SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – The legal team for imprisoned American Indian activist Leonard Peltier is hoping President Barack Obama will pardon him before he leaves office.

Peltier is serving two life sentences for the 1975 shooting deaths of two FBI agents during a standoff on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He’s now 71 and in frail health, and his next parole hearing isn’t scheduled until 2024.

Peltier and his supporters say he was framed – a claim the FBI denies. He has unsuccessfully appealed his conviction numerous times, and former President Bill Clinton left office without acting on a clemency request.

Peltier’s legal team recently filed a clemency petition with Obama and hopes the president will “look at the case with fresh eyes,” said Cynthia Dunne, a former federal prosecutor who now directs a nonprofit corporation that works with youth on Pine Ridge.

“If (Peltier) dies in prison, I think it’s one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in the nation’s history,” Dunne told the Argus Leader (http://argusne.ws/2apUpP4 ).

Peltier grew up on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota. He was convicted in Fargo, North Dakota, in 1977, and is currently imprisoned in Florida. In his petition to Obama, he maintains his assertion that he was only one of dozens involved in a gunfight.

“I am deeply remorseful about the deaths that occurred on June 26, 1975 and the pain that all impacted have endured,” he said. “There are, however, many mitigating factors that led up to the events of that day, which influenced the actions of all persons involved.”

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Information from: Argus Leader, http://www.argusleader.com