Native American activist Leonard Peltier released from US prison

Native American activist Leonard Peltier has left a Florida prison after nearly five decades behind bars, following a commutation from former United States President Joe Biden.

On Tuesday morning, Peltier walked out of a federal detention centre in Coleman, Florida, and was taken away by an SUV. He did not speak as he exited the prison.

Peltier, 80, had become a global symbol for Indigenous rights after his 1977 conviction for murder, with groups like Amnesty International and supporters like actor Robert Redford calling for his freedom.

A member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, Peltier has long maintained his innocence, and advocates argue his trial was botched.

“Today I am finally free! They may have imprisoned me but they never took my spirit!” Peltier said in a statement, released by the NDN Collective, an activist group. “I look forward to seeing my friends, my family, and my community. It’s a good day today.”

He will return home to Turtle Mountain Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota, where a homecoming celebration is planned on Wednesday.

“We’re so excited for this moment,” Jenipher Jones, one of Peltier’s lawyers, told The Associated Press. “He is in good spirits. He has the soul of a warrior.”

Peltier was convicted in the 1975 killing of two agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

The FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, had been at the reservation to serve an arrest warrant.

But upon arriving at the Jumping Bull Ranch, they entered into a shootout with members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), including Peltier. As many as 30 people were present at the shootout.