By Steve Neavling
Leonard Peltier, the 79-year-old Lakota tribe member who insists he’s innocent of murdering two FBI agents in 1975, was denied parole on Tuesday.
Peltier has spent nearly five decades in prison and was hoping to gain his freedom as his health continues to deteriorate.
It was his first full parole hearing in 15 years.
His supporters claim prosecutors withheld critical evidence and fabricated affidavits that made him appear guilty. His lawyer plans to appeal the U.S. Parole Commission’s decision.
“This decision is a missed opportunity for the United States to finally recognize the misconduct of the FBI and send a message to Indian Country regarding the impacts of the federal government’s actions and policies of the 1970s,” Kevin Sharp, Peltier’s lawyer and a former federal judge, said in a statement.
Peltier, an Indigenous rights activist, was convicted of murdering the two agents – Jack Coler and Ronald Williams – on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
Three others were charged in connection with the agents’ deaths. Two of them were acquitted after claiming self-defense, and charges were dropped against the third.
Peltier was sentenced separately in Fargo, N.D., in 1977.
Since then, several witnesses in the trial have recanted their statements. And among his advocates are a former prosecutor and judge involved in the case.
In 2021, tribal members sent a petition to Biden, asking for compassionate release or clemency.
In January 2017, then-President Obama turned down a similar request for clemency.
Meanwhile, FBI Director Christopher Wray applauded the parole board’s decision.
“No amount of prison time will ever change the facts surrounding the murders of FBI Special Agents Coler and Williams,” he said.
