If there were ever a case that merited compassionate release, Leonard Peltier’s was it,” said Schatz, who serves as vice chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, in a statement. “President Biden did the right thing by showing this aging man in poor health mercy and allowing him to return home to spend whatever days he has remaining with his loved ones,

Former President Joe Biden commuted the life sentence of Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, who had been imprisoned for nearly 50 years, on Jan. 20.

The outgoing administration has released Leonard Peltier from prison. Numerous activists and tribal officials have requested the release of Peltier, whom they believe to be innocent of killing two FBI agents in 1975.

The Native American activist says he did not receive a fair trial in the slayings of FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Biden issued the sweeping pardons just minutes before he departed the White House for the final time as president

President Biden said the decision will allow Peltier, an 80-year-old Native American activist, to fulfill the remainder of his sentence from home.

Moments before he left office and as one of his final acts as president, Joe Biden commuted the life sentence of Leonard Peltier, an 80-year-old Native American activist and political prisoner who has been incarcerated for nearly half a century for a crime he maintains he did not commit.

President Biden commutes Leonard Peltier's life sentence to home confinement after 50 years in prison, responding to longtime advocacy from tribal nations and supporters.