[Pnews] 11 Members of Congress Write Letter to President Biden, Demanding Immediate Release of Leonard Peltier

[Prisoner News]

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  11 Members of Congress Write Letter to President Biden, Demanding
  Immediate Release of Leonard Peltier

By Darren Thompson - October 11, 2021

On Friday, October 8, 11 members of Congress sent a letter to President 
Biden, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland, Director of 
Federal Bureau of Prisons Michael Carvajal, and Southeast Regional 
Director of Federal Bureau of Prisons J.A. Keller requesting the 
expedited release of and clemency for Leonard Peltier.

Leonard Peltier, a tribal citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of 
Chippewa, was arrested and convicted for the murders of two Federal 
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents on the Pine Ridge Indian 
Reservation in 1975. He was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences 
and has served more than 43 years in federal prison. He suffers from 
diabetes and an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He is 77 years old today.

“Biden has an obligation to release Peltier based on the treatment of 
our people,” said International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee 
<http://whoisleonardpeltier.info/> Board Member Jean Roach to Native 
News Online. “If we want to make reconciliations with Native people, 
release Peltier. There is no justice for Native people if there’s no 
justice for Peltier.”

Fearing oppressive government retaliation, Peltier fled to Canada. While 
in Canada, two others, Dino Butler and Bob Robideau, were charged with 
the murders of the FBI agents and tried separately. Their case was 
eventually dismissed due to lack of evidence. Peltier was eventually 
apprehended and extradited from Canada based on an affidavit that cited 
Peltier admitted he shot and killed the two FBI agents. The witness who 
made the statement to secure Peltier’s extradition later admitted she 
was coerced by the FBI.

Peltier’s trial was also riddled with evidentiary concerns. The witness 
who gave the statement to the FBI citing Peltier admitted to her he shot 
and killed the agents and later admitted she was coerced and was not 
permitted to be called as a defense witness. The defense later 
discovered that the government withheld evidence, including ballistics 
evidence, and argued that if made aware of the additional evidence the 
outcome may have been different.

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark maintianed Peltier was not 
given a fair trial by the U.S. government.

“I think I can explain beyond serious doubt that Leonard Peltier has 
committed no crime whatsoever. But if he had been guilty of firing a gun 
that killed an FBI Agent, it was in defense of not just his people but 
the integrity of humanity from domination and exploitation,” U.S. 
Attorney General Ramsey Clark said.

Friday’s letter was signed by Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), Rep. Barbara 
Lee (D-CA), Rep. Jesús G. "Chuy" García (D-IL), Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), 
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-MO), Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), Rep. Teresa 
Leger Fernández (D-NM), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Rep. Pramila Jayapal 
(D-WA), Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), and Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM).

“Given the combination of this overwhelming support, the constitutional 
issues underlying Mr. Peltier’s prosecution, and his status as an 
elderly inmate with severe underlying health conditions, we believe it 
is highly appropriate that BOP prioritizes the expedited release of Mr. 
Peltier. We therefore request that Mr. Leonard Peltier receive an 
expedited release and be granted clemency.”

Individuals and groups who have also called for Mr. Peltier’s release 
include Amnesty International, the National Congress of American 
Indians, the late Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond 
Tutu, Mikhail Gorbachev, Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and 
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European 
Parliament, the Belgian Parliament, the Italian Parliament, the Kennedy 
Memorial Center for Human Rights, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rigoberta Menchú, 
and seven other Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. Former U.S. Attorney James 
H. Reynolds, who oversaw Mr. Peltier’s original conviction, has written 
to President Biden requesting clemency for Mr. Peltier. Last year, Chair 
Grijalva co-led a similar clemency request letter with 
then-Representative Deb Haaland, now Secretary of the Interior.

He’s the longest serving political prisoner in the United States.

“He has serious medical conditions,” said Roach. “He’s been in there 
long enough and it’s time for him to come home.”

“As a survivor of the 1975 Oglala firefight and member of the 
International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, I urge everyone, every 
tribe, to pass resolutions supporting his freedom,” said Roach.
Read the letter in full here 
<https://naturalresources.house.gov/grijalva-and-members-letter-requesting-clemency-for-leonard-peltier-oct-8-2021>.

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Darren Thompson (Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe) is a freelance journalist and 
based in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, where he also contributes to 
Unicorn Riot, an alternative media publication. Thompson has reported on 
political unrest, tribal sovereignty, and Indigenous issues for the 
Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, Indian Country Today, Native News 
Online, Powwows.com and Unicorn Riot. He has contributed to the New York 
Times, the Washington Post, and Voice of America on various Indigenous 
issues in international conversation. He has a bachelor’s degree in 
Criminology & Law Studies from Marquette University in Milwaukee, 
Wisconsin.
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