Former President Joe Biden commuted the life sentence of American Indian activist and convicted double assassin Leonard Peltier simply minutes earlier than leaving the White Home Monday. Peltier was in federal jail for murdering FBI Particular Brokers Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation practically 50 years in the past.
Peltier, who’s now 80 and struggling poor well being, mentioned “It’s lastly over. I’m going residence,” based on an advocacy group. Peltier is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe in North Dakota.
Biden talked about Peltier’s commutation briefly in a written assertion explaining his commutation of two different officers. “I’m additionally commuting the life sentence imposed on Leonard Peltier in order that he serves the rest of his sentence in residence confinement,” the assertion reads.
The FBI has lengthy harassed Peltier’s guilt and fought laborious towards any parole or commutation of his life sentence.
“During the last 45 years, no fewer than 22 federal judges have evaluated the proof and thought of Peltier’s authorized arguments. Every has reached the identical conclusion: Peltier’s claims are meritless, and his convictions and sentence should stand,” FBI Director Christopher Wray mentioned in a 2024 letter opposing Peltier’s parole request.”
Wray resigned from the FBI on Monday the identical day Biden left workplace. Biden shouldn’t be the primary president to be requested to launch Peltier.
In June 2017, then-President Barrack Obama denied a clemency request for Peltier from Amnesty Worldwide USA’s government director Margaret Huang, who mentioned in a letter that Peltier has all the time maintained his innocence.
“The households of the FBI brokers who have been killed through the 1975 confrontation between the FBI and American Indian Motion (AIM) members have a proper to justice, however justice is not going to be served by Peltier’s continued imprisonment,” Huang mentioned in a 2017 press launch.
Peltier interview
Twenty-five years in the past, I used to be a younger hard-news reporter on the Argus Chief, the Gannett-owned newspaper in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
I used to be contacted by native and regional FBI officers a few month earlier than the twenty fifth anniversary of Peltier’s crimes. To be clear, they needed a narrative concerning the homicide of their two particular brokers about as unhealthy as they needed Peltier to stay in custody. The Argus Chief coated Indian Nation very nicely, so the FBI believed we might be a good selection to inform their story.
Senior FBI brokers gave me copies of Peltier’s information, which included post-mortem images of the slain particular brokers, Ronald A. Williams, (no relation) and Jack R. Coler.
“We now have been unhealthy up to now about getting our message out,” Chip Burrus, then the FBI’s assistant particular agent answerable for Indian Nation, instructed me.
A couple of week after assembly with FBI officers I interviewed Peltier on the U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. The FBI officers, I recall, weren’t too very comfortable concerning the interview.
I spoke to Peltier in a break room. He was seated subsequent to a buzzing soda machine, which made it considerably tough to listen to his solutions.
The very first thing that struck me was that Peltier was extremely skilled at giving interviews. A correctional officer later instructed me he averaged one or two per week. A Japanese movie crew had lately spoken to him for an in-depth undertaking.
The second factor that I noticed was that Peltier knew weapons, and he knew them very nicely.
On June 26, 1975, Peltier mentioned he was in an American Indian Motion (AIM) encampment referred to as Tent Metropolis, within the woods about three miles southeast of Oglala, South Dakota.
Tensions have been excessive, Peltier mentioned. He and his cohorts anticipated an assault from the tribal authorities, which had a well-armed paramilitary unit referred to as the Guardians Of the Oglala Nation, or GOONs.
“We had heard rumors of a potential GOON assault,” Peltier mentioned. “We have been conscious of different threats. Tensions have been excessive. I then heard bullets zinging and hit the bottom.”
Taking on a surplus British .303 Lee-Enfield rifle and a 30-30 carbine, Peltier claimed he started taking pictures towards the supply of the incoming rounds.
“Once we first began receiving gunfire, I fired that manner, however I didn’t see anyone. I by no means shot these brokers,” he instructed me. “I used to be by no means taking pictures particularly at them.”
After all, the FBI investigation revealed a unique set of occasions.
Particular Brokers Williams and Coler have been searching for a theft suspect. They adopted a crimson and white Chevrolet Suburban right into a shallow melancholy, radioed that it had stopped, and instantly reported coming below hearth.
“When you don’t get right here rapidly, we’re useless males,” Williams yelled into the radio. It was his final transmission.
A minimum of seven rifles from three positions fashioned a lethal crossfire. A complete of 125 bullet holes have been discovered within the automobile.
Each brokers have been overcome by their wounds, however alive. Peltier walked 200 yards to the place the brokers lay, executing them with photographs to the top from his AR-15.
Peltier denied ever having used the AR-15, however forensic specialists mentioned the deadly photographs have been fired from that weapon. Investigators discovered one shell casing within the trunk of Coler’s automobile that extractor exams proved got here from Peltier’s AR-15.
Brokers recovered 114 spent shells of .223 ammunition from that space. They concluded that the shells got here from the identical AR-15.
Peltier instructed me he by no means approached the wounded brokers: Mister X did.
“I do know I’ve mentioned up to now who he’s. I mentioned it out of anger. I don’t know who it’s, both Mr. X, Y or Z,” he claimed.
Peltier mentioned he left the world on foot. “After we crossed a creek, we knelt down with a pipe and prayed. I noticed the shadow of an eagle, heard the wings flapping, and adopted him out of there,” he claimed.
The FBI and in the end a jury disagreed.
“Peltier was one among three people who walked as much as the wounded and helpless brokers,” Particular Agent Burrus instructed me. “He had the weapon (the AR-15), he was ID’d on the scene. The info clearly point out he’s good for the crime.”
The rifle was discovered three months later, in an RV that had been deliberately burned. The FBI claimed it matched the weapon that killed the 2 particular brokers.
In February 1976, Peltier was cornered by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and arrested.
One former FBI particular agent instructed me Peltier’s story was “filled with inconsistencies. First, he mentioned he was by no means there. Then he mentioned he was there. Then he mentioned he was at Tent Metropolis. Then the stuff about Mr. X.”
Peltier instructed me his story hasn’t modified.
“I would inform it slightly totally different however have a look at it. My story hasn’t modified,” Peltier mentioned, practically 25 years in the past.
Takeaways
Peltier is now incarcerated on the federal jail in Sumterville, Florida. It’s anticipated his residence confinement program will start subsequent month.
Biden has pardoned and lightened the sentences of tons of of different criminals accused of great crimes, however the FBI has mentioned nothing and has taken no motion. Solely Peltier’s launch from jail obtained the FBI to behave formally.
Maybe if the FBI and a number of other different federal legislation enforcement businesses had achieved what’s proper for the previous 4 years reasonably than what made Biden and the White Home staffers comfortable, issues can be totally different.
Backside line: Neither Particular Brokers Williams nor Coler ought to have been murdered. They have been each good younger males, and their killer ought to nonetheless be in jail. Regardless of what the FBI has develop into immediately, Joe Biden ought to by no means have allowed their assassin, Leonard Peltier, to stroll out of a jail’s entrance gate, a free man.
Story courtesy of SAF’s Investigative Journalism Venture.
