Leonard Peltier, an Anishinabe-Lakota political prisoner, has spent the last 24 years of his life in prison despite the fact that the government has admitted on numerous occasions that they do not know who is responsible for the crime he was convicted of. Because of the glaring Human and Constitutional violations that have been made in the overall targeting, prosecution, and continued imprisonment of Peltier, millions have come to know of his case and support his freedom. Some of whom are the late Mother Theresa, Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Amnesty International, the European Parliament, the Italian Parliament, the Belgium Parliament, the Green Party, 50 members of U.S. Congress, Robert Redford, the National Congress of American Indians, and Jesse Jackson and many others.
Leonard Peltier is now, 54 years old. He's been in jail since he was 30 years old. This goes to show that's there is something wrong in the judicial system in the United States of America. The US government has admitted that they do not know who was responsible for this crime.. So, why is Mr. Leonard Peltier still in jail? He's a political prisoner in his own country!
Peltier's support for the American Indian Movement led to his involvement in the 1972 Trail of broken Treaties which took him to Washington D.C., in the non-violent occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) building. He became strongly involved in the spiritual and traditional programs of AIM. His involvement in AIM is what brought him to Pine Ridge in 1975. During that time the reservation was rife with conflict between the conservative tribal chairman and his supporters and the traditional people who wanted to keep their land, language, culture, and spirituality. The tribal chairman and his hired vigilantes know as "GOONS" carried out a campaign of violence against those in opposition to his policies. In a period of three years over 60 traditional people were murdered on Pine Ridge and over 300 were severely beaten, several of whom were involved with AIM. During this period the reservation had the highest ratio of FBI agents to citizens than any other area in the US. Despite this, no murders or beatings were ever investigated. Furthermore, one GOON leader has since gone on record to say that in fact, the FBI intentionally turned their heads to such behavior and moreover, helped to arm those carrying out these crimes.
It was for this reason Leonard Peltier along with other AIM members were asked to come to Pine Ridge to help the people who were being targeted. It was in this climate of fear that a shoot out broke out on June 26, 1975 between two FBI agents in unmarked cars and local residents and members of AIM. The two agents and one Native man were killed. Three people went to trial for the deaths of the agents, one of whom was Leonard Peltier. No investigation of the Native man's death took place. Two of those who went to trial were found innocent on grounds of self defense. Leonard Peltier, who had fled to Canada, was tried later, in a different district by a different judge, after being illegally extradited from Canada. He was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive lifes in one of the most controversial trials of the century. When faced with previously withheld evidence on appeal pointing to Leonard Peltier's innocence, the prosecution admitted, and later established that they in fact could not prove who actually shot the agents or what involvement Leonard Peltier may have had in their deaths. Despite this Mr. Peltier remains in prison. For this reason, there is an international outcry for his freedom and Leonard Peltier has become a notorious symbol of injustice against Native Peoples. Millions are asking President Clinton to grant him Executive Clemency. WHICH HE DESERVES!
LATEST: Bill Clinton has made a note that he MAY pardon Peltier.. He has up until January 20th to do so. I hope he does because it will make us know that we have won a battle that we've been fighting for so long! I urge you to check out the LPDC site and read of ways that you can help him out!
I thank The International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee for this! That site is great, it has a lot of info on Peltier. If you'd like to know more about him and the case, check out the site!!