Amerindian activist Leonard Peltier Leave a Florida prison after almost five decades behind bars, following a switching from former American president Joe Biden.
Tuesday morning, Peltier came out of a federal detention center in Coleman, Florida, and was taken by a SUV. He did not speak when leaving the prison.
Peltier, 80, had become a global symbol for Aboriginal rights After his conviction for murder in 1977, with groups like Amnesty International and supporters like actor Robert Redford calling for his freedom.
A member of the Turtle Mountain band of the Indians of Chippewa, Peltier has long maintained his innocence and the defenders argue that his trial was botched.
“Today, I’m finally free!” They may have imprisoned me but they never took my mind! Peltier said in a statementReleased by the collective NDN, a group of activists. “I can’t wait to see my friends, family and community. It’s a good day today.
He will return home to the reserve of Turtle Mountain in Belcourt, in the Dakota of the North, where a celebration of the return is scheduled for Wednesday.
“We are so excited for this moment,” Jones, one of the lawyers in Peltier, told the Associated Press. “He’s in a good mood. He has the soul of a warrior.
Peltier was convicted of the murder of two 1975 agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the Indian Pine Ridge in the South Dakota.
FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, were in booking to serve an arrest warrant.
But when they arrived at Jumping Bull Ranch, they entered a shooting with members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), including Peltier. Up to 30 people were present during the shooting.
Several AIM members were arrested the next day and accused of the murder of the agents. Two, Robert Robideau and Darrelle Butler, were tried but finally acquitted for the defense of oneself.
Peltier fled to Canada but was finally extradited for trials in the United States.
While Peltier admitted to having shot his weapon in self-defense, he denied several times by pulling and killing the agents. The prosecutors alleged that the agents had been killed in their heads at close range; Peltier said he was not near them at the time of their death.
Supporters also argued that the 1977 trial against Peltier was deeply imperfect, citing evidence deleted.
In addition, a woman who testified that she had seen Peltier shooting the agents later said that she had been forced to do so and had canceled her testimony.
During the period when the shooting took place, the FBI had made efforts to harass and monitor the Amerindian militant organizations, as well as other civil rights groups across the country.
For supporters of Peltier, his incarceration of almost half a century is the symbol of a double standard in the judicial system.
Family members have also called for compassion for health reasons: Peltier is now partially blind and suffers from health problems such as diabetes and heart problems.
“I know that he will not go to his next parole with the conditions under which he lives. He will not do it so long, ”Pamela Bravo, one of the relatives of Peltier, said to Al Jazeera Last year.
But the prospect of publishing Peltier has long been a divisor, the FBI and the law enforcement groups categorically opposing its freedom.
Before a parole audience last year, the director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, described his potential release of “affront to the rule of law”.
“Peltier has never accepted liability or remorse,” wrote Wray. “It is entirely unfit for parole.”
Wray reiterated these feelings in a personal letter to President Biden, calling Peltier as a “killer without lift”.
But other members of the Biden administration, including interior secretary Deb Haaland, member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, pressure for the freedom of Peltier.
There was also international pressure: figures such as Dalai Lama and Pope Francis joined calls for his release.
In the end, in the last hours of his presidency on January 20, Biden commanded the Peltier sentence.
A switching, however, is not sorry, and Peltier will continue to live under residence supervised.
“We never thought he would come out,” said Ray St Clair, a member of the Blank of the Minnesota Chippewa tribe, shortly before the exit of Peltier. “It shows that you should never lose hope. We can take this repair of the damage that has been caused. It’s a start. “”
