(CNN) 鈥� In one of his last acts before leaving office, former commuted the life sentence of , convicted in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents.
Peltier, 80, will serve the remainder of his sentence at home.
鈥淚t鈥檚 finally over 鈥� I鈥檓 going home,鈥� Peltier said shared by NDN Collective, an Indigenous rights group in South Dakota. 鈥淚 want to show the world I鈥檓 a good person with a good heart. I want to help the people, just like my grandmother taught me.鈥�
Peltier was last year. He has spent almost 50 years 鈥� more than half of his life 鈥� in federal prison.
A statement from Biden鈥檚 office noted Peltier鈥檚 鈥渟evere health ailments鈥� as well as 鈥渉is close ties to and leadership in the Native American community.鈥� The commutation does not pardon him for his crimes, his office said.
Peltier consistently maintained his innocence in the agents鈥� shooting deaths. Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, were killed in a shootout June 26, 1975, while searching for a robbery suspect on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
The agents went to the reservation to serve arrest warrants, the AP reported, and were injured in the shootout and later shot in the head, the FBI has said.
In 1977, Peltier was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive life terms.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 kill those agents, I didn鈥檛 see who killed those agents, and if I did know, I鈥檓 not telling. But I don鈥檛 know. That鈥檚 the point,鈥� Peltier told former CNN correspondent Mark Potter in 1999.
Peltier said he fired shots during the gun battle but 鈥淚 know I didn鈥檛 hit them. I know I didn鈥檛.鈥�
The FBI Agents Association said in a Monday statement they were 鈥渙utraged鈥� by the commutation of Peltier鈥檚 sentence and described him as 鈥渁 convicted cop killer responsible for the brutal murders鈥� of Coler and Williams.
The commutation is a 鈥渃ruel betrayal to the families and colleagues of these fallen Agents and is a slap in the face of law enforcement,鈥� the association said.
Peltier is currently incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary Coleman I in Sumterville, Florida. Peltier鈥檚 goes into effect on February 18.
The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians has a furnished home waiting for Peltier鈥檚 arrival, Kevin Sharp, a retired federal judge and attorney who represented Peltier in his bids for clemency, told CNN.
鈥淟eonard has always wanted to live out the rest of his life at home, at Turtle Mountain,鈥� Sharp said. 鈥淗e will now get to do that, spending that time with his kids and grandkids and fellow members of his tribe.鈥�
He embodies 鈥榮ystemic injustices鈥� faced by Indigenous people
Human and Indigenous rights groups, many of which had supported Peltier鈥檚 repeated bids for clemency, applauded Biden鈥檚 actions.
The National Congress of American Indians celebrated the commutation in a statement, saying the case 鈥渉as long symbolized the systemic injustices faced by Indigenous Peoples.鈥�
Paul O鈥橞rien, the executive director of Amnesty International USA, said in a statement Biden was right to commute Peltier鈥檚 sentence 鈥済iven the serious human rights concerns about the fairness of his trial.鈥�
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, were who asked Biden to commute Peltier鈥檚 sentence in 2023. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention had called for his release in 2022.
James Reynold, the US attorney whose office prosecuted Peltier, for Peltier and called for clemency in a 2021 letter to Biden. He wrote that Peltier鈥檚 conviction and incarceration were 鈥渢estament to a time and a system of justice that no longer has a place in our society.鈥�
Advocates have also noted Peltier attended one of the hundreds of US funded by the federal government to assimilate Indigenous children into White society in the 19th and 20th centuries.
In a first-person account published by , Peltier said he was forcibly taken from his grandmother to a North Dakota boarding school when he was 9 years old. He wrote the staff 鈥渕ade it clear we were hated鈥� at the school.
NDN Collective previously described Peltier as 鈥淎merica鈥檚 longest serving Indigenous political prisoner.鈥�
How the Pine Ridge shootout unfolded
In the 1970s, Peltier was a leader of the American Indian Movement, which took over the village of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation, reported.
The takeover led to a 71-day standoff with federal agents and lasting tensions between the movement and the government. During the occupation, a US Marshal was shot, resulting in paralysis, and two Indigenous activists were shot and killed, P reported.
The says that Coler and Williams were at the Pine Ridge reservation searching for Jimmy Eagle, who had an outstanding federal warrant for robbery.
The agents鈥� radio transmissions indicate they stopped a red and white vehicle and then reported the occupants of the vehicle were preparing to shoot at them.
Other agents who arrived to respond also came under gunfire, the FBI said.
Coler and Williams鈥� bodies showed they were both injured by gunshots 鈥� Coler in the arm, Williams in the foot 鈥� before being shot in the head. The agents鈥� vehicles contained a total of 125 bullet holes, according to the FBI.
Joseph Stuntz, another member of the American Indian Movement, was also killed that day, . No one has been arrested or charged in his death.
Peltier previously told CNN he was in bed at camp when he heard gunshots.
鈥淎ll of a sudden, everybody said, 鈥楳an, we鈥檙e being attacked. We鈥檙e being attacked,鈥欌�� he told CNN in 1999. 鈥淪o I grabbed an old rifle and started running up to the house.鈥�
Peltier said he fired his gun after being fired upon. The FBI has said the agents were shot without provocation.
The government built its case on ballistics evidence and witness accounts from people who were on the periphery of the shootout, including Native Americans, but no one actually saw the killings.
Supporters of Peltier have said the evidence produced at trial was unreliable, while the FBI has categorically denied it fabricated evidence or coerced witnesses.
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