Leonard Peltier, 80, was released from federal custody on Feb. 19, 2025 after spending 49 years in prison for the murder of two federal agents in 1975. Peltier was found guilty by a jury for two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Federal Bureau of Investigation agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams on April 18, 1977, and sentenced to two consecutive life terms on June 1, 1977.

Many people saw Peltier’s conviction as unfair, and against the interests of justice, and the case would inspire people from all over the world to campaign for his freedom. Peltier’s release from prison after decades of campaigning is a result of a commutation signed by President Joe Biden in his last hour in office on January 20, 2025. He will spend the remainder of his life in home confinement.After Peltier’s release on Tuesday, NDN Collective leadership and media staff awaited his release outside of U.S. Prison Coleman in Florida, where he made a statement that addressed the public in a video recording for the first time in years. “We are not gonna give up,” he said in a statement on Feb. 18, 2025. “We’re gonna win. We’ve been winning. We’re gonna continue to win.”

Dressed in a appliqué shirt made with silk ribbon while sitting with NDN Collective CEO Nick Tilsen and Holly Cook Macarro, a lobbyist and a government affairs strategist for NDN Collective, Peltier was full of zest and high in spirit. “They haven’t broken me; they have not broke me; I am not broken,” he said.

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