Leonard Pelletier, the Native American activist who executed two wounded FBI agents after a 1975 shootout, is scheduled to have what may be his final parole hearing on Monday.
While he has support from left-leaning allies and a few Democratic lawmakers, the FBI Agents Association strongly opposes his release and has urged the Federal Parole Board to keep him in custody.
Pelletier, 79, is incarcerated at the Federal Penitentiary in Sumterville, Fla. He is serving two consecutive life sentences for murder and an additional seven years for attempted escape.
On June 26, 1975, FBI Special Agents Ronald Williams and Jack Kohler were searching for a group of armed robbery suspects on the Oglala Sioux Indian Reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Pelletier was not among them, but he was in a vehicle that attracted the agents’ attention.
Democrats call on President Biden to release Leonard Peltier, the activist who shot and killed two FBI agents
FBI Special Agents Ronald Williams (left) and Jack Kohler (right) are pictured in their official FBI portraits after both men were executed at close range after being wounded in a shootout on June 26, 1975. Leonard Pelletier, who was convicted of the killings, is scheduled to have a parole hearing on Monday. (FBI)
According to court documents, Williams warned Koller over the radio that someone in the vehicle was about to start firing at them.
A shootout ensued, leaving both agents injured.
Pelletier approached them with a rifle and shot each man in the head at close range before fleeing to Canada, where he was arrested and extradited to the United States to stand trial.
American Indian Movement leader Leonard Pelletier is escorted across the exercise yard of the Ocala Correctional Facility to a waiting helicopter. After a lengthy legal battle, Pelletier has been ordered deported by Canada’s Minister of Justice, Ron Basford, for the murder of two FBI agents. (Bettman/Contributor via Getty Images)
Kohler, a Bakersfield, California, native, was a Los Angeles Police Department officer before joining the FBI in 1971. Williams, also from Glendale, California, joined the FBI in 1972.
According to the FBI, four men were arrested on murder charges, but only Pelletier was convicted. The government dropped charges against James Eagle, a robbery suspect Pelletier was pursuing when he killed Williams and Kohler. The other two, Robert Robideaux and Darrell Butler, were acquitted at trial in 1976.
Pelletier’s supporters have argued that his original 1977 conviction was based on flawed evidence and “prosecutorial misconduct,” but more than a dozen appeals, including two that reached the Supreme Court, have failed to overturn the conviction.
Official FBI arrest photo of Leonard Peltier, who was placed on the bureau’s 10 most wanted list after killing two agents in a shootout in 1975. Peltier was later convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, but is scheduled to have a parole hearing on Monday. (Bettman)
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“The passage of decades has not diminished the impact of his work,” said Natalie Barra, president of the Association of FBI Agents, a professional group that represents 14,000 active and retired special agents.
She said, not on behalf of the FBI but on her own behalf, that he deserves to stay in prison.
“His actions that day have had a lasting impact on our FBI family and the families of both agents. I believe that releasing him from prison would send a terrible message not only to the rank-and-file agents who risk their lives on the streets every day for the American people, but also to those who would consider harming an FBI agent.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement: “The FBI firmly opposes Leonard Peltier’s latest parole application. Peltier was convicted of the brutal murders of FBI Special Agents Jack Kohler and Ronald Williams on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in 1975. It must never be forgotten or ignored that Peltier intentionally killed these two young men and has never expressed any remorse for his cold-blooded acts.”
“Over the past 45 years, 22 federal judges have evaluated the evidence and considered Pelletier’s legal arguments and all have come to the same conclusion: Pelletier’s claims are without merit and his conviction and sentence must be upheld. Furthermore, Pelletier’s crimes included escaping from federal custody after his conviction, during which he and an associate opened fire on prison officers. Granting Pelletier parole would only diminish the brutality of his crimes and would further deepen the pain of the families of Agents Kohler and Williams, and the greater FBI family.”
A group of senators including Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Mazie Hirono sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland in March urging him to grant Pelletier “compassionate release.”
American Indian Movement activist Leonard Pelletier poses with a painting in prison in 1985, where he was convicted for the murders of FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Kohler. (MPI/Getty Images)
The names of agents Williams and Koller were not included. In their letters.
Brian O’Hare, former president of the FBI Agents Association, also sent a letter to Garland urging him to deny the pardon request.
After the deadly Florida shootout 35 years ago, the FBI overhauled its agents’ weapons and body armor.
“The glorification of the murderers of Special Agents Coller and Williams continues to be a source of pain to the FBI family,” he wrote. “Special Agents Coller and Williams made the ultimate sacrifice, and that sacrifice should be honored. Pelletier should serve the full sentence for his heinous crimes.”
O’Hare added that Pelletier continued to condone violence against police even after his conviction.
FBI agents hold a banner and photos of Jack Kohler and Ronald Williams in front of the White House during a rally against the pardon of Leonard Peltier, December 15, 2000. (Reuters)
He escaped from Lompoc Prison in California in 1978, when the escapees opened fire on prison guards. Pelletier’s sentence was extended by an additional seven years.
“Mr. Pelletier was far from a model prisoner and would never have been considered for pardon had it not been for his politically prominent status,” O’Hare wrote.
Pelter was an activist with the American Indian Movement (AIM) at the time of the shooting and later claimed to have been a political prisoner.
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Peltier’s last parole hearing was denied in 2009. Though he has the backing of prominent Democrats, including Biden’s Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both rejected his clemency requests.
While Pelletier has some supporters, many within the FBI are adamantly opposed to his release, Barra said.
Ed Mires, the first FBI agent to receive the Medal of Valor from the bureau after a deadly shootout with two murder suspects in 1986, scoffed at the idea that Pelletier should be released on compassionate grounds.
“[Peltier] “They executed two agents who were wounded on the ground. There will be no mercy, no forgiveness,” he told Fox News Digital. “There will be no mercy, no forgiveness for Pelletier.”
Fox News’ Emmett Jones and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
