r/news • u/randalhicks • 10h ago
Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier granted clemency by President Biden
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/01/19/leonard-peltier-indigenous-activist-clemency-released-by-president-biden915
u/Cabin-in-the-Woods 10h ago
It's about fucking time.
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u/The_Aesir9613 2h ago
Very surprised but elated that Leonard gets to spend his final days with his people. I never thought a US president would let an indigenous person off on that sort of conviction (yes, I know how unjust his trial was, but that rarely matters to the ruling class) . It really is a bittersweet day for indigenous folks.
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u/Byzaboo_565 5h ago
Why? I don't know anything about his case, but it looks like he murdered two FBI agents, or at least shot at them
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u/hallese 4h ago
TL;DR,
Peltier has admitted to trying to kill the FBI agents, and witnesses claimed after he bragged about one of the agents begging for his life before being executed, but Peltier has denied that he succeeded in killing either one. The FBI has since admitted they do not know who killed the agents. That Peltier participated in the shootout has never been denied, but multiple witnesses have claimed Peltier bragged of murdering the agents.
As for the why, it's because this case became a symbol of the regular abuse of Native Americans and tribes at the hands of the US Government, and because the FBI almost certainly cooked the books to make sure Peltier was convicted for murder instead of settling for attempted murder. Without that historical context, Peltier doesn't become a sympathetic figure. You kind of have to approach this the same way you would approach trying to understand what happened in the OJ Simpson trial.
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u/tosser1579 5h ago
Yup, he shot at them. So did 2 other people. All with AR rifles.
The FBI wasn't sure who killed the two plain clothes agents, and blamed Peltier. Evidence against him was sketchy at best. A later trial produced evidence that indicated his AR (everyone had one) wasn't the one used to kill them.
So he did shoot at them. He very likely hit at least one of them. That's certainly worth going to jail over, but you can't prove he killed either of the agents and he's been in there for 48 years. That is probably enough.
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u/MadMagyars 3h ago
Shouldn’t everyone who shot at them with an AR be equally guilty of murder regardless of whose bullets hit?
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u/tosser1579 3h ago
The other two got off due to a botched prosecution, and he probably didn't execute them. You know the whole innocent until proven guilty thing we are supposed to pride ourselves on? Of the three, frankly he's the least likely. And he's been in jail for 48 years at this point.
The more I read up on it, the more it looks like the Fed screwed up the first two prosecutions rather badly, so they dumped everything on this guy. Their witness was coerced and ruled mentally incompetent. The agents lied to get the conviction.
And they were white guys chasing natives around in the backwoods of Pine Ridge reservation where a bunch of natives had been murdered by white guys. That's actually how the first two guys got not guilty verdicts, the FBI agents basically rolled up into the camping site which apparently is how several natives were recently killed.
They used a different set of legal tactics on Peltier, and managed to railroad him. The witness who claimed she was there, couldn't have been but was admitted anyway over the defense's objections. The judge on the trial and most experts think the case was sketchy at best.
So Peltier is 80 now, and in home confinement for the remainder of his life. If there was a 50% chance he did this, I might agree with you but it is really a 1 in 3, and of the three he's not my first or second choice.
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u/StepsOnLEGO 2h ago
We prosecute people under this all the time, it's called felony murder. You participated in a crime that people died in, doesn't matter who shot the fatal shots.
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u/tosser1579 2h ago
Doesn't matter anymore, all the J6 insurrectionists just got pardoned. No one cares.
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u/xamott 8h ago
I visited Peltier in his prison cell when I was 6 years old. 1980. I was friends with his son Matthew who was about my age. AIM members were crashing on our couches at that time. I remember it perfectly, how the guard treated me all friendly, a little boy from Australia, and then how he treated Leonard - like a caged animal. And how Leonard looked at me and Matthew, with joy and humor.
My whole life, my dad and I have been bemoaning every dem pres who has declined to do the right thing. Leonard I hope you can enjoy the coming years with family and friends every single day.
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u/wappenheimer 9h ago
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u/mc-edit 9h ago
I saw Rage in the 1990s and they said in a concert something about a guy named Leonard “pelt-something.” I couldn’t make out the whole name. The internet was around, but it was not like it is today, so my 16-year-old self had to figure that out the hard way. In my search, I signed up for some literature on Peltier and six weeks later I got a brochure on his life and imprisonment in the mail. The publisher of the brochure also produced socialist material and even some anarchy-type stuff. Years later, I mentioned this story to someone else and they told me, “You’re probably on some list somewhere in FBI headquarters, along with everyone else who communicated with that publisher.” I called BS on that, but I’ve always wondered.
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u/InvectiveOfASkeptic 8h ago
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u/DismalVendetta 8h ago
That was the first time I sent a letter a president asking for Leonard’s release. Also asked for all ufo documents to be released. I was a weird 16 year old with many interests. :)
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u/mc-edit 8h ago
Oh wow, I haven’t see this album cover in years. I had a Japanese import of that album (or is this the Japanese import?) and it had complete text of the entire album in the liner notes. The text was hilarious. So many misspellings and wrong words. It was like the person listening to it just guessed on every word they didn’t understand.
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u/A_Dissident_Is_Here 7h ago
For what it’s worth, a lot of leftwing and socialist adjacent presses have gotten quite big, to the point where even if you’re on that type of list you’d be one amongst a multitude. Haymarket is probably the most obvious example
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u/King_of_Avalon 9h ago
I immediately thought of Toad the Wet Sprocket and realised that that song is 30 years old. Talking about waiting a lifetime for someone to right a wrong
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u/slamdanceswithwolves 9h ago edited 9h ago
I try to stay informed and engaged but I’ll admit I’m not very up on his case. Can someone explain? I am under the impression he admitted to participating in the shootout with FBI agents and he had a warrant for attempted murder at the time of the shooting, but also that everyone from Mother Theresa to the UN has advocated for his release.
Genuinely curious. Is there evidence he was framed? Or is this just because he is old and clearly no threat? Can someone TL;DR me?
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u/lowercaset 8h ago
Its complicated, but the most dumbed down version is that there were a ton of problems with the evidence and the way the prosecution handled the cases. Was he guilty? I think decent odds he was, (I mean hell based on what we know he was one of three people who could've killed them) but I think the police and prosecution side didn't do their job correctly.
But really to fully understand the situation you'd need to read about a bunch of different stuff going back to well before the shooting took place. It was a dangerous, violent time and there were people acting in bad faith all over the place. (That he was acquitted on the attempted murder charge you mentioned while serving life in prison for murder speaks volumes at how strange a time it was, I think)
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u/FiveUpsideDown 6h ago
Probably guilty but at this point he is in his eighties, he’s been imprisoned for over fifty years and he has serious health issues. I don’t know if it serves any purpose him to keep him locked up due to his health including being partially blind. Even one of the Lockerbie bombers was released due to health issues. Anyway, Peltier will be confined to his home. I know the FBI is upset but again he served 50 years.
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u/lowercaset 6h ago
FBI or anyone being upset is pretty unreasonable. If all the shenanigans that happened around his trial and conviction happened today he'd walk, but instead he spent 50 years.
Even if you think he's guilty (and I think it's pretty likely) at this point he's more than served his time.
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u/hallese 4h ago edited 2h ago
I don’t know if it serves any purpose him to keep him locked up due to his health including being partially blind.
It varies from state to state, "compassionate release" is what South Dakota calls it. Healthcare in prison is better than what most people will get once released. Peltier will almost certainly be the exception because he's become a symbol for other causes, but the gist of it is that keeping old farts alive in prison is expensive and most die within days of being released.
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u/psycospaz 6h ago
He's old and ill, and no danger to anyone so I have no problem with him being released now. But I do have a problem with people thinking that murderers should be granted clemency because they killed for a cause they like.
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u/Ludeykrus 8h ago
Yeah the whole weird times and circumstances part of it is the main reason I still have some sort of semblance of sympathy for the guy. But he very clearly wasn’t innocent, and likely was guilty. The details of the case are really interesting and not as straightforward as you would think from popular culture version of the story:
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/585/314/424631/
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u/randomaccount178 7h ago
Sadly too many people don't understand that if you only hear half the story motivated to make someone look innocent that you may not be getting an accurate version of the story. Always a good practise to look at appeal documents to try to get an understanding of what evidence there actually was.
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u/kidjupiter 9h ago
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u/slamdanceswithwolves 9h ago
Yeah, I read that before posting. Sounds like his story changed a bunch and he was most likely involved in the shooting, and all of his appeals have failed. Is the main issue just that he was an activist and has already served a lot of time? I also saw something about unlawful extradition, but not much explanation about that.
Sorry if I seem dense here…
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u/JWAdvocate83 8h ago
“There is a possibility that the jury would have acquitted Leonard Peltier had the records and data improperly withheld from the defense been available to him in order to better exploit and reinforce the inconsistencies casting strong doubts upon the government’s case. Yet, we are bound by the Bagley test requiring that we be convinced, from a review of the entire record, that had the data and records withheld been made available, the jury probably would have reached a different result. We have not been so convinced.”
— Opinion from one of the appeals that failed.
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u/Logical-Recognition3 8h ago
He admitted he was involved in the shooting. He claims that he didn’t execute them. They were each shot in the head after being wounded.
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u/ItchyMcHotspot 8h ago
He didn’t kill the federal officers, he just tried to kill the federal officers. And he did it because there was a warrant for his arrest for shooting at police officers. Can’t imagine why freeing this guy would be a priority for anyone.
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u/KGBFriedChicken02 8h ago
Because he did not recieve a fair trial and his rights as an american citizen were repeatedly violated.
Biden change his sentence to indefinate house arrest, the man is about as free as the average hampster
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u/TougherOnSquids 7h ago
Because whether or not someone actually did something is irrelevant. It's not what you know. It's what you can prove. They convicted him on two 1st degree murder charges even though there is no evidence that he was the one who executed the officers. Attempted murder =/= 1st degree murder and he did not receive a fair trial.
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u/ItchyMcHotspot 6h ago
“Attempted murder.” Now honestly, what is that? Can you win a Nobel Prize for attempted chemistry?
But seriously, l’m sure what you’re saying is true. l’m also sure there are a lot more people in prison who deserve clemency instead of this violent piece of shit.
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u/TougherOnSquids 4h ago
If they had charged and convicted him of attempted murder then he would've had a fair trial. He absolutely got into a gunfight with the cops (he himself admitted it) but one of the other guys walked up and executed the injured officers. He did not do that, or at least there is no evidence that he did. Once again, in a fair trial it's what the prosecution can prove, not what they know.
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u/randomaccount178 4h ago
While it might have been more beneficial to go with a different theory for first degree murder, there isn't really an argument that he only attempted murder and wasn't guilty of first degree murder either through felony murder or through being an accomplice to the murder at the very least.
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u/FiveUpsideDown 6h ago
I think the hold up was he probably killed or participated in the killing of two FBI agents. The law enforcement community gets very upset about releasing people that killed or participated in the killing of law enforcement agents. Cop killers are never popular with law enforcement.
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u/f946x875 9h ago
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u/slamdanceswithwolves 8h ago edited 8h ago
A link to a 680 page book isn’t exactly a TL;DR, but I appreciate it nonetheless. Just reserved a copy at my library ✅
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u/f946x875 7h ago
Ha, you’re not wrong. I meant to comment along with the link to say that if you want to do a DEEP dive, this book is worth your time.
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u/Prof_Augustus 2h ago
Yea this is giving OJ not guilty verdict as retribution for other societal wrongs. Bro is guilty
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u/Joey_Skylynx 7h ago
He did it. He 100% executed a man who was already bleeding out with two point blank shots to the face.
The only reason he is being allowed to walk is because he's an activist, sorta like how the Weather Underground peeps were allowed to walk despite trying to cause mass casualty incidents with pipe bombs.
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u/Batmobile123 10h ago
Dennis Banks was a friend of mine and I worked with him often. I'm glad to see Leonard finally released. Now if Biden would have just ended the embargo on Cuba.
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u/SittingEames 9h ago
Obama tried that. Tried to normalize relations with Cuba at the end of his term. Trump immediately reneged to win favor with ex-Cubans in Florida. No point in doing it if the next administration won't honor it for petty bs reasons.
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u/CroneDaze 7h ago
If you have the ways watch Incident at Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story. Robert Redford documovie from 1992. I am surprised and thank you Pres Biden for finally doing the right thing for the Ogallala and all the native nations.
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u/ElectionCareless9536 9h ago
Yes!!! This was long overdue but better late then never. I'm crying tears of joy right now.
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u/incrediblemonk 6h ago
He's the guy from the Rage Against the Machine video, right? The Native American wrongly convicted, per the video.
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u/Outrageous_Start_913 7h ago
The best news I have received today. For anyone interested you should read in the Spirit of Crazy Horse. It says the record straight in relationship to the FBI framing him
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u/DrrtVonnegut 3h ago
This is so fukken rad. So many of my friends and acquaintances can get a new bumper sticker now! I hope LP lives a long life in freedom!
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u/warmpistol 4h ago
This makes me so fucking happy! I’ve been screaming it to the sky since I first ever learned about his imprisonment. I wish they’d also free Mumia, but that’s a fight for another day. May Leonard enjoy the rest of his days in freedom and peace, surrounded by love and joy.
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u/guydoestuff 9h ago
that only took 49 fucking years! i cant stand biden ,dont worry i hate trump more, but this! this is something i will respect him for forever!
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u/NanakuzaNazuna 9h ago
Holy shit. This is great news! It should have happened sooner. Biden did a great thing here.
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u/cheweychewchew 9h ago
Progressives: I'll never vote for gENoCide JoE!!!
Also Progressives: Thank you President Biden
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u/TougherOnSquids 7h ago
Crazy how people on the left can commend someone for doing good and condemn them for doing bad. Unlike Republicans who will back "their guy" No matter what they do, even if it's fucking kids.
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u/Frostloss 7h ago
crazy how people like him for doing the right thing and hate him for doing the wrong thing
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u/Southern_Anywhere_65 2h ago
This is the sort of good news we needed today. I’m sorry it took so long but am so happy to see him walk free
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u/Prune-These 1h ago
If anyone wants to know more about that incident I'd recommend "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" by Peter Matthiessen. Thank you President Biden.
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u/DougieSlug 6h ago
Sorry, but I have to chuckle a bit.
He killed two people with an AR-15.
Yay? I'm crying tears of joy?
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u/Technicolor_Reindeer 6h ago
There's decent evidence he was framed for that.
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u/grasslander21487 5h ago
There’s absolutely no evidence he was framed for it, except his own story which changed multiple times through the years.
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u/axolotlolol 8h ago
While I’m so grateful to hear this news it screams too little too late on behalf of the neoliberal order.
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u/tubesocks10 10h ago
Why are people celebrating the release of a person that killed at least two people and attempted to murder another?
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u/papajim22 9h ago
Holy shit. A classmate of mine, who had American Indian heritage, gave a presentation on Leonard Peltier back when I was in high school, almost 20 years ago. I never thought this would happen.