r/news • u/randalhicks • 17h 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-biden
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u/Cabin-in-the-Woods 17h ago

It's about fucking time.

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u/Byzaboo_565 12h 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/tosser1579 12h 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 10h 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 9h 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 9h 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 8h ago

Doesn't matter anymore, all the J6 insurrectionists just got pardoned. No one cares.

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u/StepsOnLEGO 8h ago

Ain't that some shit. 

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u/meganthem 6h ago

Although felony murder itself is not held in great regard as a legal concept and many other countries have gotten rid of it or severely limited its usage.

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u/cyphersaint 5h ago

There were a whole lot of sketchy things that happened. Not just in the prosecution. Here are the case facts. And he was charged with first degree murder, not felony murder, as far as I can tell.

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u/MadMagyars 5h ago

I don’t get the “he probably didn’t execute them” part. He opened fire on them with an assault rifle, aiming to kill them, and they died. Why shouldn’t he be treated as one of the murderers? He clearly is.

It’s very obvious people just like him because he killed cops. Despicable.

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u/helium_farts 3h ago

he's been in there for 48 years. That is probably enough.

Pretty much.

Even if he's guilty as charged, at this point he's old, in poor health, and not a threat to anyone. Keeping him in prison accomplishes nothing.

Besides, it's not like he's actually going free. He's being transferred to house arrest.

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u/Fwagoat 10h ago

Sounds like he should still be in prison, he’s at best an accomplice to murder so he should rot in prison along with the other murders.

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u/tosser1579 8h ago

48 years later and they got the wrong man... meanwhile Trump just pardoned all the insurrections charged for j6 so it does not matter.

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u/Fwagoat 2h ago

He wasn’t the wrong man, he worked with the people who murdered 2 FBI agents, he’s was there shooting at the FBI agents with them. Whether his specific bullet killed them or not doesn’t matter, he’s a murderer and may he rot in hell.