(WASHINGTON) -- President Joe Biden has sparked outrage after commuting the sentence of Leonard Peltier in a last-minute move before leaving office Monday.
Peltier, 80, has spent nearly 50 years in prison after being convicted of the murder of two FBI agents on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975. He also escaped from federal prison in 1979 while serving his sentence for the two murders and had five years tacked onto his sentence.
Peltier, a prominent Native American activist before his arrest, has always proclaimed his innocence in the crime.
"This commutation will enable Mr. Peltier to spend his remaining days in home confinement but will not pardon him for his underlying crimes," Biden wrote in a statement announcing the move.
The commutation came in the same release, issued while now-President Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony was getting underway at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, that granted preemptive pardons to five of Biden's family members, including his brother James Biden, a target of congressional Republicans.
Peltier suffers from significant health issues, according to the release.
Former FBI Director Christopher Wray recently penned a letter to Biden, warning him against commuting Peltier's sentence. The letter was written on Jan. 10, just days before Wray and Biden left office.
"Mr. President, I urge you in the strongest terms possible: Do not pardon Leonard Peltier or cut his sentence short," Wray wrote. "It would be shattering to the victims' loved ones and undermine the principles of justice and accountability that our government should represent."
On June 26, 1975, FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams were killed by Peltier in a shootout while they were on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
"Peliter is a remorseless killer, who brutally murdered two of our own–Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams," Wray wrote. "Granting Peltier any relief from his conviction or sentence is wholly unjustified and would be an affront to the rule of law."
Wray said Peliter fled to Canada after he "executed" the two agents "at close range." Peltier was arrested in Alberta in 1976, before standing trial for the murders.
"In the aftermath of the murders, Peltier engaged in a violent flight from justice, firing shots at police officers as he eluded arrest and burglarizing a home," Wary wrote. "Following his apprehension months later in Canada, Peltier said that if he had known law enforcement officers were approaching, he would have "blow[n] [them] out of [their] shoes."
After his trial and conviction for first-degree murder, Peltier participated in a violent escape from federal prison, during which he and others opened fire on prison employees," Wray wrote. One of the escapees was killed in the shootout.
Wray also wrote a similarly strongly worded letter to the parole board in June 2024, asking that Peltier not be let out. The parole was denied. Then-President Barack Obama denied a clemency request for Peltier in 2017, according to The Associated Press.
"This last-second, disgraceful act by then-President Biden, which does not change Peltier's guilt but does release him from prison, is cowardly and lacks accountability," Natalie Bara, president of The FBI Agents Association, said in a statement. "It is a cruel betrayal to the families and colleagues of these fallen Agents and is a slap in the face of law enforcement."
Kevin Sharp, Peltier's attorney, told The Associated Press before the parole hearing last year that evidence against Peltier 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 told the AP. "If they tried this today, he does not get convicted."
Amnesty International, which has long campaigned for Peltier's release noted that former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds, who prosecuted the case, has said Peltier should be freed as well. The judge who oversaw his 1986 appeal, Gerald Heany, has also called for Peltier's release.
Dozens of members of Congress wrote a letter urging for Peltier's release in October 2023, citing what they said were the "prosecutorial misconduct" and "constitutional violations" that took place during Peltier's trial.
"President Biden was right to commute the life sentence of Indigenous elder and activist Leonard Peltier given the serious human rights concerns about the fairness of his trial," Amnesty International said in a statement. "Amnesty International has advocated for the U.S. government to grant Leonard Peltier clemency for years, following the leadership of Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples."