Leonard Peltier was denied parole on Tuesday, meaning there may be only one other way the ailing 79-year-old Native American rights activist can ever be released after serving nearly 50 years in prison: if President Joe Biden steps in and commutes his sentence.
Peltier has been in prison since 1977, when the U.S. government convicted him of the murder of two FBI officers during a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
His trial was riddled with misconduct, including federal prosecutors hiding evidence that exonerated Peltier and the FBI threatening witnesses to lie and blame Peltier. The government case fell apart after these revelations, it quickly revised the charge against Peltier to aiding and abetting the officer who killed the officers — on the grounds that he was one of dozens of people on the reservation when the shooting occurred.
There was never any evidence that Peltier committed a crime. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office never found out who killed these officers.
The FBI continues to oppose Peltier’s release and is the primary, if not the only, reason he remains in prison. But the reasons for opposing Peltier’s release are full of holes and remarkably easy to refute.
The FBI has not publicly discussed the main context of that 1975 shooting: the FBI deliberately stoked tensions on that reservation as part of a covert campaign to suppress the activities of the American Indian Movement, or AIM, a grassroots indigenous rights movement. Peltier was an active AIM member and a target of the FBI.
Peltier maintained his innocence throughout his time in prison, which almost certainly contributed to his being denied parole.
The last time Peltier was denied parole before Tuesday was in 2009. It is unlikely he will live long enough to apply for parole again, given the lengthy process involved, his advanced age and poor health. Peltier has diabetes and an aortic aneurysm.
During his parole hearing last month, Peltier’s team argued that he should be allowed to spend his final years under home confinement with his family and tribe in North Dakota. His supporters have set up a home for him there. Peltier currently spends most days in a cell with inches of room to move, as his maximum-security prison in Florida is frequently in a state of lockdown. He needs a walker to get around. He is blind in one eye from a stroke.
Biden is likely Peltier’s last hope to go home. The president has the authority to release him unilaterally at any time.
So far he has not said anything about Peltier.
In a rare 2022 interview, the imprisoned Native American rights activist said he knew what he would say to Biden if he had five minutes alone with him.
“I am not guilty of this shooting. I am not guilty,” he told HuffPost. “I would like to go home and spend the years I have left with my great-grandchildren and my people.”
