By AVA FAHEY

In the final hours of his presidency, President Joe Biden granted executive clemency to Indigenous elder and American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier. Peltier has spent the past half-century serving two consecutive life sentences for the 1975 Pine Ridge Reservation shootout that ended in the deaths of two FBI agents (you can read Workers’ Action’s longer article about the Peltier case and defense movement here). He has always maintained his innocence.

Peltier has not been granted a pardon, which would officially declare his innocence and release him into unconditional freedom. Instead, the White House, whose statement continues to treat Peltier as guilty of the murders, has elected to commute the remainder of Peltier’s sentences to home imprisonment, or house arrest. 

Although Peltier did not receive the unconditional pardon he deserves, the news is certainly a welcome surprise. Peltier’s appeals for clemency and compassionate release have been repeatedly denied since he first became eligible for parole in the 1990s, having most recently been denied in June 2024 despite his poor health. Undeterred by an international movement calling for Peltier’s freedom, every president up to now has declined to use their executive power to pardon or grant clemency to Peltier. This is widely believed to be influenced by an FBI vendetta against Peltier; in fact, outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray sent Biden a strongly worded letter expressly discouraging him from commuting Peltier’s sentence. 

President Biden signed the order granting Peltier clemency, but he deserves no credit for Peltier’s imminent freedom. It was the relentless, decades-long organizing of Indigenous activists and allies around Peltier’s release that has finally paid off. As the NDN Collective’s press release states, it was Peltier’s defense movement that exposed the prosecutorial misconduct and constitutional violations that resulted in Peltier’s unjust conviction, and beyond that supported Peltier in his half-century of confinement. This victory belongs to Peltier, his defense team, and his supporters alone.  

Peltier is scheduled to be released from federal prison next month, on Feb. 18. It is believed that in the coming weeks Peltier will return to the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, where he was raised, and will live in a home purchased for him by the NDN Collective. According to the Collective’s founder, Nick Tilsen, Peltier will “live out the rest of his days surrounded by loved ones, healing, and reconnecting with his land and culture.” Said Leonard Peltier himself: “It’s finally over—I’m going home. I want to show the world I”m a good person with a good heart. I want to help the people, just like my grandmother taught me.” 

Image: Peltier’s painting “Down But Not Out.”  See: https://www.leonardpeltiermatters.com/Down_not_Out.html