[Ppnews] Leonard Peltier’s Sole Crime Was His Heritage

[Political Prisoner News]

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/peter-worthington/leonard-peltier_b_1665689.html?utm_hp_ref=tw 



    Peter Worthington

Co-founder of the Toronto Sun


  Posted: 07/12/2012 2:29 pm


  Leonard Peltier’s Sole Crime Was His Heritage

Over the years, individuals and groups have emerged and faded in efforts 
to persuade the U.S. justice system to parole or grant amnesty to 
Leonard Peltier, convicted of the deaths of two FBI agents, Jack Coler 
and Ron Williams, in South Dakota in 1975.

Peltier, now 68, has been in prison for 35 years. Since 1977, petitions 
and pleas on his behalf have been ignored; appeals by the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, 55 U.S. 
Congressmen, and Canadian Parliamentarians, and members of the European 
Parliament Union.

For six consecutive years, Peltier has been nominated for a Nobel Peace 
Prize, and is the recipient of over a dozen international human rights 
awards -- all because of the apparent injustice done to him.

The FBI and retired FBI agents have adamantly opposed anything 
resembling clemency for Peltier, even though his trial and conviction 
stunk like rotting fish, based as it was on fabricated evidence and 
perjury -- since admitted by many involved in his conviction. He’s due 
for release around 2040, when he will be 106 years old.

The closest Peltier came to getting executive clemency was from Bill 
Clinton, but FBI opposition dissuaded Clinton, who had his own troubles 
at the time, especially with Monica Lewinsky. Clinton reneged on a 
previous commitment to Peltier’s defense team.

Today, Peltier is in failing health; time is running out for possible 
freedom.

This year a new champion has emerged to urge executive clemency -- a 
group that is harder to ignore politically, but which the FBI 
association will oppose.

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) represents all tribes 
across the U.S. and Alaska -- including the American Indian Movement 
(AIM) to which Peltier once belonged, and which was once a more radical 
rival to the NCAI.

Under the signature of its president, Jefferson Keel, the NCAI 
resolution notes that “appellate courts have repeatedly acknowledged 
evidence of U.S. government misconduct -- including knowingly presenting 
false statements to a Canadian court to extradite Mr. Peltier...forcing 
witnesses to lie at trial, and hiding ballistic evidence reflecting Mr. 
Peltier’s innocence...”

Further: “The United States prosecutor [Lynn Crooks]” twice admitted 
that “no one knows who fired the fatal shots.” And an appeal court 
judge, Gerald Heaney, wrote the president urging amnesty as a gesture to 
restore decent relations with Indians.

The NCAI has requested 
<http://www.congress.org/congressorg/aol04/bio/userletter/?id=1465&letter_id=7957047416&content_dir=congressorg> 
a meeting with President Barack Obama to “secure a grant of Executive 
Clemency to Leonard Peltier on constitutional, and overriding human 
rights and compassionate grounds.”

America’s Indians have psychological power in the U.S., if not political 
influence. When the two FBI agents were killed in 1975 on the Pine Ridge 
Reservation, it was a time of political turmoil with the Indians. The 
FBI erroneously branded AIM as a Soviet-backed communist subversive 
group when, in fact, it was an Indian-rights group.

During the Pine Ridge troubles, 60 Indians were murdered -- with no 
arrests or convictions made by the FBI. Paramilitary groups ran amok. 
The same day Coler and Williams were shot, another Indian, Joe Stuntz, 
was shot and killed -- again, no FBI investigation.

At Peltier’s extradition from Canada, Myrtle Poor Bear testified she 
witnessed Peltier shooting the argents when, in fact, she was nowhere 
near Pine Ridge and had never met Peltier. The FBI wrote her script -- 
and at Peltier’s trial, the defense was denied the chance to cross 
examine her, by which time she had recanted, and was deemed mentally 
incapable.

Not generally realized is that despite declining crime rates, the U.S. 
prison population is said to have grown six-fold. The number of older 
prisoners is growing at a faster rate than the total federal prison 
population. Between 2000 and 2009 the number of prisoners over age 51 
grew from 14,275 to 25,160 -- a 76 per cent increase.

With age comes increased medical problems -- with no increase in the 
budget to address these problems. So by necessity, aging prisoners get 
sub-standard care.

As for Peltier, he’s in failing health, has been for years. He’s endured 
a stroke which left him nearly blind in one eye. He’s had a serious 
debilitating jaw condition for years, that leaves him unable to chew. An 
offer of free corrective surgery by the Mayo clinic was rejected 
<http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/AI.htm> by prison authorities.

In addition, Peltier has diabetes, high blood pressure and a heart 
condition. He is susceptible to kidney failure. Yet repeatedly, he’s 
been denied adequate medical care. This has earned the U.S. a rebuke 
from the UN for inhuman conditions.

It is undeniable that the FBI wants Peltier to die in prison -- not 
necessarily because they believe he is guilty of murdering two agents, 
but because they want someone, anyone, identified as responsible for the 
deaths of two agents.

Often forgotten is that two Indians initially charged and put on trial 
for the murder of the two FBI agents -- Bob Robideau (since deceased) 
and Dino Butler -- were found not guilty, but acting in self-defense. 
The FBI made sure Peltier was denied any defense.

I visited him three times when he was in Leavenworth. I had initially 
written editorials in the /Sun/ supporting the FBI, until deeper 
examination of the case revealed their deceit.

When I first met Peltier, I confessed that I had supported the FBI, not 
wanting him to be under any misconception. I was startled when he 
laughed: “My own mother believed the FBI would never lie, so how can I 
blame you for believing them?”

We got on fine after that. Being a model prisoner was no help. He was 
constantly harassed. I recall at one meeting in prison he was agitated 
because he’d been sharing a cell with a recently admitted inmate, whom 
he found to be pleasant fellow -- and then discovered he was a serial 
killer. Peltier was genuinely shocked that he’d have to share a cell 
with someone who was a dangerous criminal.

It reinforced the view that whatever Leonard Peltier was, or might have 
been, he was not a criminal, not a murderer, but an activist for Indian 
welfare and rights who got caught up in the politics of the times and 
has been a scapegoat ever since.

Peltier does not belong in prison -- never did, because all evidence 
against him was tainted, corrupted, falsified, invented, fabricated on 
non-existent claims.

That’s the way it is with scapegoats. The Leonard Peltier Defense 
Offense Committee has since moved from Kansas and Missouri when he was 
in Leavenworth, to Fargo, North Dakota. Those interested can check the 
website 
<http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/peter-worthington/www.whoisleonardpeltier.info>. 
<http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/jerichocointelpro>


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