In a last-minute act before leaving office, President Biden commuted the life sentence of Leonard Peltier, an Indigenous activist imprisoned for decades for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents. The decision has significant implications for the ongoing debate surrounding Peltier's case and its connection to Indigenous rights.
In a final act of his presidency, Joe Biden commuted the life sentence of Leonard Peltier , an indigenous activist convicted in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents. Peltier's commutation came just moments before Biden's term concluded. He had been denied parole as recently as July and wouldn't have been eligible again until 2026. Peltier had been serving a life sentence for the deaths of the agents during a volatile standoff on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
He will now transition to home confinement, Biden announced in a statement. The fight for Peltier's freedom has been deeply intertwined with the Indigenous rights movement for decades. Nearly half a century after his conviction, his name remains a potent symbol and rallying cry for activists.Leonard Peltier, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota, was a prominent figure in the American Indian Movement (AIM), which emerged in the 1960s as a grassroots organization in Minneapolis addressing police brutality and discrimination against Native Americans. AIM quickly gained national prominence. The movement captured international attention in 1973 when it occupied the village of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation, leading to a 71-day standoff with federal law enforcement. Tensions were high between AIM and the government for years. On June 26, 1975, agents arrived at Pine Ridge to serve arrest warrants amid bitter disputes over Native treaty rights and self-determination. During a shootout, agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams sustained fatal gunshot wounds to the head at close range, according to the FBI. Joseph Stuntz, a member of AIM, was also killed in the shootout. Two other AIM members, Robert Robideau and Dino Butler, were acquitted of killing Coler and Williams. After fleeing to Canada and being extradited back to the United States, Peltier was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 1977. Despite his defense's assertions that evidence against him had been fabricated, the conviction stood
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