Biography
Albert Garza joined Leonard Peltier and Standing Deer in the 1984 hunger fast for Native religious freedom while held at Marion federal prison. His underlying federal case arose from a 1973 El Paso bank robbery and killing, not the later prison protest. He received a life sentence on July 19, 1973. The federal locator checked October 20, 2026 lists him in custody at MCFP Springfield under register 49602-146. His exact prison-entry date remains unverified.
Exact-register court identification and original sentence
The January 4, 2024 order, EP:73-CR-361(1)-KC, identifies register 49602-146 and dates the life sentence July 19, 1973. The attached 2025 appellate decision affirms denial of sentence reduction. Complete relevant original pages were visually inspected using the PDF review workflow.
The 2022 appellate chronology dates arrest May 1, 1973, describes guilty pleas, and distinguishes the life sentence from the additional 25-year term vacated in 1974 and the separate 1979 escape prosecution. It describes three days outside custody before recapture. These are not one uninterrupted interval. Parole recommendations and eligibility dates are not releases.
The official federal locator, exact-register check October 20, 2026, lists LIFE at MCFP Springfield, with no actual release date. The original admission remains unknown; neither arrest nor sentence date establishes it. Any arrest-anchored display estimate is not a verified continuous-custody total. The 1984 fast was a protest during imprisonment, not the offense producing the original sentence.
1984 Marion religious-freedom fast
Black Flag No. 114 (1984), physical PDF page 5, reports that Leonard Peltier, Standing Deer (Robert H. Wilson) and Rechaza Lorede Chingatu (Albert Garza) began a hunger fast at noon on April 10, 1984, while confined at Marion federal penitentiary. The report attributes the protest to the prison administration’s refusal to permit their religious practices. It prints individual registers 89637-132 for Peltier, 01499-164 for Standing Deer and 49602-146 for Garza, providing a direct identity bridge rather than a similar-name assumption.
This is contemporary prisoner-support reporting; allegations of forced feeding and beatings are attributed to that report. April 10 is the start of the fast, not original prison admission, sentencing or release. Peltier’s earlier Canadian detention is separate from his U.S. imprisonment. The existing custody cases, periods and later outcomes remain unchanged.
