{"id":36927,"date":"2024-03-27T17:39:08","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T22:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/schatz-leads-group-of-senators-urging-u-s-attorney-general-garland-to-allow-for-the-compassionate-release-of-leonard-peltier\/"},"modified":"2024-03-27T17:39:08","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T22:39:08","slug":"schatz-leads-group-of-senators-urging-u-s-attorney-general-garland-to-allow-for-the-compassionate-release-of-leonard-peltier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/schatz-leads-group-of-senators-urging-u-s-attorney-general-garland-to-allow-for-the-compassionate-release-of-leonard-peltier\/","title":{"rendered":"Schatz leads group of Senators urging U.S. Attorney General Garland to allow for the compassionate release of Leonard Peltier"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span><\/div>

WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai\u2018i), chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, led a group of senators urging U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to allow for the compassionate release of Native American rights activist Leonard Peltier.<\/p>\n

Mr. Peltier, who has been imprisoned for the past 49 years and is suffering from severe health conditions, should be able to return home and live out his remaining days among his own people,\u201d the senators wrote in the letter to Attorney General Garland. \u201cIt is time that the federal government rectifies the grave injustice of Mr. Peltier\u2019s continued imprisonment, and strongly urge you to allow for his compassionate release.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter was also signed by U.S. Senators Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai\u2019i), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Peter Welch (D- Vt.).<\/p>\n

Text of the full letter sent to Attorney General Garland can be found below. The full letter is also available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe write to urge you to allow for the compassionate release of Native American rights activist Leonard Peltier pursuant to the Bureau of Prison\u2019s procedures.\u00a0 Mr. Peltier, who has been imprisoned for the past 49 years and is suffering from severe health conditions, should be able to return home and live out his remaining days among his own people.<\/p>\n

In 1975, Mr. Peltier, a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, was arrested and later convicted for his alleged involvement in the murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, despite evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and due process violations mounted throughout his trial.\u00a0 Over the past several decades of Mr. Peltier\u2019s federal incarceration, calls for his release have received widespread and growing support from both faith and human rights leaders \u2013 including Pope Francis, Saint Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, and Coretta Scott King \u2013 as well as those previously involved in his prosecution.\u00a0 James H. Reynolds, the U.S. Attorney who handled the prosecution and appeal of Mr. Peltier\u2019s case, previously stated that Mr. Peltier\u2019s \u201cconviction and continued incarceration is a testament to a time and a system of justice that no longer has a place in our society.\u201d He further explained that Mr. Peltier has served his sentence \u201con the basis of minimal evidence, a result that [he] strongly doubt[s] would be upheld in any court today.\u201d The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a 17-page legal opinion reviewing Mr. Peltier\u2019s case, concluding that he \u201ccontinues to be detained because he is Native American.\u201d\u00a0 And the late Judge Gerald Heaney, who presided over Mr. Peltier\u2019s 1986 appeal in the Eighth Circuit also publicly called for Mr. Peltier\u2019s release \u2013 first in 1991 and again in 2000, detailing the injustice of Mr. Peltier\u2019s trial and proclaiming that \u201ca healing process must begin.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) procedures allow its Director to grant a reduction in sentence, or compassionate release, to prisoners that meet certain criteria, including advanced age and deteriorating health; Mr. Peltier is nearly 80 years old and suffers from numerous health conditions, including a potentially fatal abdominal aortic aneurysm.\u00a0 If the Director of the BOP approves a compassionate release, and the Parole Commission agrees, Mr. Peltier could be released immediately.<\/p>\n

We commend the steps that the Biden-Harris Administration has taken to right past wrongs of our federal government\u2019s treatment of Native Americans, and the steps you have taken to uphold the American values of liberty and justice, including rectifying inequities in our nation\u2019s criminal justice system.\u00a0 Now, it is time that the federal government rectifies the grave injustice of Mr. Peltier\u2019s continued imprisonment, and strongly urge you to allow for his compassionate release under the BOP\u2019s procedures.<\/p>\n

The post Schatz leads group of Senators urging U.S. Attorney General Garland to allow for the compassionate release of Leonard Peltier<\/a> first appeared on Native Sun News Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>

Visit Original Source<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/div>

WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai\u2018i), chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, led a group of senators urging U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to allow for the compassionate release of Native American rights activist Leonard Peltier. Mr. Peltier, who has been imprisoned for the past 49 years <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a>
Shared by Native Sun News Today<\/a> March 27, 2024<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1541,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5627],"tags":[10105,6658],"class_list":["post-36927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resource-directory-blog","tag-archive","tag-more-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36927\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}