In the last few minutes of his presidency, Joe Biden unexpectedly commuted the sentence of Native American activist Leonard Peltier.
Peltier has been serving a life sentence for the deaths of two FBI agents during a standoff on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. However, many have maintained that Peltier’s trial, and subsequent conviction for killing FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams in 1975, was laced with errors and corruption.
The FBI, however, has discouraged past presidents from pardoning or granting clemency to Peltier.
Peltier, 80, whose health is reportedly failing, has always maintained his innocence, and his case has drawn a long list of supporters over the decades.
For example, when in 2000, Peltier once again requested parole, his request was backed by 250 Indian tribes, and long list of others including Nobel laureates Desmond Tutu and Rigoberta Menchú, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, and such unexpected supporters as one of Peltier’s judges on the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals.
Yet, in the last few weeks, despite mountains of requests to consider Peltier’s case, Biden turned away from taking any action.
All that changed today.
Upon reflection, it seems like a good way of observing the federal holiday that celebrates the life and work of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
For those interested in learning more about the case of Leonard Peltier, it’s worth reading In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen.
I’m grateful to read your truthful and insightful reflections on Leonard Peltier: thank you! On an otherwise dark day, the bright ray of light, the memory I will take from this day, is of Leonard Peltier being a free man.