Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, at centre of controversial murder conviction, gets parole hearing

Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, who has spent most of his life in prison since his conviction in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents in South Dakota, has a parole hearing Monday at a federal prison in Florida.

At 79, Peltier's health is failing, and if this parole request is denied, it might be a decade or more before it is considered again, said his attorney Kevin Sharp, a former federal judge. Sharp and other supporters have long argued that Peltier was wrongly convicted.

"This whole entire hearing is a battle for his life," said Nick Tilsen, president and CEO of the NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led advocacy group. "It's time for him to come home."

Peltier's last parole hearing was in 2009. His fight for freedom has been championed by public figures and artists such as Robert Redford — who narrated Michael Apted's 1992 documentary, Incident at Oglala — Bishop Desmond Tutu, Rage Against the Machine, U2 and Robbie Robertson, who featured voice recordings made by Peltier in prison on his 1998 album, Contact from the Underworld of Redboy.

Here are some things to know about the case.

The American Indian Movement

An enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe, Peltier was active in the American Indian Movement (AIM), which began in the 1960s as a local organization in Minneapolis that grappled with issues of police brutality and discrimination against Native Americans. It quickly became a national force.

AIM grabbed headlines in 1973 when it took over the village of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, leading to a 71-day standoff with federal agents. Tensions between AIM and the government remained high for years.

The FBI considered AIM an extremist organization, and planted spies within the group.

But Tilsen, a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation, says the AIM along with other groups were instrumental in securing rights Native Americans have today, including religious freedom, the ability to operate casinos and tribal colleges, and enter into contracts with the federal government to oversee schools and other services.

The deadly incident

Sharp blamed the government for creating what he described as a "powder keg" that exploded on June 26, 1975.

That's the day agents came to Pine Ridge to serve arrest warrants amid ongoing battles over Indigenous treaty rights and self-determination.

AIM member Joseph Stuntz was killed by a law enforcement sniper in the shootout that ensued.

After being injured in the shootout, FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams were shot in the head at point-blank range.

Robert Robideau and Dino Butler of AIM were acquitted of killing Coler and Williams. After fleeing to Canada and being extradited to the United States, Peltier was convicted and sentenced in 1977 to life in prison, despite defence claims that evidence against him had been falsified.

"You've got a conviction that was riddled with misconduct by the prosecutors, the U.S. Attorney's office, by the FBI who investigated this case and, frankly the jury," Sharp said. "If they tried this today, he does not get convicted."

Amnesty International agrees, maintaining Peltier's trial was undermined by recanted witness statements and faulty ballistics evidence.

James Reynolds, a former senior U.S. attorney who once saw oversaw the government's response to an appeal, wrote to Obama in 2017, saying it was time to grant Peltier clemency on humanitarian grounds.

Reynolds told CBC News at the time he "had no idea" if Peltier had fired any fatal shots, but that justice had been served by his decades-long sentence. He separately told the New York Daily News that the prosecution "might have saved a few corners here and there."

No change in FBI position

FBI Director Chris Wray said in a statement that the agency was resolute in its opposition to Peltier's latest application for parole.

"We must never forget or put aside that Peltier intentionally murdered these two young men and has never expressed remorse for his ruthless actions," he wrote, adding that the case has been repeatedly upheld on appeal.

The FBI Agents Association, a professional group that represents mostly active agents, said in a letter any early release would be a "cruel act of betrayal."

The Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI took aim at Peltier's status as a cause célèbre.

"It may be kind of cultish to take his side as some kind of a hero. But he's certainly not that; he's a cold-blooded murderer," said Mike Clark, president of the group, wrote in a letter opposing parole.

Family members of the two FBI agents killed are expected to get their say Monday at Federal Correctional Complex Coleman in Florida.

What next?

A decision is required to come within 21 days. If Peltier's bid is denied, there are still legal avenues his team could explore, though a clemency request that has reached President Joe Biden might be his best bet.

Republican congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee, along with 32 Democrats including high-profile House members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Katie Porter, in October called for Biden to grant Peltier clemency on compassionate grounds. The group cited "prosecutorial misconduct" as well as statements by Reynolds and late appellate judge Gerald Heaney, who also argued for Peltier to be released.

Former House member Deb Haaland in 2020 pushed for Peltier's sentence to be commuted. It's unclear if Haaland — the first Indigenous cabinet member as secretary of the interior — has had any conversations with Biden on the matter.

Dozens of Congress members push for clemency: