On his way out of office, “President Biden” or his autopen commuted the sentence of Leonard Peltier — two consecutive life terms — for the cold-blooded murder of two FBI agents in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Peltier has long been a cause of the lunatic left. He was represented for years by William Kunstler, a blast from the past. Peltier is to serve out the remainder of his sentence under house arrest. John commented on Peltier’s pardon in “James Biden’s pardon wasn’t the worst,” and he was right, as usual.
Over the years the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals devoted an inordinate amount of time to Peltier’s case. Most recently, in a 2006 opinion by Judge Morris Arnold, the Eighth Circuit disposed of Peltier’s challenge to the subject matter jurisdiction of the court that convicted him in 1977. The Eighth Circuit had disposed of his original appeal in a 1978 opinion by Judge Donald Ross. Judge Ross’s opinion recites the facts of the case.
The left never gives up. With “Biden,” the man had met the moment.
Compounding the disgrace, if possible, “Biden” commuted Peltier’s sentence on Martin Luther King Day. Free at last, free at last, Peltier is now free at last to be celebrated by the Star Tribune with the kind of soft-focus profile that it usually reserves for its political heroes and cultural role models.
Kim Hyatt has Peltier both ways in “Leonard Peltier, now mostly free, navigates a new life on the outside.” Hyatt quotes Peltier commenting on his mostly-free freedom: “It’s like dying and going to heaven. I’m out of that hole. I’m out of that dungeon. I’m out of that, I don’t know what else to call it but hell.” Peltier should rot in hell.
The late FBI Special Agents Jack Coler (photo above) and Ronald Williams — they go unnamed in Hyatt’s story — could not be reached for comment. The Star Tribune itself is not allowing comments on the story.