After spending nearly 50 years in federal prison, Leonard Peltier, 80, is going home. In the final moments in his term as the 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden commuted the remainder of Peltier’s two life sentences Monday.
"Free Leonard Peltier," a documentary on his case and conviction, is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 27. Peltier will not be at the premiere as he has not been exonerated for the murders of FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota in 1975.
For Cody, Wyoming, filmmaker Preston Randolph, Peltier leaving prison is the culmination of 15 years of professional work and personal investment in Peltier’s case. He described it as “a happy but bittersweet day,” given the circumstances of the clemency.
“A lot of people involved thought it might not happen,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “Time was ticking. There was 15 minutes until Trump’s inauguration. But it did happen. It's not everything we wanted, but Leonard gets to go home.”
Indefinite House Arrest
Peltier received an Executive Grant of Clemency that commutes his life sentences, which he’s serving at a federal penitentiary in Florida. However, Randolph said Peltier is still a convicted murderer in the eyes of the federal government and will not be a free man.
“He’ll be confined to his home indefinitely,” he said. “To my knowledge, the Bureau of Prisons will transfer him from prison to his home in North Dakota. I don’t know exactly when or how that will happen, as I’ve heard multiple things, but there’s a process to it.”
That means Peltier won’t be able to attend the premiere of Randolph’s film “Free Leonard Peltier,” the documentary directed by Jesse Short Bull and David France that was selected as one of the 87 films to be screened at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
Peltier was sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the deaths of Williams and Coler. There’s been an earnest effort to have Peltier pardoned since his conviction, but multiple previous attempts were unsuccessful.
Randolph praised Biden for “having the courage” to take action on Peltier’s behalf.
“We started with Clinton, and Clinton wouldn't touch it,” he said. “Bush, Obama and Trump didn't have the courage to do it. President Biden was the one to look at this request and had the courage to act.”
Could Happen To Anybody
Despite the news that Peltier is going home, there’s disappointment that he wasn’t pardoned for the murders. Randolph said that decision “gives a complete pass to the FBI.”
“It's basically clearing them of any wrongdoing on what was happening on the Pine Ridge reservation at that time,” he said. “They set their agents up in a war zone, and two of them got killed in this turbulent situation. Then, they teamed with the federal government by denying Leonard's constitutional rights.”
Peltier has never denied his involvement in the shootout that led to the deaths of Williams and Coler, but has denied firing the shots that killed them. Randolph claimed that there are thousands of documents proving that the FBI coerced witnesses, created false affidavits, people against their will until they would sign affidavits against Peltier, and forensic evidence collected from Peltier’s rifle was withheld from his defense.
“All this is proven and well documented,” Randolph said. “We are thankful that Leonard is going home, but there is ongoing injustice in this case. It upholds a wrongful conviction where evidence was knowingly withheld from Leonard’s defense.”
On The Grass, In The Sun
“Free Leonard Peltier” explores the details of Peltier’s trial and conviction, including all of the documentation that Randolph and many others feel should have exonerated him. Randolph is a co-producer of the documentary and has been Peltier's close friend and advocate for 15 years.
“I haven’t heard from him since he received the commutation,” he said. “I’ve been in constant communication with members of his legal team for the last several weeks, and the last few days have been very stressful. I know Leonard is very happy and is already planning what he wants to do when he gets home.”
Randolph believes the documentary has even more poignancy after the last-minute commutation of Peltier’s sentence. He hopes that increased awareness of what happened will encourage more people to hold federal agencies accountable for injustices when they happen.
“His story is extremely important for people to know,” he said. “If we allow our government to do these things and deny someone their constitutional rights to get a conviction, that’s a problem, and we must look into those issues. If it can happen to Leonard, it can happen to anybody.”
Peltier hasn’t been pardoned, but soon he’ll return to the Turtle Mountain reservation. He is of Lakota, Dakotaand Anishinaabe descent, but was raised among the Turtle Mountain Chippewa and Fort Totten Sioux Nations of North Dakota.
He’ll spend the rest of his days on house arrest surrounded by family, friends and advocates celebrating his release from prison. Randolph knows his friend has quite a transition ahead, but his spirit remains free and unbroken.
“He always said he wanted to lay down in the grass with the sun on his face,” Randolph said. “He’ll get to do that for the first time in five decades, and I know he'll be enjoying a lot of the little things in life that so many of us take for granted.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
