Biden commutes life sentence of Leonard Peltier

[newdeal2]

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2025/01/20/statement-from-president-joe-biden-16/

COMMUTATION

Leonard Peltier
The President is commuting the life sentence imposed on Leonard Peltier so that he serves the remainder of his sentence in home confinement. He is now 80 years old, suffers from severe health ailments, and has spent the majority of his life (nearly half a century) in prison. This commutation will enable Mr. Peltier to spend his remaining days in home confinement but will not pardon him for his underlying crimes.

Mr. Peltier is a Native American activist who is currently serving life in prison for killing two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and escaping from federal prison. 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.

[GreenWave]

1. This one brings tears.

[Ocelot II]

2. Good. I was hoping that would be done.

[Biophilic]

3. This is very, very good news. Thank you, Joe.

[Wiz Imp]

4. WooHoo! Finally and very much deserved.

[TexasBushwhacker]

5. WAY TO GO JOE!

[LuvLoogie]

6. Yes!!

[sinkingfeeling]

7. Excellent!

[unweird]

8. Right On

About damn time.

[LearnedHand]

9. This was the right thing!!!

I'm overjoyed to see this!

[Rastapopoulos]

10. Thank you, Mr. President

[Bayard]

11. A big bright spot on a horrid day

I'm just sorry that Leonard has wrongly spent 50 years in prison. He comes out a broken man, but I'm sure he and his family are celebrating. Crying with happiness here.

This makes me respect President Biden as much as anything else.

[underpants]

12. WHOA did NOT see that coming

[NameAlreadyTaken]

13. Yes!

[CountAllVotes]

14. Justice!

Great news for Leonard Peltier! YES!

& recommend!

[cbabe]

15. Oh my! From the bottom of my heart thank you.

https://m.

[mountain grammy]

16. So good to see this.. tears of joy.

[1WorldHope]

17. Over joyed!!! Finally!

Thank you Joe Biden! I'd do cartwheels if I could!

[wendyb-NC]

18. Very good

[G_j]

19. For decades I've been calling the WH

about this. Never thought it would happen.
Thank you Joe!!!!

[Happy Hoosier]

20. This should be a pardon, but this a good thing.

Leonard was wrongfully convicted.

[LT Barclay]

21. I had a professor at UMSL who had Leonard stay at his house while he was on trial in St. Louis

Hopefully the professor is still around to help celebrate.

[nolabear]

22. One final act of compassion

I'm heartbroken that it took so long. But he gets to go home at last.

Thank you, President Biden. Thank you, Joe.

[4catsmom]

23. better than nothing I guess

I will soooo miss you Joe

[blogslug]

24. Here is an AP link

Because those fuckers already took down the page on the White House website:

https://apnews.com/article/leonard-peltier-biden-pardons-eba525b713f2ec739b84aa4426366775

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just moments before leaving office, President Joe Biden commuted the life sentence of Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, who was convicted in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents.

Peltier was denied parole as recently as July and wasn’t eligible for parole again until 2026. He was serving life in prison for the deaths of the agents during a standoff on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He will transition to home confinement, Biden said in a statement.

Biden has set the presidential record for most individual pardons and commutations issued. He announced on Friday that he was commuting the sentences of almost 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. He also gave a broad pardon for his son Hunter, who was prosecuted for gun and tax crimes. On Monday, Biden also pardoned Gerald Lundergan, a Democratic politician from Kentucky who served in the state House of Representatives. He was convicted of illegal campaign contributions to his daughter’s failed U.S. Senate campaign. Ernest William Cromartie, a former Columbia, South Carolina, city council member who was convicted of tax evasion, also was pardoned.

The fight for Peltier’s freedom is entangled with the Indigenous rights movements. Nearly half a century later, his name remains a rallying cry...

[LymphocyteLover]

25. just saw that!!! Evil mofos!

[Joinfortmill]

26. This is a good thing.

[Donkees]

27. ''Let justice roll down like waters ... ''

[et tu]

43. mlk would approve nt

[niyad]

28. I had a feeling that might be one of his last acts out the door.

[highplainsdem]

29. Great news!

[PhilG]

30. Great News, but...

This is great news. I'd written a few emails to President Biden and others in the hopes that this would happen but feared it was no longer possible.

Note: link no longer works as it now is all "you know who"

[KS Toronado]

39. Welcome to DU

[calimary]

46. Welcome to DU, PhilG!

I started noticing that expired-website labeling popping up in a few places by late yesterday. Looked up my now-former Rep. Chavez-DeRemer and got nothing. Like she never even existed.

Of course, if she makes it to Labor Secretary, we’ll be seeing and hearing WAAAAAAAY more than we may ever have wanted to. She wasn’t exactly a frequent communicator during her single term in Congress, although she did seem to enjoy getting her picture taken with groups of handsome firefighters.

But good riddance. We’ve got a Democrat back in that job now, and she’s well-known from four terms in the state legislature. We’ll have MUCH better representation from Janelle Bynum.

[WiVoter]

31. Thank You President Biden

❤️

[ultralite001]

32. My ❤❤❤ soars like an eagle...

Go in peace, gentlemen...

Thank you, Joe...

[niyad]

33. So how long is it going to take to send Leonard home? How long can they

drag it out?

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

34. GOOD NEWS - on otherwise dismal day. Best possible (key word-possible) outcome

He is out of jail but not pardoned. Maybe someday it will be recognized that from their point of view he and others were in a wartime situation and some degree of foregiveness can be accorded .

[LoisB]

35. YES! Thank you, President Biden.

[brakester]

36. It's about TIME!

And, he should have been pardoned!

[moniss]

37. I am glad Joe did this. nt

[Kali999]

38. almost called yesterday

about this. Really happy to see this finally

[spanone]

40. K&R

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

41. Finally. This should have happened decades ago.

Good. Finally!

It should have been without house restrictions,
But thankfully Biden did the right thing.

I knew AIM Clyde Bellevourt,, AIM co-founder,
Sadly Clyde died a couple years ago.

Clyde

[KS Toronado]

42. Wonder how FQX will spin this if they even mention it

and if they do will it be in a negative light? Think I''ll record Hannity tonight.

[Hassler]

44. The only good thing about the result of the last election

[calimary]

45. Oh WOW! Talk about "a lovely parting gift"!

I’d worried that it wouldn’t happen for him. I’m glad it did.

Another hearty “Thank You!” to Joe Biden. I’m starting to think he’ll wind up being my all-time favorite President.

A genuinely kind and compassionate man. And he’s handed off a healed and newly reinvigorated country to that Orange Thing. Wonder how soon that noble gift will be completely torn up and shat upon?

[librechik]

47. WHAAT !!

That is wonderful news. Late but welcome. Thanks President Biden!

[soldierant]

48. I think I'm going to frame this.

I have signed so many petitions to so many Presidents on this, including to Joe. One of the most recent ones was in the form of an editable letter, and I added a paragraph something like "This is such a no-brainer, and so unlike you, I cannot hlep but wonder whether you are even seeing or being told of all these petitions, not to mention calls from religious leaders and Nobel Prize winners." I doubt it helped, but I had to say it.

Now I need to go cry some golden tears.

[Clouds Passing]

49. Thank you Joe

And possibly Deb Haaland 😇

[ShazamIam]

50. Good news coming on a day I needed to hear good news, I am so happy to read this.

[ribrepin]

51. So glad to read this

[Pinback]

52. "So, it's real? It's real?" Leonard Peltier responds with disbelief in learning he would finally be able to leave prison

Last edited Tue Jan 21, 2025, 01:53 PM - Edit history (1)

"So, it's real? It's real?"
Leonard Peltier responds with disbelief in learning he would finally be able to leave prison after nearly 50 years
- Stewart Huntington, ICT News: https://ictnews.org/

Nick Tilsen and Holly Cook Macarro sat in a rental car outside the Coleman Federal Corrections Complex in Florida, trying to stay calm.

“We were listening to Sundance music and we were smudging and we were praying,” Tilsen, Oglala Lakota, the founder and chief executive of the NDN Collective advocacy organization, told ICT.

But time was running out on Monday, Jan. 20, as they watched the White House Briefing Room website for any word that outgoing President Joe Biden would grant clemency to Native activist Leonard Peltier, who has been behind bars for nearly 50 years.

“I think I have PTSD from hitting refresh over and over,” said Cook Macarro, Red Lake Band of Ojibwe, who oversees government affairs for NDN Collective. “It was really very long, maybe the longest day of my life.”

(SNIP)

The story goes on to outline the details of Peltier’s case and the decades-long effort to get him released, and continues…

“It was surreal,” said Tilsen, who remembered organizing rallies to free Peltier as a teenager in Rapid City, South Dakota. “To get to this point where this could happen … It's hard to believe. … I immediately imagined Leonard coming back to his homelands because that's the same thing that any Indian person has ever wanted to do — is to go home.”

But Peltier was still behind the walls of the Florida prison, unaware of the news. It was a federal holiday and there was no opportunity for visitations.

And then the phone rang.

“He called at 12:46,” Macarro said. “Which was almost exactly one hour after the grant of clemency had been announced on the White House website. So he had no idea … He said he'd been awake all night awaiting news. And so he said, ‘Well, you know, did it happen?’”

He was nervous, but he’d been through this before, without success.

“We were able to tell him that, yes, President Biden had commuted his sentence and he would serve out the remainder of his sentence under home confinement at the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation,” she said.

“He said, ‘So it's real? So it's real?’” said Macarro, “He asked us that a couple of times. We said, ‘No, it's real.’ … It is pure joy and love and celebration today for us. And I know we share that with so much of Indian Country.”

AP News quoted Peltier’s lawyer as saying that his release date has been tentatively set for Feb. 18. Peltier will live in a home provided for him by The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa (his tribe) on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in Belcourt, ND, according to his son. Note: There is a website for The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa at https://tmchippewa.com/, but I did not see any information about the Peltier release there yet.

More from Nick Tilsen:

He continued, “It's an acknowledgment of what was done to Indian people and how we were treated throughout history was also wrong. How he was treated in his incarceration and prosecution is consistent with how the United States government has treated Indian people … treated us that we're less than, that we're not human, that we don't deserve the same human rights that other people do, that we don't deserve the same civil rights that other people do, that our sovereignty doesn't matter, that our self-determination doesn't matter.

“And so, when you look at Leonard Peltier, one of the realities is every Indigenous person sees a little bit about themselves in Leonard Peltier and Leonard Peltier’s struggle,” Tilsen said. “Because all of us have experienced injustices at the hands of the United States government. That's why the context of this moment is so huge.”

Full story and more at Indian Country Today News: https://ictnews.org/news/so-its-real-its-real

[Polybius]

53. "Peltier will likely not be able to leave the prison for several more weeks"

Why not? It's not immediate?

[Pinback]

55. AP News reports Peltier's release date is tentatively set for Feb. 18.

From Biden commutes sentence for Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, convicted in killing of FBI agents, APNews.com, Jan. 20, 2025 —

Chauncey Peltier, who was 10 when his father was locked up, said Monday he was shocked and thrilled.

“It means my dad finally gets to go home,” Peltier said. “One of the biggest rights violation cases in history and one of the longest-held political prisoners in the United States. And he gets to go home finally. Man, I can’t explain how I feel.”

Peltier’s tribe, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, has a home ready for him on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota, his son said.

Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Emery Nelson said Peltier remained incarcerated Monday at USP Coleman, a high-security prison in Florida. Peltier’s lawyer said his release date was tentatively set for Feb. 18.

More at link: https://apnews.com/article/leonard-peltier-biden-pardons-eba525b713f2ec739b84aa4426366775

[yorkster]

54. Well, now his words have me teary again.

May his return home happen soon.