SUMTERVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Native American activist Leonard Peltier was released from a Florida prison on Tuesday, weeks after then-President Joe Biden angered law enforcement officials by commuting his life sentence to home confinement in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents.
Peltier, 80, left Coleman penitentiary in an SUV, according to a prison official. He didn’t stop to speak with reporters or the roughly two dozen supporters who gathered outside the gates to celebrate his release.
Peltier, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota, was headed back to his reservation, where family and friends will celebrate his release with him on Wednesday and where the tribe arranged a house for him to live in while serving his home confinement.
Throughout his nearly half-century in prison, Peltier has maintained that he didn’t murder FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams during a confrontation that day on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Native Americans widely believe he was a political prisoner who was wrongly convicted because he fought for tribal rights as a member of the American Indian Movement.
“He represents every person who’s been roughed up by a cop, profiled, had their children harassed at school,” said Nick Estes, a professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota and a member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe who advocated for Peltier’s release.
I hope this was a good day for Joe Biden, too.
Steve LaBonne
The ratio between the amount of good Joe Biden did and the thanks he got for it tells you everything you need to know about why democracy is on life support.
rikyrah
Thank you , Joe Biden
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
As efgoldman used to say, fuck’em.
Welcome home, Mr. Peltier
Dan B
My best friend’s father spearheaded tribal sovereignty and then gaming. Lots of young native men of a certain age are named, incorrectly spelled, after him. I’m hoping my friend is feeling happy today.
Quinerly
From his daughter’s FB page. I think this link contains the pictures.
From Ndn Collective
“Leonard Peltier has made it to North Dakota! The temperatures are bitter cold today, but our hearts and spirits are on FIRE for our Elder and Leksi (Uncle) Leonard. ❤️🔥❤️
Stay tuned for more updates from NDN Collective.
Read our press release for more information about Leonard’s welcome home event tomorrow, Wednesday, February 19, in his home community of Turtle Mountain, North Dakota: https://ndnco.cc/lphomepr
Photo 1 by Angel White Eyes. Photo 2 by Robert Bordeaux.”
https://ndncollective.org/ndn-collective-to-host-welcome-home-event-for-leonard-peltier
If you are on FB you can go to her page (Kathy Peltier). She was a baby when he went to prison.
karen gail
The woman who claimed that Leonard had shot the two agents recanted and said she was coerced; he admitted that he was there and that he had returned fire.
Leonard Peltier leaves prison after sentence commuted for 1975 slayings – POLITICO
I have long believed that this was a political statement; since no President bothered to step up even after finding out the witness to his “crime” lied.
Quinerly
Press releases and pictures from NDN Collective:
“This moment would not be happening without Secretary Deb Haaland and President Biden responding to the calls for Peltier’s release that have echoed through generations of grassroots organizing,” said Holly Cook Macarro, Government Affairs for NDN Collective. “Today is a testament to the many voices who fought tirelessly for Peltier’s freedom and justice.”
https://ndncollective.org/leonard-peltier-released-from-49-years-of-wrongful-incarceration/
Events will be live streamed tomorrow. Info in this link.
https://ndncollective.org/ndn-collective-to-host-welcome-home-event-for-leonard-peltier/
Urza
Given that he’s 80 I would have preferred time served instead of home confinement. But also he’s 80 so he’s probably mostly home confined anyway after that long in prison.
Quinerly
@karen gail:
I was reading articles the other day about how outspoken CHRISTOPHER WRAY has been opposing clemency. Sounds like he was actively lobbying Biden to not touch it.
WaterGirl
@Quinerly: Fuck Christopher Wray.
Another Scott
Good, good. It is indeed another good thing Biden did.
ICYMI, Chutkan’s 10 page order denying the TRO for DOGE:
She’s laying out exactly what the good guys need to do to win an injunction/TRO. And I think it’s pretty clear that they likely will the next time.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Professor Bigfoot
@WaterGirl: Sideways, and with rusty farm implements.
Melancholy Jaques
@Steve LaBonne:
What’s most galling is that the very people he worked hardest to help had no use for him.
UncleEbeneezer
Thanks Biden…no, seriously.
CItizen Dave
Heard about this case all my life. Not sure what the truth is (wouldn’t be surprised if he is innocent), but in any case, happy for Mr. Peltier, and so glad Joe Biden did this. Echo all the thanks for Joe. I’ll never understand these last 10 years…
karen gail
Evidence was presented to Obama that should have made a difference, yet he did nothing.
Let Leonard Peltier Go Free – The Santa Barbara Independent
I have long believed that Peltier was targeted because he tried to make a difference, after all it wasn’t until 1924 that Native people were considered citizens.
Gloria DryGarden
@Quinerly: I am so happy that mr Peltier has gone back home. Thank you for all these links , too.
Another Scott, do you understand why it wasn’t enough to get a TRO. I didn’t understand yet, from your attachment.
In ant case, tomorrow..
Jay
Canada should have never allowed his extradition, but then we have our own systemic racism, continued to the this day.
Another Scott
@Gloria DryGarden: IANAL.
My understanding of the PDF is that she’s saying that the lawyers wanting DOGE stopped have to show that actual harm has occurred. Not that it might occur, or will occur in the future. So they need things like sworn affidavits from people who have been illegally fired, not just news reports. Things like that.
Since there are hundreds of people who have been now been fired on DOGE’s say-so, not based on actual legal metrics like job performance by their actual civil-service supervisors, the lawyers should be able to construct a case that satisfies those demands.
But, as I say, IANAL. Corrections welcome.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Jay
@Another Scott:
Naw, Judge Chuchan’s position is that for “proof” that DOGE’s minions have compromised data, there needs to be a document trail, on paper, not just e-files posted to the DOGE website.
Kayla Rudbek
@Another Scott: c’mon, all the probationary employees who were fired didn’t have standing? I swear that the wedding cake case that went to the Supreme Court had weaker standing grounds which weren’t even addressed.
Kayla Rudbek
@Jay: which is completely wrong in my opinion. Printouts and screenshots are enough evidence to warrant granting the TRO.
Jay
@Kayla Rudbek:
Yup. The “institutions” don’t stand.
Like Apartheid Clyde is Schrodinger’s Employee.
mvr
@Quinerly: Of course he (Wray) was lobbying against any mercy. FBI had it in for Peltier and AIM in general. Case in Oregon against some AIM members in related cases kept getting thrown out by the trial judge (Judge James A Redden – don’t ask me how come I can recite his name from memory), appealed, reinstated and thrown out again.
Ten Bears
Walk in Beauty …
sab
@Gloria DryGarden: Yesterday was my birthday. I hate birthdays ever since my mom forgot me and left me behind at a puttputt golf course party for my sister’s birthday.
I had the best birthday ever. I had intended to go to work yesterday. But when I woke up late one of our new cats ( Solly) had climbed into bed with me. He normally lives in the basement because he is afraid of our cat-loving pitbull. So I spent an hour petting Solly.
sab
@sab: End of my birthday Leonard Peltier went home.
My first marriage my father in law owned a bar in Minneapolis with a lot of native american customers. They all thought Peltier was innocent because another guy they knew had shot those FBI guys.
My FIL died many years ago but i believed him. So I am thrilled that Peltier is sort of free and at home.
Miss Bianca
@CItizen Dave: I used to index the English-language version of Pravda (no, really, it was a thing – facsimile version reproducing photos and everything!) when I was just out of college, and I remember the articles where they pointed out that hey, AMERICA had political prisoners too, look at Leonard Peltier!
And that was honestly the first time I’d ever heard of him. :(