(NewsNation) — After spending nearly 50 years behind bars, Native American activist Leonard Peltier is out of prison.
Peltier was convicted of killing two FBI agents in 1975 and was serving two life sentences in a Florida prison until former President Joe Biden commuted his sentences to home confinement in January.
After being released, Peltier will be returning to his tribal home in North Dakota, where a celebration is taking place with friends and family.
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Peltier, now 80 years old, has maintained his innocence, arguing that he fired shots in self-defense but that his shots were not the ones that killed agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams.
Investigators said Peltier shot both men at point-blank range as they served warrants at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
Activists have called for Peltier to be released for decades, saying he was a political prisoner and petitioning former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who rejected his request.
Senator Elizabeth Warren asked Biden in 2022 to commute his sentence, saying while the Biden administration has taken steps towards upholding justice for Native Americans, he should “take another step by granting clemency to Leonard Peltier.”
In June 2024, former FBI Director Christopher Wray criticized the move to release Peltier, calling him a “remorseless killer who brutally murdered two of our own before embarking on a violent flight from justice.”
Wray also said Peltier has never accepted responsibility for the killings and showed no remorse.
Peltier will continue to serve his sentence at home in North Dakota.
