Biden commutes sentence of Leonard Peltier

RAPID CITY—After a half century of incarceration, former American Indian Movement (AIM) activist, Leonard Peltier, has had his sentence commuted on the final day of Joe Biden’s presidency. This is not a pardon, and Peltier will transition to home confinement. Peltier is 80, in failing health, and this is an act of mercy, and not the justice activists and advocates in support of Peltier have long sought.

Peltier’s plight has become an iconic cause célèbres and has perhaps made him more famous than the founders of AIM, Russell Means and Dennis Banks. He was never a leader in AIM, but a tough, dependable foot soldier who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, back in 1975, where two FBI agents were murdered, execution-style. Our justice system does not determine innocence, just guilty or not guilty, and a very controversial prosecution determined Peltier guilty. Amnesty International has long contended Peltier is a political prisoner, and asserted a United Nations group working on the arbitrary detention of the indigenous has detailed bias surrounding Peltier’s detention.

Pressured from the other side, previous administrations, however sympathetic, have determined they cannot commute, or pardon, Peltier given the extreme backlash from law enforcement and their supporters, who are not happy with Biden’s decision. Former FBI Director Christopher Wray sent Biden a letter some weeks back which stated unequivocally that “Peltier is a remorseless killer,” and exhorted Biden not to take any action. Wray wrote: “Granting Peltier any relief from his conviction or sentence is wholly unjustified and would be an affront to the rule of law.”

No president has ever pardoned a person convicted of murder. In 1999, President Clinton offered clemency to 16 members of a Puerto Rican nationalist group, the Armed Forces of National Liberation, who had been convicted of bombings that resulted in death and injury, stating that their punishment had been excessive, but stopping short of declaring they did not need to be punished.

In 1952, in an act of magnanimity, President Truman commuted the death sentence of Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar Collazo, who had attempted to assassinate Truman in 1950, killing a police officer in that attempt. Collazo received life in prison.

In 2013, President Obama commuted the three life sentences of Clarence Aaron, from his involvement in a drug deal ending in murder. This was controversial because the rationale Obama used for the commutation was he was addressing sentencing disparities in nonviolent drug cases, and this case was violent.

In 1830, President Andrew Jackson, commuted the death sentence of George Wilson to life in prison. Wilson had committed murder during a robbery attempt. Before Peltier, this was the most famous presidential commutation because Wilson declined the clemency, but a later court ruled clemency must be accepted by the recipient.

Finally, President Lincoln commuted the death sentence of William MacDonald to life imprisonment in 1864. Lincoln reviewed the case and determined mitigating circumstances.

Since Peltier was not sentenced to death, President Biden could have determined mitigating circumstances resulting in a pardon. But the social upheaval and political fallout is always the major factor.

For example, Lincoln spared the life of William MacDonald, but two years before he signed the execution orders for 38 Dakota convicted of heinous crimes during Little Crow’s War in Minnesota. Military tribunals had tried 392 Dakota accused of atrocities beyond the scope of war, specifically the murder of hundreds of women and children, and 303 were sentenced to death.

Lincoln balked at such a sentencing and ordered a detailed review of the trial records, and stayed up all night scouring the convictions, reducing them down to 39, which was later reduced to 38, when he was later informed number 39 had been misidentified. He actually commuted the death sentence of 265 men, unprecedented in American history. Andrew Johnson issued many clemencies, but the records are sketchy at best, given he had one of the most corrupt administrations in American history.

Why did Lincoln not commute all 363? Because Minnesota Governor Alexander Ramsey, who was actually a friend of Little Crow, nonetheless called for the wholesale execution of every captured Dakota, and threatened Lincoln politically if he should show mercy. At that time Lincoln was losing the war to the South, which put a monumental twist on his attempt to balance justice and leniency.

Peltier had just the opposite political atmosphere. President Biden was able to commute Peltier’s sentence because it was buried in the commutation and pardons of over 4000 people, and over 8000 during his full term. During his presidency Trump pardoned or commuted about 1500. The previous record was held by Franklin Roosevelt, 3687, but he did that over 14 years.

Peltier is certain to spend his final days in the company of loved ones and staunch supporters, and given his failing health, Biden’s commutation was a notable act of mercy.

Back in 2023, Peltier told the AP: “I hope to breathe free air before I die…there is a lot of work left to do. I would like to get out and join you doing it.”

And now he will.

(James Giago Davies is an enrolled member of OST. Contact him at skindiesel@msn.com)

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