WASHINGTON – A group of Democratic US Senators have sent a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland urging a compassionate release for political prisoner Leonard Peltier.
The Senators urged US Attorney General Garland “to allow for the compassionate release of Native American rights activist Leonard Peltier pursuant to the Bureau of Prison’s procedures. Mr. Peltier, who has been imprisoned for the past 49 years and is suffering from severe health conditions, should be able to return home and live out his remaining days among his own people.” The March 15 letter was signed by US Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai’i), Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), Tina Smith (D-Minnesota), Edward J. Markey (D-Massachusetts), Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawai’i) and Peter Welch (D-Vermont).
Peltier was “convicted for his alleged involvement in the murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, despite evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and due process violations mounted throughout his trial,” the Senators wrote.
A citizen of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe, Peltier is seventy-nine years old. He was extradited from Canada in 1976 to stand trial in federal court. He was found guilty in April 1977. He received two life sentences for a crime many have said he didn’t commit.
Former US Attorney James H. Reynolds, who prosecuted the case, has also said in the past that “Peltier has served his sentence on the bases of minimal evidence, a result that [he] strongly doubt[s] would be upheld in any court today.”
“If the Director of the BOP approves a compassionate release, and the Parole Commission agrees, Mr. Peltier could be released immediately,” the Senators continued. “It is time that the federal government rectifies the grave injustice of Mr. Peltier’s continued imprisonment.”
In 2023, Peltier formally submitted a plea for clemency. “I am hopeful that President Biden will sign my clemency,” he told The Guardian in an exclusive interview.
He has received support for past clemency appeals from Rev. Jesse Jackson, Mother Teresa, Pope Francis, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu the Dalai Lama and others.
Peltier is incarcerated at the high security USP Coleman penitentiary in Sumterville, Florida.
Sicangu News 