Supporters of Leonard Peltier are calling on President Biden to grant clemency to the Indigenous leader and activist, who marked his 80th birthday behind bars on Thursday after nearly a half-century in prison for a crime he says he did not commit. The ailing Peltier, who uses a walker and has serious health conditions, including diabetes, has always maintained his innocence over the 1975 killing of two FBI agents in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation. His conviction was riddled with irregularities and prosecutorial misconduct, and he is considered to be the longest-serving political prisoner in the United States. For much of the last four years, Peltier has been held under near-total lockdown. For more on Peltier and the campaign to free him, we speak with Nick Tilsen, president of the NDN Collective, and two attorneys on Peltier’s legal defense team, Jenipher Jones and Moira Meltzer-Cohen.
But it’s uncharacteristic right now, because I’ve not heard from him in over seven days. And that is concerning. Obviously, it is heartbreaking, because he is sitting in lockdown on his 80th birthday — or, was sitting in lockdown on his 80th birthday. And really, this is a form of solitary confinement and a means of hastening death by incarceration. All of these different characteristics of Leonard’s incarceration are, in fact, means of death by incarceration. So, we wholly object to the lockdowns. We believe that Leonard — and we have requested a medical transfer. It is wholly inappropriate for him, for many reasons, notwithstanding his medical reasons, for him to be at USP Coleman I sitting in lockdown, reliant on a walker, at 80 years old.
101·3 months ago