has set the presidential record for the most individual pardons and commutations. He announced Friday that he would commute the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. He also pardoned his son Hunter, who was charged with gun and tax crimes.
On Monday, Biden also pardoned Gerald Lundergan, a Democratic politician from Kentucky who served in the state’s House of Representatives. He was convicted of illegal campaign contributions to his daughter’s failed U.S. Senate campaign. Ernest William Cromartie, a former city councilman from Columbia, South Carolina, who was convicted of tax evasion, was also pardoned.
The fight for Peltier’s freedom is closely linked to the movements for indigenous rights. Almost half a century later, his name is still a buzzword.
As a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota, Peltier was active in the American Indian Movement, which began as a local organization in Minneapolis in the 1960s and addressed issues of police brutality and discrimination against Native Americans. It quickly became a national force.
The movement made headlines in 1973 when it captured the village of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation, leading to a 71-day standoff with federal agents. Tensions between the movement and the government remained high for years.
On June 26, 1975, agents traveled to Pine Ridge to serve arrest warrants amid battles over treaty rights and self-determination.
According to the FBI, agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams were shot in the head at close range after being injured in a shootout. Joseph Stuntz, a member of the American Indian Movement, was also killed in the shooting.
Two other members of the movement, Robert Robideau and Dino Butler, were acquitted of charges in the killings of Coler and Williams.
After fleeing to Canada and being extradited to the United States, Peltier was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 1977, despite defense claims that evidence against him had been falsified.
Last year, the Assembly of First Nations revoked its 37-year support for Peltier, citing his alleged role in the interrogation of murdered activist Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, a Mi’kmaw woman from Nova Scotia.
