Leonard Peltier faces parole hearing after killing FBI agents

An imprisoned Native American activist is set to face a ‘last chance’ parole hearing after murdering two FBI agents in 1975. 

Leonard Peltier, now 79, is due for a parole hearing on Monday- his first in 15 years after spending more than 47 years behind bars. 

He was arrested on February 6, 1976 by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after Special Agents Jack Coler and Ron Williams were gunned down while searching for a suspect at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota on June 26, 1975. 

While the two agents looked for Jimmy Eagle, a suspect wanted for stealing a pair of cowboy boots and assaulting two local ranch workers, the pair called in and said they were involved in a 10 minute shootout, according to the FBI. 

Officials said that Coler and Williams were both shot at close range, and that Peltier was identified as the only suspect in their deaths because he was in possession of a gun whose bullets matched those used in their murders. 

On Monday Peltier is expected to attend what may be his last parole hearing at the Federal Correctional Complex Coleman in Florida as mounting speculation and support from others to set him free has followed him. 

‘He wants to go home and he recognizes this is probably his last chance,’ Peltier’s attorney, Kevin Sharp, told NBC News. 

‘But he feels good about presenting the best case that he can.’  

Along with Peltier, other Native American activists involved in the incident, Robert Robideau, Darrelle ‘Dino’ Butler, and Frank Blackhorse were arrested.

During the trial, Robideau and Butler were acquitted after claiming self-defense while Peltier and Blackhorse were extradited to the US from Canada. 

Charges related to the shooting were dropped for Blackhorse, while Peltier was tried separately in 1977 in Fargo, North Dakota. 

He was found guilty by a group of jurors of killing the agents and was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. 

Numerous doubts have followed Peltier’s trial and conviction as Sharp said that the way it was investigated and conducted was not always fair. 

Several witnesses in the initial trial have gone on to recant their statements, while one witness, Myrtle Poo Bear, who claimed to be Peltier’s girlfriend at the time, placed him at the scene of the crime. 

When the trial came around, the FBI deemed Poo Bear ‘unfit’ to testify in court, citing mentally unstable health issues. 

During his last parole hearing in 2009, the FBI argued that time he spent in jail did not shrink ‘the brutality of the crimes.’ 

An official also said that even though Peltier has maintained his innocence, ‘he has resorted to lies and half-truths in order to sway public attention from facts at hand.’ 

Since he’s been in prison, Peltier has caught the attention of well-known public figures and common people who have advocated for his release, including his son Chauncey Peltier, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Pope Francis. 

On Friday, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the agency ‘remains resolute’ in its opinion on his release. 

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Wray added that previous appeals have been denied and that Peltier managed to escape from a California prison in 1979, but was captured three days later. 

‘We must never forget or put aside that Peltier intentionally murdered these two young men and has never expressed remorse for his ruthless actions,’ Wray said.

Although the FBI has said that Peltier was ‘rightfully and fairly obtained’ and found guilty by ‘multiple courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court,’ others are not as convinced he killed the agents. 

James Reynolds, a retired federal prosecutor who was involved in Peltier’s appeals and post trial, took it upon himself to reach out to President Joe Biden in 2021 to try and commute the activist’s sentence. 

‘He has served more than 46 years on the basis of minimal evidence, a result that I strongly doubt would be upheld in any court today,’ Reynolds wrote in a letter to Biden. 

During an phone interview with NBC News in 2022, Peltier said that he hoped the pressure from Democrats in Congress would convince the president to reduce his sentence or set him free. 

‘I have a last few years, and I got to fight,’ Peltier previously said. 

Peltier’s case can be petitioned for parole because it occurred before November 1987, when Congress got rid of federal parole for inmates who committed offenses as part of new sentencing guidelines. 

During the parole hearing, examiners will be in charge of reviewing his case before making a decision and handing it over to the parole commissioner who can either agree or disagree with their decision. 

If the commissioner does agree, then Peltier will be set free. If they do not agree, a second commissioner would step in and agree with either the examiners or the commissioner. 

Sharp said that during his client’s case, medical and re-entry experts will be called to support Peltier’s parole case. He added that letters from the community and well-known figures will also be given to the parole commission. 

His lawyer said that because of Peltier’s good behavior in jail, his age, and medical issues, including partial blindness brought on by a stroke, diabetes, hypertension and multiple bouts of Covid, he should be a great candidate for parole. 

Sharp added that the federal Bureau of Prisons ‘does not say he is a danger,’ and that the case is now about if ‘they extracted enough retribution.’ 

One of Peltier’s supporters, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz, said: ‘Mr. Peltier deserves the dignity to live the rest of his life outside the confines of a federal prison cell, it is not too late to grant him the remaining years of a life that the federal government wrongfully stole from him so many years ago.’