More commutations are expected from President Obama on his last day in office, but one high-profile name will not be on the list — jailed Native American activist Leonard Peltier.
The 72-year-old who was sentenced to life in prison for the shooting deaths of two FBI agents in 1975 will not get a commutation from President Obama despite a well-coordinated campaign from supporters that included Pope Francis himself.
NATIVE AMERICAN JAILED FOR 40 YEARS FIGHTS FOR CLEMENCY
The pontiff sent the White House a last-minute missive Tuesday to plead for clemency in Peltier’s case, said his attorney Martin Garbus. But even that failed to move the needle in Peltier’s favor, despite his advanced age, failing health and 40 years behind bars.
The Department of Justice dashed the hopes of Peltier, his family and supporters in a terse email sent to his lawyer Wednesday afternoon.
“The application for commutation of sentence of your client, Mr. Leonard Peltier, was carefully considered in this Department and the White House, and the decision was reached that favorable action is not warranted. Your client’s application was therefore denied by the President on January 18, 2017,” it said.
Garbus and others on Peltier’s legal team had taken hope from Obama’s controversial commutations just a day ago.
Obama opted to give early release to army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, 29, who leaked highly-classified government documents to Wikileaks in 2013, and also to Oscar Lopez Rivera, 74, a member of the FALN terrorist network that set off bombs around New York and other cities in the 1970s and 80s.
Of the two, Rivera’s case most resembled that of Peltier — who was arrested in 1975 during a wild shoot out with FBI agents on Native American land. His trial and subsequent conviction in 1977 of shooting Jack Coler and Ronald Williams spawned decades of appeals and accusations of tainted evidence, forced testimony and other wrongdoings among the FBI and prosecutors.
Ultimately, even the FBI in later appeals admitted it could not be sure Peltier pulled the trigger on the shots that felled the two agents — but insisted the charges against him should stand as an “aider and abettor.”
Like Rivera, the Native American activist has been considered a political prisoner by groups such as Amnesty International and other human rights organizations.
Peltier has spent the last 40 years in prison and been denied parole numerous times. He’s being held in a maximum security facility in Florida.
Last May, when a Daily News reporter visited him at the super-max prison, Peltier said he knew time was running out on him.
“I am prepared to die here. I would prefer it be back at my home, but I’m a realistic about my chances,” he told The News from the prison visiting room.
“I have my funeral all planned, I want a full ceremonial burial, with drumming, everything. Traditionally, it should be about three days,” said Peltier, an Indian of Anishinabe, Dakota, and Lakota heritage who grew up among the Turtle Mountain Chippewa and Fort Totten Sioux Nations of North Dakota.
The DOJ did not give a reason for Obama’s decision, but Peltier’s case is still a hot-button issue among FBI agents, who insist his conviction was deserved and who have stridently opposed all prior attempts to gain him early release.
Garbus, who has known Peltier since the 1970s, had a grim reaction to the news.
“Obama has effectively sentenced him to death behind bars,” he said. “But we will fight to get him out of prison.”
Peltier can apply for a commutation again in a year.
His next chance at parole is 2024, when he will be 79.
