The American native activist Leonard Peltier has left a Florida prison after almost five decades after bars, after a commutation of former president of the United States, Joe Biden.
On Tuesday morning, Peltier left a federal detention center in Coleman, Florida, and was taken by a SUV. He didn't speak when he left prison.
Peltier, 80, had become a global symbol of indigenous rights after his sentence in 1977 for murder, with groups such as Amnesty International and supporters such as actor Robert Redford asking for his freedom.
Member of the Tortuga Band of the Indians Chippewa, Peltier has long maintained his innocence, and the defenders argue that his judgment was failed.
“Today I am finally free! They may have imprisoned me but they never took my spirit! Peltier said in a statement, published by NDN Collective, an activist group. “I hope to see my friends, my family and my community. Today is a good day. “
He will return home in Turtle Mountain Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota, where a celebration of return home on Wednesday is planned.
“We are very excited for this moment,” said Jenipher Jones, one of Peltier's lawyers, The Associated Press. “It is in a good mood. He has the soul of a warrior. “
Peltier was convicted in the murder of two agents of the Federal Research Office (FBI) of 1975 in the Indian Reserve of Pine Ridge in South Dakota.
FBI, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams agents had been in the reserve to fulfill an arrest warrant.
But when they arrived at the Jumping Bull ranch, they entered a shooting with members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), including Peltier. Up to 30 people were present at the shooting.
Several AIM members were arrested by the sequelae and accused of the murder of the agents. Two, Robert Robideau and Darrelle Butler, were judged but finally acquitted by self -defense.
Peltier fled to Canada, but was finally extradited for his trial in the United States.
While Peltier has acknowledged that he fired his weapon in self -defense, he has repeatedly denied shooting and killing the agents. Prosecutors have alleged that the agents were shot in the head at close range; Peltier has said that he was not close to them at the time of his death.
The supporters have also argued that the 1977 trial against Peltier was deeply defective, citing suppressed evidence.
In addition, a woman who testified that she had seen Peltier shoot the agents later that she had been forced to do so and rescinded her testimony.
During the period in which the shooting took place, the FBI had made efforts to harass and monitor American native activist organizations, together with other civil rights groups throughout the country.
For Peltier supporters, his imprisonment of almost half a century is a symbol of a double standard in the justice system.
The members of their family have also requested a compassionate liberation in the health fields: Peltier is now partially blind and suffers from health problems such as diabetes and heart problems.
“I know he will not reach his next probation with the conditions in which he lives. He will not succeed so much, “said Pamela Bravo, one of Peltier's relatives, Al Jazeera last year.
But the possibility of releasing Peltier has been divisive for a long time, with the groups for the application of the law and the law application that firmly oppose their freedom.
Before a probation hearing last year, the then director of FBI Christopher Wray described his possible release “an affront to the rule of law.”
“Peltier has never accepted responsibility or remorse,” Wray wrote. “He is not suitable for probation.”
Wray reiterated those feelings in a personal letter to President Biden, calling Peltier a “murderer without regrets.”
But other members of the Biden administration, including the Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo, pressed for the freedom of Peltier.
There was also international pressure: figures such as Dalai Lama and Pope Francis have joined the calls for their release.
Finally, in the last hours of his presidency on January 20, Biden commuted Peltier's sentence.
However, a switch is not forgiven, and Peltier will continue to live under house arrest.
“We never thought it would come out,” said Ray St Clair, a member of the White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa tribe, shortly before Peltier's launch. “He shows that you should never lose hope. We can take this by repairing the damage that was done. This is a beginning. “
