Parole Denied for Indigenous Activist Leonard Peltier
A Native American activist incarcerated for nearly half a century was once again denied parole on June 10, 2024. Despite support from human rights groups and seven Democratic U.S. Senators, the U.S. Parole Commission decided to keep Leonard Peltier, 79, behind bars at the Federal Correctional Complex in Coleman, Florida.
Peltier maintains his innocence in the 1975 deaths of two FBI agents on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which is surrounded by South Dakota. However, federal prosecutors have consistently called him a dangerous criminal and opposed his release—despite allegations that his 1977 trial was marred by their own prosecutorial misconduct. No witnesses identified him as the shooter, and the jury never saw a ballistics report indicating the fatal bullets were not fired from his weapon.
The decision to deny parole was made despite Peltier’s advanced age and deteriorating health—diabetes, hypertension, partial blindness from a stroke and bouts of Covid-19—as well as an impeccable prison record. Former federal judge Kevin Sharp, now an attorney with Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight in New York City who is working the case pro bono, said that an interim hearing on Peltier’s parole status has been set for 2026, with a full hearing scheduled for June 2039, when the long-incarcerated activist will be 94.
Source: NBC News
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