SUMTERVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier was released from Florida prison Tuesday morning, based on former President Joe Biden, who sentenced to life in prison for the 1975 murder of an FBI agent. I did. An official who believes in his guilt.
For nearly half a century, Peltier’s imprisonment symbolizes the systematic injustice of Native Americans across the country who believe in his innocence. The decision to lock the 80-year-old in his home was celebrated by his supporters.
Nick Estes, a professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota and advocated member of the Lower Brule Sioux tribe, said: For the release of Peltier.
But the last minute move when Biden took office prompted criticism from people who say Peltier was guilty.
“Give Peltier relief from his beliefs and sentences would be completely unfair and humiliating against the rule of law,” Ray wrote.
Commuting was not an amnesty for the crime committed. Peltier’s supporters wanted him as he has always maintained his innocence.
A group of supporters gathered outside Coleman Federal Prison Tuesday morning, anticipating Peltier’s release. Jennifer Jones, one of his lawyers, said he was looking forward to Peltier returning home.
“We’re so excited at this moment,” Jones said. “He’s fine. He has a warrior spirit.”
After being released from USP Coleman, a security prison, Peltier planned to return to North Dakota, where a celebration was planned with family and friends.
Biden notified Peltier’s sentence on January 20th, noting that he spent most of his life in prison and is now in good health.
“We didn’t expect him to come out,” said Ray St. Clair, a member of the Minnesota Chippewa White Earth Band, shortly before Peltier’s release. “It shows you should never give up hope. This can repair the damage that was done. This is where it begins.”
A registered member of the North Dakota Chippewa Turtle Mountain Band, Peltier was active in the American Indian movement that began in the 1960s.
The group grabbed the headlines in 1969 when activists occupied Alcatraz, a former prison in San Francisco Bay, and once again presented presidential candidates with a list of requests that included restoration of tribal lands. After they were ignored, they seized the headquarters of the Indian Affairs Bureau.
Since then, the group has been targeted for FBI surveillance and harassment under a secret programme exposed in 1975.
Peltier’s beliefs stemmed from the same year’s conflict at the Oglarus Soo Indian Reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. According to the FBI, the agents were there to serve as a warrant for arrests for robbery and assault with dangerous weapons.
Prosecutors alleged that Peltier shot both agents in their heads. Peltier admitted to being there and firing a gun in the distance, but he said he fired it in self-defense. A woman who claimed she saw Peltier shoot an agent later said that the agent repeatedly testified her and was forced.
He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and was given two consecutive life sentences.
Two other athletic members, co-defendants Robert Robideau and Dino Butler, were acquitted on citing self-defense.
Peltier was recently denied parole in July and was not eligible to be considered again until 2026.
“The release of Leonard Peltier is right given his serious and continuing human rights concerns about the fairness of his trial, given his health, his health and his age,” said Amnesty. International executive director Paul O’Brien said in the United States, “While we welcome his release from prison, he should not be confined to home confinement.”
Prominent Native American groups like the American Indian National Congress have been seeking the release of Peltier for decades, and Amnesty International considers him a political prisoner. Prominent supporters include South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu, civil rights icon Colletta Scott King, actor and director Robert Redford, musicians Pete Seager, Harry Belafonte and Jackson Brown .
A generation of Indigenous activists and leaders lobbyed multiple presidents by forgiveness of Peltier. Deb Haaland, former Interior Secretary, a member of Laguna’s Pueblo and the first Native American to hold the position of secretary, praised Biden’s decision.
“I’m grateful that Leonard can return to his family home,” she said in a post on social platform X on January 20th.
At a young age, Peltier was taken away from his family and sent to boarding school. Thousands of Indigenous children over the decades faced the same fate, often subjected to systemic, psychological and sexual abuse.
“He really didn’t have a home since he was taken to boarding school,” he has advocated for the release of Peltier, a teenager and CEO of NDN Collective, an indigenously led advocacy group. Nick Thilsen said. South Dakota. “So he’s excited to be home and paint and his grandchildren are running around.”
