WASHINGTON ― With literally minutes left in his presidency, Joe Biden on Monday granted clemency to Leonard Peltier, the ailing Native American rights activist whom the U.S. government put in prison nearly 50 years ago after a trial riddled with misconduct and lies.
Peltier has been in prison ever since the federal government accused him of murdering two FBI agents in a 1975 shoot-out on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
There was never evidence that Peltier committed a crime, and the U.S. government never did figure out who 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,” but she was kept on anyway.
The government’s case fell apart after 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 shoot-out took place. Peltier was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life terms.
Peltier, now 80, has maintained his innocence the entire time he’s been in prison, which has almost certainly led to him being denied parole. He’s mostly blind and uses a walker to get around. Due to frequent lockdowns at his maximum security prison in Florida, he’s spent most of his later years confined to inches of space in a cell. He’s serious health problems include diabetes, which sent him to the hospital in July with “open wounds and tissue death on his toes and feet,” per the Lakota Times. He was hospitalized again in October.
Biden had been under increasing pressure from tribal leaders, U.S. senators, members of Congress and others within own party to release Peltier.
“The power to exercise mercy in this case lies solely within your discretion, and we urge you to grant Mr. Peltier clemency, allowing him to return home and live out his remaining days among his own people,” dozens of Democratic lawmakers wrote to the president in December.
Virtually every international human rights leader in modern history, including Pope Francis and Nelson Mandela, has called for Peltier’s release over the years ― as have some of the same people who put Peltier in prison in the first place. Former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds, who prosecuted Peltier decades ago, has since said it was a mistake, that there was never evidence to convict Peltier and has been personally urging Biden to grant him clemency.
“I write today from a position rare for a former prosecutor: to beseech you to commute the sentence of a man who I helped put behind bars,” Reynolds wrote to Biden in 2021.
“With time, and the benefit of hindsight, I have realized that the prosecution and continued incarceration of Mr. Peltier was and is unjust,” he said. “We were not able to prove that Mr. Peltier personally committed any offense on the Pine Ridge Reservation.”
The million-dollar question has always been: Why is Peltier still in prison?
The answer is because of unwavering resistance from the FBI, which decided decades ago that it would oppose Peltier ever being released.
As Peltier’s former attorney put it in 2021, it boils down to “politics.”
“In order to get clemency, you have to get the FBI on board. They have an inherent conflict. You have to get the U.S. Attorney’s Office on board. They lied to get him in prison. They have an inherent conflict,” Kevin Sharp told HuffPost at the time. “They’re not going to say, ‘Oops, sorry.’”
“It’s this holdover with the FBI,” he added.
Look no further than the bureau’s arguments against Peltier’s release, which are outdated, full of holes and remarkably easy to disprove.
The FBI still hasn’t publicly addressed the wider context of that 1975 shoot-out, either. The bureau itself was intentionally fueling tensions on that reservation as part of a covert campaign to suppress the activities of the American Indian Movement, a grassroots movement for Indigenous rights. Peltier was an active AIM member and an FBI target.
Biden has taken significant actions to strengthen Native American communities and tribes during his presidency. His decision to release Peltier ― which prominent Indigenous rights groups and people, including Biden’s own interior secretary, Deb Haaland, have strongly advocated for ― caps off a legacy he’s quite proud of relating to righting past wrongs against Native Americans.
In a rare interview with HuffPost in 2022, Peltier said he knew what he would say to Biden if he had a few minutes alone with him.
“I’m not guilty of this shooting. I’m not guilty,” Peltier said he’d tell the president. “I would like to go home to spend what years I have left with my great-grandkids and my people.”
The Native American elder is likely to return home to South Dakota, where his supporters on Pine Ridge Reservation have purchased and prepared a house for him to move into in the event of his release from prison.”
“We are ready to welcome him home with open arms, to show him the care and support he deserved for his whole life,” Nick Tilsen, CEO of NDN Collective and a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation, said in a recent op-ed. “He deserves to live out his last days with dignity and surrounded by loved ones.”