Joe Biden on Monday, in one of his final acts as president, arrested a Native American convicted of killing two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and escaping from federal prison. The life sentence of American rights activist Leonard Pelletier was commuted.
Mr. Pelletier, 80, has been in prison for nearly 50 years. His health has deteriorated in recent years due to diabetes, high blood pressure, partial blindness due to a stroke and a bout with COVID-19.
The White House said in a statement that the reduced sentence would allow Mr. Peltier to spend the rest of his days in home confinement, but “it does not absolve the underlying crime.”
Mr. Pelletier’s daughter, Kathy Pelletier, said she was shocked to learn what Mr. Biden did after his pardon requests for past presidents were denied.
“I’m just grateful that he had the gumption and courage to do it,” she said of Biden’s decision.
In a statement provided by the NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led advocacy group, Pelletier said he was ready to leave prison.
“It’s finally over. I’m going home,” Pelletier said. “I want to show the world that I am a good person with a good heart.”
The U.S. Parole Board denied Pelletier’s latest bail request in July, leaving his fate in Biden’s hands. Pelletier has long maintained his innocence, but his reduced sentence represents two consecutive life sentences, comparable to the 1975 shooting deaths of FBI agents Jack Kohler and Ron Williams in South Dakota. This has led to fierce opposition from law enforcement agencies who say they will do so.
Christopher Wray, who took over as FBI director in 2017 and stepped down on Monday when President Donald Trump took office for a second term, said in a letter earlier this month that Pelletier’s commutation of sentence was “totally unjustified and cannot be commuted.” “No,” he said, trying to convince Biden. It is an affront to the rule of law. ”
“Mr. President, I ask you in the strongest terms possible: Please do not pardon Leonard Peltier or reduce his sentence,” Wray wrote.
Biden’s announcement came minutes before Trump’s inauguration. President Trump did not respond to Pelletier’s request for pardon during his first term, and other presidents, Democratic and Republican, have similarly declined to intervene.
In a statement, the lawyer who argued for Pelletier’s parole praised the outgoing president.
“President Biden has taken a major step toward healing and reconciliation for Native Americans in this country,” attorney Kevin Sharp said, “by recognizing the injustice of Leonard Pelletier’s conviction and continued imprisonment. “It took nearly 50 years, but the president’s sentence was unjust.” In an act of mercy, Leonard is finally able to return to the reservation and live out the rest of his days. ”
Pelletier told NBC News in 2022 that he had no interest in a presidential pardon. This is because presidential pardons are granted for crimes of which the president claims to be innocent. Instead, he said he wanted the chance to get out of prison and get a new trial.
“I want to go home,” Pelletier said by phone from Coleman Federal Correctional Facility in Florida. “My family wants to take care of me. My tribe wants to take care of me.”
For decades, human rights and faith leaders such as Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama, as well as Nobel Peace Prize winners such as Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu, have supported Pelletier’s release.
NDN Collective CEO Nick Tilsen said Pelletier’s conviction is emblematic of the struggle between Native Americans and the federal government, especially on their lands.
“Leonard Peltier’s liberation is our liberation. We will honor him by bringing him home and spending the rest of his days surrounded by loved ones, healing, and reconnecting with his land and culture. I salute you,” Tilsen said in a statement.
But law enforcement has accused Pelletier’s supporters of trying to misrepresent the events that led to his arrest and conviction.
Natalie Barra, president of the FBI Agents Association, which advocates for active and retired agents, said she was “outraged” by Biden’s suspension of Pelletier’s sentence.
“The shameful last-minute act by then-President Biden to release Mr. Pelletier, although his conviction remains unchanged, is despicable and lacks accountability,” Barra said in a statement. “This is a cruel betrayal of the fallen agent’s family and colleagues, and a slap in the face to law enforcement.”
According to the department’s investigative files, on June 26, 1975, Kohler and Williams were at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota to arrest a man on a federal warrant in connection with the theft of cowboy boots.
While there, agents radioed that they had been hit by gunfire in a gunfight that lasted 10 minutes, according to the FBI. Both were fatally shot at close range. Officials said Pelletier, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and then an activist with the American Indian Movement, a grassroots indigenous rights group, possessed such weapons on the reservation. He is said to be the only person identified. It could fire the type of bullet that would kill the agent.
However, dozens of people were involved in the gunfight. At trial, two co-defendants were acquitted after claiming self-defense. When Pelletier was tried separately in 1977, no witnesses were presented that could identify him as the shooter, and, unknown to his defense attorneys at the time, the federal government claimed that the fatal bullet came from his weapon. The company withheld a ballistics report showing that it was not the original weapon. According to court documents filed by Pelletier on appeal.
But the FBI maintained that his conviction was “justly and fairly obtained” and “survived numerous appeals to multiple courts, including the United States Supreme Court.”
Kathy Peltier said she last saw her father in prison before the coronavirus pandemic began. She said the family is now “crying tears of joy” knowing he will be able to return home to see more than a dozen great-grandchildren and the people who supported him over the decades.
“I’m relieved,” Kathy Pelletier said. “We’ll be able to actually hug him, really hug him, and sit and talk for hours with no time limit. There’s a lot of things he’s missed.”
