Coleman, Florida - Demands for clemency and justice for Leonard Peltier resounded once again on the Global Day of Solidarity marking the Indigenous freedom fighter's wrongful incarceration.

Leonard Peltier, now 79 years old, has spent 48 full years behind bars as of February 6, 2024.

A member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Peltier was taken into US custody after he was convicted of killing two FBI agents in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in June 1975.

The killing of an Indigenous man, Joseph Stuntz, during the shootout was never investigated, nor have any charges ever been issued.

Tensions had erupted two years prior, when around 200 Oglala Lakota people and members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) occupied the town of Wounded Knee on the reservation.

The federal government responded by setting up roadblocks and cutting off access to electricity, food, and water in a brutal 71-day siege.

The Wounded Knee Occupation came amid generations of state-sanctioned abuse targeting Indigenous Peoples, including land theft, economic deprivation, racial discrimination, and forced cultural erasure. Today, it is widely regarded as a powerful symbol of Indigenous resistance to colonialism and white supremacy.

Peltier, who joined AIM in 1972 to fight back against Indigenous oppression, was ultimately sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment for his alleged role in the 1975 shootout.

He is currently incarcerated in a maximum-security facility in Coleman, Florida – far from his family and his homeland.

There is no evidence to justify locking Peltier up for nearly five decades and repeatedly denying him parole, his supporters say. Records suggest the FBI coerced witnesses and excluded and falsified critical evidence in the 1977 murder trial.

Even the top prosecutor in the case, former US Attorney James Reynolds, has called for Peltier's release, as has retired FBI special agent Coleen Rowley, who last year described the bureau's continued opposition as having the appearance of an "emotion-driven 'FBI Family' vendetta."

On top of mass public demonstrations, Peltier's cause has received support from the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention as well as a bipartisan group of US lawmakers.

President Joe Biden has the authority to grant clemency to Peltier without congressional approval, but has so far ignored overwhelming demands to do so.

Peltier's age and ailing physical health have added renewed urgency to calls for his immediate release.

Last October, Indigenous advocates traveled to the United Nations in Geneva to push for an end to US death by incarceration sentences like Peltier's.

Natali Segovia, executive director of the Water Protector Legal Collective, was among the advocates who made the trip to Switzerland. Her organization is an Indigenous-led legal nonprofit bringing together attorneys and community organizers working alongside Peltier towards his freedom.

"On this day of global solidarity with Leonard Peltier, as Indigenous Peoples and allies across Turtle Island and the world have done for 48 years, we again call for the release of the longest-serving political prisoner in the US, Indigenous elder, Leonard Peltier," Segovia told TAG24 NEWS on Tuesday.

"During these unsettling times in which we have all become collective witnesses to injustices, one need not be a legal scholar to understand that Leonard's continued imprisonment runs afoul of justice. He deserves to be home, he deserves to be free," she continued.

"We are hopeful, as he is, that the day for freedom will be soon."