International pressure, stateside push leads to President Biden’s act of clemency for AIM icon Leonard Peltier

Backers worldwide of his claim to innocence consider his captivity emblematic of an ingrained national policy of racism against American Indians. “Nothing will give five decades back to Leonard Peltier, his family, and Indian Country,” Nick Estes, assistant professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota, told Buffalo’s Fire. “President Biden’s last-minute release is a moral indictment on the system and people who have kept Leonard unjustly imprisoned.”

Estes is the author of Our History is the Future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline and Red Nation Rising: From Bordertown Violence to Native Liberation, among other titles. “Where this system failed him, grassroots Indigenous people kept his campaign for freedom alive, despite campaigns of misinformation and slander,” Estes said. “Millions around the world have supported his release.”

The announcement’s timing on the last day of Biden’s administration coincides with the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The assassinated Black civil rights leader’s late wife Coretta Scott King once said, “Mr. Peltier’s unjust incarceration remains a festering sore that impedes better race relations in America.”

A board member of the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Miniconjou Lakota Jean Roach, called the clemency decision “coming to the table with a good faith effort … to deal with the tribes.” Treaty violations and desecration of ancestral territories were a basis for the formation of the American Indian Movement in which Peltier participated, she told Buffalo’s Fire.

“Leonard Peltier’s case is not the only one that needs to be addressed. So far, the United States government has failed for people,” she said. “It’s sad that they’re after our lands now to continue the exploitation of Mother Earth and any means to preserve the dollar.”

On Dec. 9, at the fourth annual White House Tribal Nations Summit, Oglala Sioux Tribal President Frank Star Comes Out addressed Biden saying, “Do us a favor: Free Leonard Peltier.”

Star Comes Out joined hundreds of tribal leaders from 30 states, UN agencies, dignitaries and human rights defenders in the plea to release Peltier from Coleman Maximum Security Prison in Florida. Supporters include a long list of international dignitaries, such as Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Mother Teresa, along with eight Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including Rigoberta Menchú.

They base their demand on the fact that his case resulted in no conclusive evidence of his shooting the agents. U.S. Attorney James H. Reynolds, who prosecuted Peltier, called for clemency.

In a July 2021 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Reynolds said, “I write today from a position rare for a former prosecutor: to beseech you to commute the sentence of a man who I helped put behind bars. Leonard Peltier’s conviction and continued incarceration is a testament of a time and system of justice that no longer has a place in our society.”

The 44,000 National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers members sent a December letter to Biden supporting clemency. “Mr. Peltier’s case is a stark example of systemic racism and injustice within the criminal legal system,” said association President Christopher A. Wellborn. “Despite mounting evidence of his innocence and declining health, he remains incarcerated. It’s time to rectify this historic wrong.”

NDN Collective CEO Nick Tilsen, Oglala Lakota, told media his organization is ensuring the aging elder has a place to live on his return to Turtle Mountain. Peltier’s commutation includes a transition to home confinement, Biden said in a statement. He will need immediate medical attention for Type II diabetes, an aortic aneurysm, and partial blindness, among other health complications, Tilsen said. When a parole board denied early release from his two consecutive life terms in June, sympathizers feared he would die in custody.

“And now he can finally go home and be with family and nation,” said Estes. Justice and accountability must come next, he said, chalking up Peltier’s clemency as “a huge win for Indian Country.”

Peltier’s sentence originated from a firefight that defense committee board member Roach witnessed at age 14 in the tiny town of Oglala. Peltier’s initial charge of premeditated murder did not stick, as it changed to aiding and abetting, she said.

An Indian boarding school survivor, Peltier “stands as a symbol of the ongoing racism and oppression against Native Americans in the United States criminal justice system,” according to an NDN Collective statement. Like others in solidarity, the organization asked that Biden build on his November public apology for the boarding schools by following up with granting Peltier liberty.

“There is no real justice after losing 50 years of freedom, but today, our hearts burst with joy and gratitude for our Uncle Leonard,” NDN Collective published in a release moments after the announcement.

“Our hearts are with our relatives who are still unjustly incarcerated and continue to be targets of police and state violence. Although this fight to release Leonard Peltier from prison is over, the fight for justice and the healing of our People from systems that continue to target, criminalize, incarcerate, and murder our people is a fight we continue to take on here at NDN Collective, and for the protection of Indigenous rights globally.”

Also, on Jan. 20, Biden pardoned Gen. Mark A. Milley, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the members of Congress and staff who served on the Select Committee, and the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the committee. These “public servants have been subjected to ongoing threats and intimidation for faithfully discharging their duties,” he said.

These unprecedented, so-called preemptive pardons included clemency for his family members, brothers James and Frank, his sister Valerie, and their respective spouses, CNN reported as Biden’s successor President Donald Trump took office.

“In certain cases, some have even been threatened with criminal prosecutions … and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on (their) lives, safety, and financial security,” he said. “These pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” he added.

On Jan. 19, Biden pardoned five individuals and commuted the sentences of 2 others who “made significant contributions to improving their communities.” He claimed “issuing more individual pardons and commutations than any other President in U.S. history.”

Biden announced clemency to a raft of almost 2,500 sentenced for lesser narcotics charges on Jan. 17

On Dec. 23, Biden also announced he was commuting sentences for 37 out of 40 individuals on federal death row. Their status is being reclassified from execution to life without the possibility of parole. The clemency grant did not cover those convicted of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.