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Thumbing his nose at the cause of justice
By Richard Stout - Wednesday, January 22, 2025
OPINION:
On his way out the door, President Biden delivered one final kick in the teeth to those who proudly served the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
As if the unprecedented politicization and weaponization of the bureau that occurred during his tenure was not painful enough, his eleventh-hour, clandestine decision to commute the sentence of convicted murderer Leonard Peltier cements a condemnable legacy in the cause of justice.
Notwithstanding his decision to single-handedly dismiss the work of hundreds of law enforcement officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges and juries with the largest number of pardons and commutations in history or the decision to suspend the pursuit of justice against members of his own family, Mr. Biden’s decision to commute the sentence of the brutal murderer of two FBI agents nearly 50 years ago will ensure he will be remembered as a man who thumbed his nose at the cause of justice and to all those sworn to uphold and protect it.
Jack Coler and Ronald Williams committed themselves to upholding federal law and serving their fellow citizens as special agents of the FBI. On June 26, 1975, they accepted the dangerous mission of serving arrest warrants on behalf of the United States government on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
After being injured in a shootout, both agents were shot in the head at close range by Mr. Peltier. The murderer initially fled to Canada, but he was later extradited to the United States, where he had a chance to defend himself in a court of law. He presented his evidence, the government presented its own, and Mr. Peltier was convicted. He stayed defiant and unrepentant for his criminal acts five decades after his conviction.
Special Agents Coler and Williams never had a chance. Their families never had a chance. In stark contrast, for 50 years, Mr. Peltier has had multiple chances to prove his innocence, to provide alternative theories, to obtain or discover new evidence, to hire attorneys and accept help from nonprofits, to take advantage of new forensic technologies, and to revisit and rebut the allegations and his conviction. And for 50 years, courts have rejected Mr. Peltier’s claims. In fact, for 50 years, it has been affirmed that Mr. Peltier is an incorrigible murderer.
Before review by a weakened and feeble Joseph R. Biden, presidents on both sides of the aisle — including Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — rejected Mr. Peltier’s clemency requests. He was denied parole in 1993, 2009 and, most recently, in July 2024. He failed to receive clemency before today because he is a remorseless murderer.
The Department of Justice and the FBI pledged to never forget the ultimate sacrifices of Special Agents Coler and Williams. Mr. Biden chose to commemorate their sacrifices by releasing the man responsible for their deaths. With deliberate indifference, Mr. Biden chose evil over good.
After 50 years in government, ironically the same amount of time that Leonard Peltier has been in prison, Mr. Biden chose a murderer over patriots. Mr. Biden has chosen his legacy, and it puts his own interests first. It puts criminals before citizens. It puts Mr. Biden’s singular choice over the collective will of the courts and the rule of law. We should all be outraged by this secretive condemnation of justice.
The United States government and the FBI, for whom Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams gave their lives, were once committed to upholding the rule of law without favoring politicization or clemency for convicted murderers of FBI agents.
We must return to a doctrine that protects the public, fights crime and upholds the rule of law.
• Richard Stout is director of Reform the Bureau, a nationwide group of former and currently active FBI special agents committed to restoring the FBI to its core mission: protecting the public, fighting crime and upholding the rule of law.