Leonard Peltier, the 79-year-old Indigenous activist who has spent nearly 50 years in prison for the 1975 murders of two FBI agents, has been denied parole. Many fear the ruling all but ensures that the longest-imprisoned Indigenous American will die behind bars.
Peltier has maintained his innocence since he was arrested in connection with the deaths that occurred at the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota. For decades, advocates such as Coretta Scott King, Nelson Mandela, Pope Francis and James H Reynolds, the US attorney who handled the prosecution and appeal of Peltier’s case, have fought for his release.
Despite evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and due process violations throughout his trial, Peltier will now remain in prison at least until 2026, when the US Parole Commission set his next hearing. His health has severely declined over the past few years, and his supporters considered his most recent hearing, which occurred last month, his last chance of not dying in prison.
On 26 June 1975, years-long tensions between Oglala Lakota traditionalists, who sought to govern in customary ways, and assimilationists, who wanted to adapt to American standards of governance, culminated in a standoff at the Pine Ridge Indian reservation. Two FBI agents in unmarked cars pursued a vehicle they believed to be operated by Jimmy Eagle, for whom they were serving an arrest warrant, onto a part of the reservation that was occupied by traditionalists.
In the chaos, a shootout erupted and the FBI agents were soon joined by more than 150 Swat team members and other law enforcement. By the end, two FBI agents and a member of the American Indian movement (Aim) – a cold war-era liberation group that supported the traditionalists – had been killed.
Peltier was among the four men who were indicted in connection with the agents’ murders.
A collosal injustice, even if you don’t think killing two FBI agents was justified.
(Apologies if I over simplify, buts it’s been a long long time since I read about this and am going off memory)
The extradition and a decent chunk of thr trial was a fucking sham, full of false confessions and fake statements that the court pulled nonsensical shit to make stick (eg a ‘witness’ statement was deemed accurate and reliable, but the witness who gave it claimed they were coerced and did not say that, but their claims were not allowed to be heard because thr court said they were ‘mentally unfit’ only when disputing the false confession).
And anyone who’s given the details of the shootout ever a cursory read knows the FBI story is bullshit and it was almost certainly self-defense. The two agents killed lied about the vehicle description, lied about who they were following, lied about who shot first on the radio calling for backup and had pulled up on Peltier and the others in the truck, on private property, in two separate unmarked cars, seemingly because of his position in AIM and because he’d refused to help hand over Jimmy Eagle the previous day. They were out for payback.
And keep in mind they wanted Jimmy Eagle primarily for the high crime of a supposed theft of a pair of cowboy boots from local ranchers who already had issues with the indigenous communities.
Bullshit from top to bottom.
Still, he’s alive and they aren’t, which clearly wasn’t their plan.
We cant call it what it is because amerikkka doesn’t have political prisoners. No, bad countries like USSR have those
This is very sad.
Damn I thought he smoked 1975 feds
You know he’d be heralded as a hero and freedom fighter if he was an Uyghur and this was the PRC.
death to america
If I were President of the USA, the very first thing I would do is pardon Leonard Peltier, invite him to the White House, give him a fucking sledgehammer and let him go to town on the portrait of Andrew Jackson.
Then we’d celebrate over a few pints.
Damn, I misread the title and thought he had evaded charges since 1975. Of course reality is crueler. What a warrior.
