Leonard Peltier (born September 12, 1944) is an American indigenous rights activist who was convicted of murdering two FBI agents in a June 26, 1975, shooting on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Peltier is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa, who is also of Lakota and Dakota descent. He is a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM). In a controversial 1977 trial he was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for first-degree murder in the shooting of two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents during a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.Peltiers indictment and conviction have been the subject of much contention; Amnesty International placed his case under the Unfair Trials category of its Annual Report: USA 2010. In his 1999 memoir, Peltier admitted to involvement in the shootout but denied killing the FBI agents.Peltier is incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Coleman in Florida. Peltier became eligible for parole in 1993; his next scheduled parole hearing will be in July 2024, when Peltier will be 79. On January 18, 2017, the Office of the Pardon Attorney announced that President Barack Obama had denied Peltiers application for clemency. Peltier was next eligible for commutation in 2018. Barring appeals, parole, or presidential clemency, Peltier will remain in prison for the rest of his life.
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