President Biden Commutes Sentence of Indigenous Activist Leonard Peltier

In one of his final acts as president, Biden has commuted the sentence of indigenous activist Leonard Peltier.

Peltier has been serving a life sentence after being convicted of killing two FBI agents in 1975, and was recently denied parole.

Peltier is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota and was an active member of the American Indian Movement (AIM), which was formed in the 1960s in Minneapolis but quickly became a national effort.

Peltier was one of the activists involved in the shootout with FBI agents at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota after a 71-day stand off.

Peltier escaped to Canada but was eventually arrested, returned to the U.S. and, in 1977, he was found guilty of two counts of first degree murder. His defense consistently claimed said that evidence against him was largely falsified.