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<h1><b>Time to Free Leonard
Peltier</b></h1><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.frumforum.com/time-to-free-leonard-peltier" eudora="autourl">
http://www.frumforum.com/time-to-free-leonard-peltier<br>
</a></font><h4><b>March 8th, 2010 at 12:49 pm by
<a href="http://www.frumforum.com/author/PeterW/">Peter Worthington</a>
<br><br>
</b></h4><font size=3>Leonard Peltier is now starting his 35th year in
prison.<br><br>
He is 65, and more than half his life has been spent as a
prisoner.<br><br>
Impassioned supporters who argued for justice and his freedom in the
past, have grown silent. Bored, frustrated, exhausted, have died, or
become involved in other causes. Peltier has faded in memories.<br><br>
These include Amnesty International, for whom Peltier is still a
political prisoner of conscience. His defenders include Nelson Mandela,
the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Tutu, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Members of
the European Parliament, some 50 Canadian MPs, Hollywood mogul David
Geffen, and various Leonard Peltier Defence Committees around the
world.<br><br>
Most have dropped by the wayside.<br><br>
Robert Redford made a movie about him: <i>Incident at Oglala</i>. The
Belgian and Italian parliaments espoused his freedom. They’ve joined the
ranks of the silent – not because anything has changed, but because
Washington wouldn’t listen.<br><br>
Somewhat sheepishly, I admit, to having been sidetracked to other issues
over the past 15 years. Three times I visited Peltier when he was
incarcerated at the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas. Since then he
has been moved several times – to the federal prison at Terre Haute,
Indiana; to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania; to Canaan, Pa., and today back to
Lewisburg. At each, he was jumped, beaten, threatened with death by
so-called native inmates when in general population. Provocateurs? Who
knows?<br><br>
Peltier insists his only enemies are the system and Justice Department.
In the past I (and others) argued that the case against Peltier was not
only flawed, but grotesquely dishonest, unfair and unjust, replete with
admittedly perjured testimony and fraudulent evidence by the
FBI.<br><br>
No longer should guilt be an issue – Peltier is not a conventional
criminal or felon. Even if one believes he was guilty, he has served
enough time and deserves to be free. But no – that’s not the American way
in his case.<br><br>
Peltier was found guilty in the 1975 shooting deaths of two FBI agents
Ron Williams and Jack Coler – during a range war on the Lakota-Sioux
reserve at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, near Wounded Knee where, in 1973,
there was a highly publicized 71-day siege.<br><br>
The Pine Ridge range war was between traditional, back-to-our-roots
Indians ,and “progressive” mixed-blood Indians who favored the mining of
uranium on Indian land. The militant American Indian Movement (AIM) sided
with the traditionalists, while the FBI, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
and authorities backed the progressives.<br><br>
The FBI had labeled AIM a terrorist organization, trained and financed by
Castro and the Soviet Union – phony charges, evolving from Cold War
paranoia of the day. AIM was (is) an Indian advocacy group.<br><br>
In a three-year period at Pine Ridge, over 60 murders occurred, not one
which was ever investigated, much less solved. On the day Coler and
Williams died chasing a “red pickup truck” into the Jumping Bull
community, allegedly driven by Jimmy Eagle who was believed to have
stolen some cowboy boots another young Indian, Joe Stutnz was shot and
killed. No investigation was ever held.<br><br>
Shots were fired and returned. Some 125 bullet holes were found in the
two FBI cars. Peltier was one of four Indians charged with murder, but he
fled to Alberta where eventually he was turned over to the RCMP. The
other three went on trial, where one had charges against him dismissed.
The other two, Bob Robideau (since deceased) and Dino Butler, were found
not guilty, having fired in self defense. The prosecution’s
circumstantial evidence against them was too thin to get a
conviction.<br><br>
At Peltier’s extradition hearing in Vancouver, the FBI produced
affidavits by one Mabel Poor Bear, claiming she was Peltier’s girlfriend,
and had witnessed him shooting the FBI against at close range.<br><br>
It subsequently turned out the Poor Bear was a mental case, had never met
Peltier, and was nowhere near the murder scene. She later tried to
recant, claiming she didn’t even know what Peltier looked like, and
claimed the FBI threatened to take away her child if she didn’t sign the
affidavit. The trial court judge refused to hear her testimony.<br><br>
But her fabricated affidavit got Peltier extradited. (Canada’s Solicitor
General at the time was Liberal MP Warren Allmand, who supported the
extradition, but later became one of the strongest advocates on behalf of
Peltier, urging the U.S. to review his case).<br><br>
At Peltier’s trial, the FBI claimed ballistic tests proved Peltier’s
AR-15 rifle had fired the bullets that killed the agents. This was later
proved to be false; shell casings at the death scene did not come from
Peltier’s rifle.<br><br>
At his trial Prosecutor Lynn Crooks said categorically that evidence
proved Peltier “killed the agents in cold blood.” Later, in appeal,
Crooks said he believed Peltier had killed the agents “but we didn’t
prove it.” At a parole hearing in 1995, Crooks said if there was a
re-trial “the government could not re-convict.”<br><br>
Parole was rejected because Peltier was the only one they had, even
though the court ruled that the FBI’s suppression of evidence “cast
strong doubts on the government’s case. The jury heard none of
this.<br><br>
Radical leftwing lawyer William Kunstler (now deceased) represented
Peltier at his appeal – and mishandled key evidence which the 8th Circuit
Appeal Judge, Gerald Heaney (since deceased), later said would probably
have gotten Peltier freed, or a new trial if he, the judge, had known the
facts. Kunstler apologized, and urged the judge not to penalize Peltier
for his mistake.<br><br>
I interviewed Judge Heaney who said he had urged then-President Bill
Clinton through Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye, to have Peltier granted
clemency.<br><br>
Clinton had indicated he’d grant executive clemency to Peltier, but
changed his mind when some 500 FBI agents, retirees and families
demonstrated outside the White House. Instead, Clinton pardoned Marc Rich
who was indicted for illegal oil deals with Iran, and tax
evasion.<br><br>
In their book <i>Game Change</i>, authors John Heileman and Mark Halperin
note that billionaire David Geffen had lobbied Clinton to pardon Peltier
whom he felt was innocent. When Clinton pardoned Rich, Geffen saw this
“as a sign of corrupted values,” and backed Obama for the presidency
instead of Hillary Clinton.<br><br>
In prison, Peltier has had a rough time. At Leavenworth his jaw was
atrophying without medical attention – until publicity got him treatment.
He is going blind from diabetes, has kidney failure and is susceptible to
strokes. He feels occasional beatings by inmates are stage-managed, but
says what cannot be taken from him are “my dignity and self-respect . . .
even if I die here.”<br><br>
The law, in 1976, was that inmates with a good record after 30 years
should get mandatory release. When Peltier’s 30-year parole hearings came
up, he says “five FBI and government witnesses hammered me for over five
hours that I should not be released . . . so the parole board gave me
another 15 year sentence” (His next parole hearing is in 2024).<br><br>
Peltier’s appeal of the parole board decision, has already been rejected
, despite acknowledgement of his unblemished prison record. Prior to
rejection he wrote me: “I am waiting for them to destroy my appeal. I
can’t see these same parole commissioners changing their minds, so I know
what I’ll get.<br><br>
“Next I will file in the federal courts, as we have some strong expert
issues to file on. I have no doubt we can kick some butt in court, but
even if I win, it will take five or 10 years before all the appeal
processes take place, so you can consider the 15-year-hit as a death (a
slow one) sentence.”<br><br>
What stands out in Peltier’s case is the vindictiveness of the FBI and
the Justice system. With the absence of clear proof of who shot the
agents in 1975, the FBI is determined that someone – anyone – must be
held responsible. Had Peltier not escaped to Canada, and had he gone on
trial with Robideau and Butler, he too would have been
acquitted.<br><br>
Flaws in the case include the FBI changing the “red pickup truck” to a
“red and white van” – owned by Peltier; three prosecution witnesses who
recanted and claimed intimidation forced their compliance; the jury
hearing nothing of the FBI’s suppression of evidence, or its being
rebuked by the court; fraudulent ballistic evidence being withheld from
the jury; and the FBI’s later admission that “we do not know who killed
the agents.”<br><br>
Author Peter Matthiessen’s book on Peltier’s case, <i>In the Spirit of
Crazy Horse</i>, was delayed seven years to 1992 because of FBI legal
suits against its publication. In it, Matthiessen interviews a “Mr. X”
who alleges he was the one who fired the fatal shots into the FBI
agents.<br><br>
I became convinced that Mr. X was Bob Robideau, whom I phoned in Spain
and asked him. He equivocated. When I phoned Judge Heaney, of the 8th
Circuit Appeal Court, he also implied Robideau might have been the
shooter. If so, “he had already been found not guilty of murder and could
not be tried again,” said Heaney.<br><br>
After 34 years in prison, and considering the political and social unrest
at the time of the 1975 Pine Ridge Indian wars, Peltier’s guilt or
innocence is irrelevant. Simple justice and compassion dictate he should
be freed.<br><br>
Recently, a new generation of Peltier defenders have emerged – one of
whom (Kathi Robinson in Manitoba) Peltier has encouraged. Assistant
Coordinator of the <a href="http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/">Leonard
Peltier Defense Offense Committee</a> is his niece, Kari Ann
Boushee.<br><br>
Peltier’s eventual release may hinge on clemency from President Barack
Obama – presuming Obama has the courage to reject the FBI’s continuing
thirst to punish a man they helped frame for murder. Otherwise, Peltier
will likely die in custody.<br><br>
<br><br>
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