Leonard Peltier, the 80-year-old activist and “remorseless killer” who has been in prison for just shy of 50 years in connection with a 1975 ambush shooting that left two FBI agents dead on a South Dakota reservation, is headed home.
His first stop is expected to be a welcome home party at a reservation casino, according to the NDN Collective, an indigenous rights group, where supporters plan to celebrate his release from what they claim was a “wrongful incarceration.”
In one of his last moves in office, former President Joe Biden granted Peltier clemency over fiery objections from both former FBI Director Christopher Wray and the FBI Agents Association.
“I hope these letters are unnecessary, and that you are not considering a pardon or commutation,” Wray wrote to Biden just 10 days before the former president granted clemency. “But on behalf of the FBI family, and out of an abundance of caution, I want to make sure our position is clear: Peltier is a remorseless killer, who brutally murdered two of our own – Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams. Granting Peltier any relief from his conviction or sentence is wholly unjustified and would be an affront to the rule of law.”
BIDEN FREES RADICAL LEFT-WING KILLER CONVICTED IN FBI AGENTS’ MURDERS DURING LAST HOURS AS PRESIDENT
American Indian activist Leonard Peltier speaks during an interview at the U.S. Penitentiary, April 29, 1999, in Leavenworth, Kansas. Former President Joe Biden commuted his life sentence to home confinement before leaving office, and his release was scheduled for Tuesday. (Joe Ledford/The Kansas City Star via AP, File)
Peltier was serving two consecutive life sentences for his role in the slayings of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams. He received another seven years on top of that for an armed escape attempt.
A last-minute presidential pardon from Biden declared he should be freed Tuesday.
Peltier’s most recent bid for parole failed in July. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both denied clemency requests for him, but he had supporters among other prominent Democrats, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, as well as former Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.
Members of law enforcement, and former FBI agents in particular, have been incensed by the clemency.
“[Peltier] executed the two agents when they were wounded on the ground – no mercy or forgiveness,” Ed Mireles, the first FBI agent to receive the bureau’s Medal of Valor after a deadly gun battle with two suspected killers in 1986, told Fox News Digital previously. “No mercy or forgiveness for Peltier.”
FBI Special Agents Ronald Williams, left, and Jack Coler, right, pictured in their official FBI portraits. Both men were executed at point-blank range on June 26, 1975 after being injured in a shootout. (FBI)
Peltier was a member of the activist American Indian Movement, and his supporters have claimed he was denied a fair trial. But he was more than just an activist at the time of the FBI slayings at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota – he was the subject of an active arrest warrant for the attempted murder of a police officer in Wisconsin.
He has since portrayed himself as a political prisoner, a move that his Democratic supporters and other activists have embraced.
DOJ PANEL DENIES PAROLE TO FAR-LEFT ACTIVIST CONVICTED IN SLAYINGS OF 2 FBI AGENTS
People gather for a rally outside of the White House in support of imprisoned Native American activist Leonard Peltier, Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
On June 26, 1975, Williams and Coler were looking for a group of armed robbery suspects in the Oglala Sioux Indian Reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota.
Although Peltier wasn’t one of them, he was traveling in a vehicle that caught the agents’ attention.
Williams and Coler warned over the radio that someone was about to open fire on them. They pleaded for help, but backup was miles away.
Peltier is a remorseless killer, who brutally murdered two of our own – Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams. Granting Peltier any relief from his conviction or sentence is wholly unjustified and would be an affront to the rule of law.
Read Biden’s Executive Grant of Clemency for Leonard Peltier
By the time help arrived, the agents were likely dead, but responding agents and local police also came under gunfire.
In the aftermath, investigators found 125 bullet holes in the agents’ car and said they returned only five shots.
Both had been injured in the ambush and died from execution-style wounds to the head from a .223-caliber bullet. Peltier was the only person on scene carrying a weapon that could have fired those rounds, according to the FBI – an AR-15 rifle.
FAR-LEFT ACTIVIST CONVICTED IN EXECUTIONS OF 2 FBI AGENTS HEADED TO PAROLE HEARING WITH SUPPORT FROM DEMS
Leonard Peltier, American Indian Movement leader, is led across Oakalla prison exercise yard to a waiting helicopter. After a prolonged legal battle, Peltier was ordered deported by Canadian Justice Minister Ron Basford to face charges of murdering two FBI agents. (Bettmann/Contributor via Getty Images)
Four men were arrested in their deaths, but only Peltier was convicted, according to the FBI.
The government dropped charges against James Eagle, the robbery suspect whom Williams and Coler were looking for at the start of the shootout.
Two other men, Robert Robideau and Darrelle Butler, were acquitted at trial in 1976.
Read FBI Director Wray’s letter to Biden on Leonard Peltier:
DEMOCRATS CALL ON BIDEN TO RELEASE LEONARD PELTIER, ACTIVIST WHO FATALLY SHOT TWO FBI AGENTS
Peltier’s appeals have repeatedly failed, and according to the FBI, he admitted to firing at the agents on multiple occasions. The bureau says he told Canadian police, who arrested him after he fled across the border, that he sho at FBI agents whom he thought had come to arrest him for his outstanding warrant. He admitted to shooting at them again in a 1991 interview with “60 Minutes.”
Nevertheless, Peltier’s supporters have argued that his initial 1977 conviction was based on shoddy evidence and “prosecutorial misconduct.” He failed to have it overturned after more than a dozen appeals, including two that reached the Supreme Court.
American Indian Movement (AIM) activist Leonard Peltier, who was convicted in 1976 of the murder of FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler, poses for a prison portrait in 1985 while holding up a painting. (MPI/Getty Images)
“For nearly 50 years, no fewer than 22 federal judges, multiple parole boards, and six presidential administrations have evaluated the evidence and considered Peltier’s arguments,” Wray wrote to Biden over the summer. “Each has reached the same conclusion: Peltier’s claims are meritless and his convictions and sentence must stand.”
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Biden countered that Peltier’s support outweighed the courts and the concerns of Coler and Williams’ families and colleagues.
FBI mugshot of Leonard Peltier, who at the time was wanted for killing two FBI agents. He was added to the FBI’s list of “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.” (Bettmann)
“Tribal Nations, Nobel Peace laureates, former law enforcement officials (including the former U.S. Attorney whose office oversaw Mr. Peltier’s prosecution and appeal), dozens of lawmakers, and human rights organizations strongly support granting Mr. Peltier clemency, citing his advanced age, illnesses, his close ties to and leadership in the Native American community, and the substantial length of time he has already spent in prison,” Biden said in a statement on Jan. 20.
Peltier’s sentence has been commuted to home confinement.
“Leonard Peltier has never expressed remorse for his actions,” said Natalie Bara, the president of the FBI Agents Association. “Special Agents Coler and Williams were stolen from their families, robbed of the chance to share precious time and milestones with their loved ones. Leonard Peltier should not have been granted a mercy he so cruelly denied to the Coler and Williams families.”
