{"id":36876,"date":"2024-03-08T13:46:48","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T18:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/famous-allies-call-for-his-release-but-fbi-works-to-keep-him-imprisoned\/"},"modified":"2024-03-08T13:46:49","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T18:46:49","slug":"famous-allies-call-for-his-release-but-fbi-works-to-keep-him-imprisoned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/famous-allies-call-for-his-release-but-fbi-works-to-keep-him-imprisoned\/","title":{"rendered":"Famous allies call for his release, but FBI works to keep him imprisoned"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Leonard Peltier<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A five-week jury trial was held in U.S. District Court in Fargo, N.D., and Leonard Peltier was convicted on April 18, 1977 of two counts of first-degree murder. He was sentenced on June 1, 1977 to serve two consecutive life terms in prison.
\nPeltier appealed his conviction to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and his conviction was upheld in 1978. A Writ of Certiorari was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1979.
\nHe has tried numerous times to obtain his release through multiple filings. All failed.
\nThe U.S. Parole Commission provided Peltier a full reconsideration parole hearing in 1998 but denied him parole. Repeated efforts have all been denied, and a civil suit filed against the FBI and a current and former director also went nowhere. The U.S. Supreme Court has twice declined to hear his case.
\nPeltier had one last run at freedom. On July 20, 1979, three inmates \u2014 Peltier, Bobby Garcia and Dallas Thundershield escaped from the federal penitentiary in Lompoc, California. Garcia was quickly recaptured and Thundershield was shot and killed by guards.
\nPeltier remained on the loose for three days until a farmer reported chasing an armed man out of his melon field who demanded his wallet, shoes and the key to his pickup at the point of a Ruger Mini-14 rifle. He drove away at a high rate of speed on a rough road, damaging the truck\u2019s transmission. Peltier fled on foot but sheriff\u2019s deputies arrived and caught him hiding in a tree.
\nHe was convicted of the escape and of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and the conviction was affirmed on appeal. That added another seven years to his sentence.
\nPeltier said he should be released at once.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been exonerated now,\u201d he claims, pointing to government officials, lawyers and judges who now believe he was wrongfully convicted.
\nDon Edwards, who was an FBI special agent and naval intelligence and gunnery officer before serving 32 years as a congressman from California, called for Peltier to be released in 2000.
\nEdwards, who died at the age of 100 in 2015, chaired the House Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights and had a special interest in Peltier\u2019s case.
\n\u201cGranting clemency to Mr. Peltier should not be viewed as expressing any disrespect for the current agents or leadership of the FBI, nor would it represent any condoning of the killings,\u201d he said in a statement released in December 2000. \u201cInstead, clemency \u2026 would recognize past wrongdoing and the undermining of the government\u2019s case since trial \u2026 It would serve as a crucial step in the reconciliation and healing between the U.S. Government and Native Americans.\u201d
\nPeltier said he hopes the sheer weight of evidence that he was wrongfully convicted will earn him his freedom.
\nThere has been debate over the weapon used to kill the agents and if it can be tied to Peltier. Like most matters, the two sides disagree strongly, with the FBI insisting an AR-15 rifle recovered from Peltier\u2019s associates in Wichita, Kan., on Sept. 10, 1975, can be linked to him.
\nThe AR-15 was discovered after a station wagon blew up on the Kansas Turnpike after explosives were placed too close to the tailpipe. The vehicle was loaded with multiple weapons, including a burned-up AR-15 \u2014 and Agent Coler\u2019s .308 rifle.
\nRobert Robideau, Norman Charles, and Michael Anderson, all of whom were tied to the shooting of the agents and all colleagues of Peltier, were in the station wagon.
\nThe FBI claims Peltier was the only person at the scene of the 1975 shooting who was carrying an AR-15. Peltier said the \u201cevidence\u201d against him has been manipulated and manufactured.
\n\u201cFirst of all, I\u2019m not guilty,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m in prison illegally. That\u2019s why people call me a political prisoner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Worldwide support<\/strong>
\nOver the decades, he has found support from a wide variety of high-profile people, including Pope Francis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, the Dali Lama, Coretta Scott King, Jesse Jackson, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and actors Marlon Brando, Robert Redford and Harry Belanfonte.
\nOn Nov. 6, 2017, several famous musicians, Kris Kristofferson, Jamey Johnson, Arlo Guthrie, Rita Coolidge, Shooter Jennings, Joe Ely, Jessi Colter, The Doors\u2019 John Densmore, performed at a benefit concert for Peltier in Tulsa, Okla. Video messages from Peter Gabriel, Tom Morello and Steven Van Zandt were played.
\nOver the years, other famous musicians, including Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Rage Against The Machine, have rallied to his side and performed benefit concerts on Peltier\u2019s behalf.
\nSeven senators \u2014 Tina Smith, Mazie K. Hirono, Patrick Leahy, Edward J. Markey, Bernie Sanders, Brian Schatz and Elizabeth Warren \u2014 called for clemency for Peltier, who has been in custody for 47 years after being convicted of first-degree murder for the deaths of FBI Special Agents Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams at Pine Ridge on June 25, 1975.
\nOver the years, other prominent figures, including Pope Francis, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Saint Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, the Dali Lama and Coretta Scott King, also support his release.
\nOn Feb. 4, 2022, Sen. Leahy, D-VT, urged Biden to order Peltier released.
\n\u201cI urge President Biden to commute Leonard Peltier\u2019s prison sentence and release him from federal prison,\u201d said Leahy, then the senior member of the Senate. He retired in January after 48 years in office.
\n\u201cPeltier, a prominent Native American activist, was imprisoned for crimes he and many other legal experts and advocates maintain he never committed,\u201d he said. \u201cHis trial was so riddled with flaws that even one of the prosecutors trying him has acknowledged that Peltier was wrongfully convicted. Peltier, now 77 years old and ailing with multiple health problems, has served more than 44 years in federal prison.\u201d
\nThe statement said Peltier \u201cis exactly the kind of individual who should be considered for clemency,\u201d since he \u201cknows firsthand just how imperfect\u201d the American criminal justice can be at times.
\n\u201cI have long believed that pardons and commutations are vital tools to offer clemency and relief, particularly when our criminal justice system has been contorted to propagate injustices,\u201d Leahy said. \u201cI call on President Biden to commute Mr. Peltier\u2019s sentence expeditiously. It is the right thing to do.\u201d
\nSen. Schatz of Hawaii, the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, sent Biden a letter in 2022 calling on him to order Peltier released.
\n\u201cMr. Peltier meets appropriate criteria for commutation: (1) his old age and critical illness, (2) the amount of time he has already served, and (3) the unavailability of other remedies,\u201d he wrote. \u201cMr. Peltier should be granted a commutation of his sentence.\u201d
\nA White House spokesperson responded to the website HuffPost when asked if the matter was under consideration.
\n\u201cWe are aware of Mr. Peltier\u2019s request for a pardon and the outreach in support of his request,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cAs many of you know, President Biden has a process for considering all requests for pardon or commutation, which is run through our White House Counsel\u2019s Office. I don\u2019t have more to share on Mr. Peltier\u2019s request at this time.\u201d
\nOn Sept. 12, Peltier\u2019s 79th birthday, a large group of activists and Indigenous leaders rallied outside the White House, urging President Biden to grant him clemency. Drums pounded out a steady beat as voices called out to Biden: \u201cFree Peltier. Free Peltier.\u201d
\nA statement from him was read.
\n\u201cI hope to breathe free air before I die. Hope is a hard thing to hold, but no one is strong enough to take it from me,\u201d Peltier wrote. \u201cThere is a lot of work left to do. I would like to get out and join you in doing it.\u201d
\n\u201cForty-eight years is long enough,\u201d said Nick Tilsen, president of Rapid City-based NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led advocacy group that co-organized the rally with Amnesty International USA. \u201cWe are calling on the Biden administration, who has made it a choice \u2014 has made Indigenous civil rights a priority \u2014 for his administration, yet he allows and continues to allow the longest incarcerated political prisoner in the United States,\u201d Tilsen said.
\nOver 100 people journeyed by bus and caravan for three days from South Dakota to the District of Columbia to support Peltier\u2019s release, NDN Collective said in a Facebook post. Speakers at the rally included \u201cReservation Dogs\u201d actor Dallas Goldtooth, president of the National Congress of American Indians Fawn Sharp and other Indigenous leaders.
\nThe rally was met with resistance from law enforcement, and 35 people, including National Congress of American Indians President Fawn Sharp, Nick Tilson, CEO of the Rapid City-based NDN Collective CEO Nick Tilson, Amnesty International USA Executive Director Paul O\u2019Brien, Chris White Eagle, Hermus Betteyoun and Goldtooth were cited for blocking a sidewalk and issued $50 fines.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

FBI pushes back<\/strong>
\nThe FBI pushed back against efforts to release Peltier in an email to the Associated Press.
\n\u201cPeltier intentionally and mercilessly murdered these two young men and has never expressed remorse for his ruthless actions,\u201d the FBI said, adding that the conviction \u201chas withstood numerous appeals to multiple courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.\u201d
\nInterior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to head a cabinet department, advocated for Peltier\u2019s release when she was a congresswoman from New Mexico.
\n\u201cCongress hasn\u2019t weighed in on this issue in years,\u201d Haaland posted on social media in 2020, citing concerns about COVID-19. \u201cAt 75 with chronic health issues, it is urgent that we #FreeLeonardPeltier.\u201d
\nAl Scudieri of Tampa, Fla., a former president of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, wants Peltier to remain behind prison walls.
\n\u201cI, and just about every other former and current agent with whom I have spoken about Peltier, are vehemently opposed to his release,\u201d Scudieri said. \u201cHowever, I am aware of a few notable exceptions.\u201d
\nHe actively participated in the murder investigation, but said he does not believe he has any unique insight into the matter; but he has collected a number of photographs and news clips from that time.
\nAs Scudieri noted, not all former agents believe Peltier should remain behind bars.
\nFormer FBI Special Agent Coleen Rowley, who retired from the bureau in 2004, wrote a letter to President Joe Biden in December urging him to grant Peltier clemency. In addition to her work as an agent, Rowley was a legal counsel in the Minneapolis FBI division for 14 years and worked with prosecutors and agents who investigated the 1975 murders.
\n\u201cRetribution seems to have emerged as the primary if not sole reason for continuing what looks from the outside to have become an emotion-driven \u2018FBI Family\u2019 vendetta,\u201d Rowley wrote. She shared the letter with The Guardian, a major British newspaper.
\n\u201cThe focus of my two cents leading to my joining the call for clemency is based on Peltier\u2019s inordinately long prison sentence and an ever more compelling need for simple mercy due to his advanced age and deteriorating health. Enough is enough. Leonard Peltier should now be allowed to go home.\u201d
\nRowley, 68, said new agents are told the FBI\u2019s version of the story, which she said might not be completely accurate. Rowley has been critical of the FBI for its role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks upon America.
\nShe wrote a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller and testified before a Senate committee and the 9\/11 Commission, saying the bureau had been incompetent or worse before the attacks.
\nIn 2002, Time magazine named Rowley and fellow whistleblowers Sherron Watkins from Enron and Cynthia Cooper of Worldcom as joint recipients of its Person of the Year award. Rowley ran for Congress from Minnesota as a member of the DFL Party, the state version of the Democratic Party, in 2006.
\nShe said she isn\u2019t sure what happened at Pine Ridge in 1975, but doubts few really know the whole story.
\n\u201cThe facts are murky, and I\u2019m not going to say either narrative is correct. I wasn\u2019t there. But I do know that if you really care about justice, then the real issue now is mercy, truth and reconciliation. To keep this going for almost 50 years really shows the level of vindictiveness the organisation has for Leonard Peltier,\u201d Rowley told The Guardian. \u201cThe bottom line is there are all kinds of problems in the intelligence service which by and large never get corrected for the same reasons: group conformity, pride and an unwillingness to admit mistakes so systemic problems are covered up and never fixed.\u201d
\nSeven Democratic senators \u2014 Tina Smith, Mazie K. Hirono, Patrick Leahy, Edward J. Markey, Bernie Sanders, Brian Schatz and Elizabeth Warren \u2014 are calling for clemency for Peltier.
\nBut there has been little apparent movement in the effort to gain his freedom. I reached out to President Biden\u2019s press office as well as Elizabeth G. Oyer, who serves as the pardon attorney who reviews requests for clemency, and the FBI. There was no response from any of the offices.
\nPeltier is no fan of President Biden, and thinks his son Hunter has received special treatment despite his struggles with drug addiction and illegal acts. He is a fan of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son and nephew of Democratic Party icons Robert and John Kennedy.
\nHe dismisses former President Donald Trump as a \u201cfascist pig\u201d and a \u201csicko.\u201d
\nRequests for comments were sent to Sens. John Thune and Mike Rounds, Rep. Dusty Johnson and Gov. Kristi Noem, since the FBI agents were killed in South Dakota. None of the public officials responded.<\/p>\n

The post Famous allies call for his release, but FBI works to keep him imprisoned<\/a> first appeared on Native Sun News Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Leonard Peltier A five-week jury trial was held in U.S. District Court in Fargo, N.D., and Leonard Peltier was convicted on April 18, 1977 of two counts of first-degree murder. He was sentenced on June 1, 1977 to serve two consecutive life terms in prison. Peltier appealed his conviction to <\/p>\n

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