Native American activist Leonard Peltier, convicted of killing two FBI agents and incarcerated for nearly five decades while maintaining his innocence, was released from a Florida prison on Tuesday after former President Joe Biden commuted his sentence.
Peltier’s supporters, ranging from tribal leaders to figures like the Dalai Lama and Robert Redford, long pushed for his freedom, arguing he was falsely convicted in an unfair trial.
A global symbol of the struggle for indigenous peoples’ rights, Peltier was freed from a federal detention center in Coleman, North Florida at around 9 a.m. (1400 GMT), according to a Reuters witness. He departed in a car which was part of a motorcade, and did not speak to supporters or media.
“Today I am finally free! They may have imprisoned me but they never took my spirit!” Peltier said in a statement provided by the NDN Collective activist group.
Peltier, a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe, is partially blind and in poor health, suffering from diabetes and heart trouble. The 80-year-old will be allowed to live under house arrest.
A homecoming celebration is planned for Peltier on Wednesday at the Turtle Mountain Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota.
The commutation, granted by Biden on his last day in office, was long opposed by the FBI. Former agency Director Christopher Wray called Peltier a “remorseless killer.”
His supporters say prosecutors withheld critical evidence that would have been favorable to Peltier and fabricated affidavits that painted him as guilty.
“Just as his wrongful incarceration represented the oppression of Indigenous Peoples everywhere, his release today is a symbol of our collective power and inherent freedom,” Nick Tilsen, NDN Collective Founder and CEO, said in the release.
Peltier was among a group of Native American men who traded gunfire with FBI Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in June 1975.
The agents, who had gone to the reservation in search of a fugitive, were killed, along with one of the Native American activists. Peltier, part of a movement upholding Native American treaty rights with the U.S. government, has maintained he did not shoot Coler and Williams.
Peltier fled to Canada before his 1977 trial. He was eventually extradited back to the United States, found guilty and given two life sentences.
“Leonard Peltier’s release is the right thing to do given the serious and ongoing human rights concerns about the fairness of his trial, his nearly 50 years behind bars, his health and his age,” said Paul O’Brien, executive director at Amnesty International USA.
