Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who was convicted in the 1970s of murdering two FBI agents, was released from prison Tuesday after then-President Biden commuted his sentence in the final hours of his presidency.
Peltier was released Tuesday morning from Florida’s maximum-security Coleman Federal Correctional Complex, where he has been incarcerated since 2014.
“I am finally going home,” Peltier said in a statement. “Today I am finally free! They may have imprisoned me but they never took my spirit!”
Peltier’s son told KELO, a Sioux Falls, S.D., CBS affiliate, that he had been invited to live on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in Belcourt, N.D., his birthplace.
Peltier was convicted in 1977 for the killings of FBI agents Ronald Arthur Williams and Jack Ross Coler in a shootout on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He has consistently maintained his innocence and his supporters have pointed to aspects of the trial such as a recantation by a key witness and a juror who was seated despite admitting to prejudice against Native Americans. Two other men who were charged in the murders were acquitted based on evidence Peltier was not allowed to present.
Numerous human rights groups and leaders called for Peltier’s release over the years, including Amnesty International, Pope Francis, and the late Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. The FBI consistently opposed his release or pardon, with outgoing director Chris Wray calling him a “cold-blooded killer” ahead of his most recent parole hearing.
President Obama did not act on calls to commute Peltier’s sentence at the end of his presidency, and he was also denied parole on several occasions. His most recent application in 2024 would likely have been his last opportunity due to his age and health issues, which include vision loss and diabetes.
Advocates had called for Biden to pardon him, but the outgoing president instead ordered him transferred to home confinement on Feb. 18.
