More than 30 lawmakers press Biden to free activist Leonard Peltier after clemency blitz

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, led 33 members of Congress on Friday in a letter calling on President Biden to pardon Leonard Peltier — a Native American activist controversially convicted of murdering two FBI agents.

The letter cites Peltier’s age and health concerns, as well as the U.S. Parole Commission’s denial of his application in July, which likely marked his last chance at parole. In addition to 33 current senators and representatives, it is signed by former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

“These recent denials mean only you have the unique ability to grant him clemency and rectify this grave injustice that has long troubled human rights advocates and Native Peoples across the globe,” the group wrote.

Peltier was involved in the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the 1970s, which led him to travel to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota amid tensions between the tribal chairman and a traditionalist faction of the Lakota nation. Agents Ronald Arthur Williams and Jack Ross Coler were killed in a shootout on the reservation, and Peltier was convicted and given two life sentences in 1977.

The trial has long been criticized as unfair by Peltier’s advocates, citing the fact that a key witness for the prosecution later recanted, as well as two other men who were charged in the murders but later acquitted based on evidence that was not allowed in Peltier’s trial.

Pope Francis, the late Nelson Mandela and James Reynolds, a prosecutor in the case, have all lobbied for clemency or a pardon.

The FBI has consistently and adamantly opposed clemency or release for Peltier, with outgoing Director Christopher Wray calling him a “remorseless killer.”

Schatz previously called for Biden to grant Peltier clemency on the Senate floor earlier this month.

Friday’s letter comes in the wake of the president pardoning or commuting the sentences of more than 1,500 people amid pressure following a controversial pardon of his son Hunter on federal tax and gun crimes. All of the 39 pardon recipients were previously convicted of nonviolent offenses.

The group of lawmakers also appealed to Biden’s record on Native American issues, which includes the appointment of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who hailed him as the best president on native issues of her lifetime at an event Monday.

At the same event, Biden designated a national monument at the former site of the Carlisle Industrial School, the first of several boarding schools where Native American children were taken in an attempt to forcibly assimilate them into American culture.