What happened
Leonard Peltier, the Native American activist who spent half a century in prison after being convicted of killing two FBI agents, was released from a federal penitentiary in Florida on Tuesday.
Former President Joe Biden had commuted his two life sentences right before he left office, citing Peltier’s poor health and lengthy time served. Peltier, 80, has maintained he did not kill the agents.
Who said what
“They may have imprisoned me but they never took my spirit,” Peltier said in a statement after his release. He thanked his “supporters throughout the world who fought for my freedom,” a group that included Nelson Mandela, Pope Francis, Native American advocacy groups and some law enforcement officials, including one of the lead federal prosecutors who secured Peltier’s conviction. Supporters point to withheld exculpatory evidence at his trial and a recanted confession.
FBI officials “strongly opposed clemency” for Peltier, viewing it as a “betrayal of the fallen agents,” The New York Times said. He was the only person convicted from the 1975 shootout on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation that left FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams and Native American activist Joseph Stuntz dead.
What next?
Peltier will serve out the remainder of his two life sentences in home confinement on the lands of his Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians tribe in North Dakota.