Leonard Peltier is America’s longest-held Indigenous prisoner. He should be freed

Marchers carry a banner depicting Leonard Peltier during a march for the National Day of Mourning in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on 22 November 2001. Photograph: Steven Senne/AP

It’s time for Leonard Peltier to go home – to end his senseless suffering and 45 years of unjust imprisonment. Last Friday, after complaining of a “rough cough”, the 77-year-old Native elder tested positive for Covid-19. Peltier’s continued confinement at the United States penitentiary in Coleman, Florida, might be a death sentence, if the Biden administration doesn’t act quickly, and with conscience.

Freedom for Peltier is one step towards addressing centuries of injustice facing Indigenous people as well as addressing the inhumane conditions of incarceration that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.