Dozens Of Democrats Plead With Biden To Free Leonard Peltier Before Leaving Office

WASHINGTON ― Dozens of U.S. senators and members of Congress wrote to President Joe Biden on Thursday “with renewed urgency” in their calls on him to release Native American rights activist Leonard Peltier, who has been in prison for nearly 50 years and is in poor health.

“The power to exercise mercy in this case lies solely within your discretion, and we urge you to grant Mr. Peltier clemency, allowing him to return home and live out his remaining days among his own people,” reads the letter, signed by 34 Democratic lawmakers.

“We commend the steps that your Administration has taken to right past wrongs of our federal government’s treatment of Native Americans, and the steps you have taken to uphold the American values of liberty and justice, including rectifying inequities in our nation’s criminal justice system,” they wrote. “In keeping with these principles, we strongly urge you to commute Mr. Peltier’s sentence.”

The letter is signed by seven senators, 26 House members and, curiously, one former longtime Democratic senator who served with Biden for decades, Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment as to whether Biden is considering commuting Peltier’s sentence.

Here’s a copy of the letter:

Democrats delivered their letter to Biden on the same day he commuted the sentences of 1,500 people who had been released from prison but placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also pardoned 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes.

Between that and Biden’s recent pardon of his son Hunter, Democrats are hopeful it’s a sign that the president will show mercy in Peltier’s case in his final weeks in office.

“President Biden has long recognized that our criminal justice system is not without its flaws,” Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), one of the signatories on the letter, told HuffPost in a statement.

“His action to grant clemency to 1,500 Americans ― the most ever in a single day ― is a promising sign that he’s ready to undo the wrongs of the past and give so many the second chance they deserve,” said Grijalva, who has long advocated for Peltier’s freedom. “Mr. Peltier should never have been imprisoned, much less for nearly half a century, so I hope President Biden will continue to do the right thing and pardon Leonard Peltier now.”

Peltier has been in prison ever since the U.S. government accused him of murdering two FBI agents in a 1975 shoot-out on a South Dakota reservation. There was never evidence that Peltier committed a crime, and the U.S. government never did figure out who shot those agents, but federal officials needed someone to take the fall, and Peltier was their pick.

His trial was riddled with misconduct: The FBI threatened and coerced witnesses into lying. Federal prosecutors hid evidence that exonerated Peltier. A juror admitted on the second day of the trial that she had “prejudice against Indians,” but she was kept on anyway.

The U.S. government’s case fell apart after these revelations, so it just revised its charges against Peltier to aiding and abetting whoever did kill the agents ― based entirely on the premise that he was one of dozens of people present when the shoot-out took place.

Peltier, who is nearly 80 now, has maintained his innocence, which has almost certainly led to him being denied parole. He’s mostly blind and uses a walker to get around when he’s not confined to the inches of space in his cell. He’s facing serious health issues related to an aortic aneurysm and diabetes, which sent him to the hospital in July with “open wounds and tissue death on his toes and feet.” He was hospitalized again in October.

Virtually every international human rights leader in modern history, including Pope Francis and Nelson Mandela, has called for Peltier’s release. Remarkably, so have some of the same people who put Peltier in prison in the first place.

The only reason the Native American rights activist is still in prison is because of unwavering opposition to his release from the FBI, even though its arguments against clemency are full of holes, are outdated and are remarkably easy to disprove.

The bureau still hasn’t publicly addressed the key context of that 1975 shoot-out, either: The FBI itself was intentionally fueling tensions on that reservation as part of a covert campaign to suppress the activities of the American Indian Movement (AIM), a grassroots movement for Indigenous rights. Peltier was an active AIM member and an FBI target.

Biden, who arguably has nothing left to lose at this point, could unilaterally grant compassionate release to Peltier. If he wanted to avoid some controversy, he could simply commute Peltier’s sentence versus granting a pardon. Doing so would just mean his prison time is over versus suggesting the government is acknowledging it did something wrong.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, is one of the signatories on Thursday’s letter. He separately appealed to Biden last week to “show mercy” and commute Peltier’s sentence.

“If there was ever a case that merited compassionate release, Leonard Peltier’s is it,” Schatz said in remarks on the Senate floor. “This is exactly what that awesome presidential power is for: to right a historic wrong — and if not that, then just to show mercy and let an old man die with his family.”