Washington DC - Senator Brian Schatz on Wednesday called for executive clemency for imprisoned Indigenous freedom fighter Leonard Peltier in a speech on the Senate floor.

"As President Biden considers candidates for clemency in the final weeks of his term, the Native American activist Leonard Peltier is among those who deserve grace and mercy," Schatz said.

The Hawaii Democrat went on to lay out the numerous irregularities in Peltier's 1977 murder trial, in which he was accused of killing two FBI agents in a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in so-called South Dakota.

The conviction has since been called into serious question. Records suggest the FBI coerced witnesses and excluded and falsified critical evidence in the trial.

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Even the top prosecutor in the case, former US Attorney James Reynolds, has urged Peltier's release. In a 2021 letter to Biden, he wrote, "With time, and the benefit of hindsight, I have realized that the prosecution and continued incarceration of Mr. Peltier was and is unjust. We were not able to prove that Mr. Peltier personally committed any offense on the Pine Ridge Reservation."

Despite decades of appeals for his release, Peltier remains incarcerated at the maximum-security United States Penitentiary, Coleman I prison in Florida. He has spent more than 48 years behind bars, with his parole bids repeatedly denied.

Peltier's case is receiving a renewed surge of interest as Biden nears the end of his term, with Donald Trump poised to retake the White House next January.

Biden's executive clemency authority gives him the power to free Peltier from prison without congressional approval. The president's recent decision to pardon his son Hunter has only increased momentum behind calls for the Indigenous political prisoner's release.

"Peltier is now 80 years old and has been in prison for 50 years. He's in declining health, experiencing vision loss and other illnesses," said Schatz, who last March led a bipartisan group of senators in calling for Peltier's release.

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"Even if you believe that he did, in fact, commit the crime, certainly the time is now to let him spend whatever remaining days he has at home, to die with this family," Schatz continued. "He's done his time. He's of old age and in poor health. This is what clemency is for. This is what mercy is for."

"If there was ever a case that merited compassionate release, Leonard Peltier's is it. This is exactly what this awesome presidential power is for, to right a historic wrong. And if not that, then just to show mercy and let an old man die with his family."

The Indigenous-led activist organization NDN Collective is encouraging Peltier's supporters to sign their petition as well as reach out to the White House and congressional representatives demanding Biden grant clemency before leaving office.