A prayer for Leonard Peltier is sung to a drumbeat on June 20, 2024, outside the federal courthouse in Fargo, North Dakota. Demonstrators were calling for the release of Peltier, who was convicted at a trial in Fargo in the deaths of FBI agents in South Dakota in 1975. (Jeff Beach/North Dakota Monitor)
President Joe Biden on Monday commuted the sentence of Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist convicted of killing two FBI agents nearly 50 years ago in South Dakota.
Biden’s order as he leaves office is to take effect Feb. 18. A statement from Biden said Peltier, 80, should serve the remainder of his life sentence at home.
According to the FBI, in 1975, agents Ron Williams and Jack Coler were attempting to arrest a robbery suspect on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The agents pursued a vehicle, with Peltier among the people inside. A fatal shootout ensued, with the two agents and Joseph Stuntz, a member of the American Indian Movement, killed.
Peltier, a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa that is based in North Dakota, was convicted at a trial in Fargo. He has been serving two consecutive life terms in prison.
Peltier was denied parole last year. At the time, it was reported that he was in poor health.
According to Biden’s statement, tribal Nations, Nobel Peace laureates, former law enforcement officials — including the former U.S. attorney whose office oversaw Peltier’s prosecution and appeal — and human rights organizations support granting Peltier clemency. They cite Peltier’s 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.
NDN Collective, an Indigenous rights organization in Rapid City, issued a news release Monday celebrating Peltier’s commutation. The release included a quote attributed to Peltier: “It’s finally over – I’m going home. 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.”
Nick Tilsen, founder and CEO of NDN Collective, credited “50 years of intergenerational resistance, organizing and advocacy” for winning the commutation.
“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 said.
This story first appeared in the South Dakota Searchlight , a member with the Phoenix in the nonprofit States Newsroom. Searchlight staff contributed to this report.
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