Leonard Peltier.

Political prisoner, still after 47 years.

Photo credit: Native News Online, Feb. 24 2022 at https://www.nativenewsonline.net/currents/san-francisco-declares-feb-24th-a-day- of-solidarity-with-leonard-peltier

Leonard Peltier was convicted of murdering two FBI agents in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota on June 26, 1975.¹ He is incarcerated at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Florida.² The only problem is that almost no one believes he did it. Even the U.S. Attorney who oversaw the prosecution of his case and appeal in a highly unusual move, wrote a letter to President Biden last year, July 9, 2021, which explained, in part:

Leonard Peltier’s conviction and continued incarceration is a testament to a time and a system of justice that no longer has a place in our society. I have been fortunate enough to see this country and its prevailing attitudes about Native Americans, progress dramatically over the last 46 years.

With time, and the benefit of hindsight, I have realized that the prosecution and continued incarceration of Mr. Peltier was and is unjust. We were not able to prove that Mr. Peltier personally committed any offense on the Pine Ridge Reservation. As a result, we shifted our stance on the theories of guilt throughout the prosecution and appeal. First, we pursued a “deliberate ambush” theory against Mr. Peltier’s co-defendants (who were found not guilty by reason of self-defense), then, in the prosecution of Mr. Peltier we pursued a “deliberate execution” theory. Finally, on appeal, we pursued the theory that Mr. Peltier was an “accomplice” under an aiding and abetting theory notwithstanding the fact that his co-defendants were found to have acted in self-defense.

The final theory on which Mr. Peltier’s conviction now rests is that he was guilty of murder simply because he was present with a weapon at the Reservation that day. However, Mr. Peltier has been labeled, and more importantly was sentenced, as a “cold-blooded murderer based on a theory that we were forced to drop on appeal. He has served more than 46 years on the basis of minimal evidence, a result that I strongly doubt would be upheld in any court today.³

In another highly unusual move, the 8th Circuit, Court of Appeals Judge, Judge Gerald Heaney, who heard two of Peltier’s appeals also called for his immediate release in 1991. He wrote to the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs and called for the Committee to grant clemency to Peltier.⁴ None was forthcoming.

April 2020, Reps. Haaland and Grijalva asked Pres. Trump for a compassionate release for Leonard Peltier during the COVID-19 pandemic.⁵ Pres. Obama was also petitioned by several members of Congress to release Peltier, and received half a million signatures worldwide for his release.⁶ On Jan 18, 2017, Pres. Obama announced he would not grant clemency to Leonard Peltier. Both Pres. George W. Bush⁷ and Pres. William J. Clinton also refused to grant clemency to Peltier.⁸ When Pres. Clinton made a commitment to free Peltier, 500 FBI officers marched to the White House to show their strong objection.⁹ In 2009, Pres. H. W. Bush denied Peltier clemency without citing any reason.¹⁰ The CIA showed Pres. Reagan how Peltier was being used by the USSR in anti-American propaganda video, still did not move the President to give Peltier clemency.¹¹

On November 29, 2022, seven U.S. Senators wrote to Pres. Biden requesting that he grant clemency to Peltier. The letter also cites support over time for Peltier from Pope Francis, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Saint Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, the Dali Lama and Coretta Scott King.¹² This recent request to Pres. Biden is the latest of a long line of requests to Presidents which have fallen on deaf ears. It remains to be seen if Pres. Biden will break from following his former boss, Pres. Obama in this decision, and decide to make history by granting clemency to Peltier.

The context of the shootout was that the Pine Ridge Reservation had become the epicenter for the American Indian Movement, and it was a domestic threat in the eyes of the FBI. Escalating distrust between the citizens who lived on the Pine Ridge Reservation and the FBI who was supposed to be protecting them, resulted in an ill-advised government shootout resulting in two dead FBI officers and one dead AIM member. The murder of the AIM member was presumed to be by an FBI officer, and that murder was never investigated to its completion. However, Leonard Peltier was the only one prosecuted and incarcerated for the deaths of these two FBI officers. Peltier has maintained that he was part of the shootout but he did not kill them.

_____________________

Some of this is personal. In 1975 at 19 years old, I was squarely at the entrance to the reservation dead set on being part of the resistance. I was on a family trip and as the news of the resistance went out over the radio airwaves, I convinced my Dad to drive to the Pine Ridge Reservation so I could help. He agreed to drive me there. Once there at the entrance road, we were confronted by armed FBI agents and other uniformed officers, making it exceptionally hard to convince my Dad that I should go in anyway. We were turned away, and we dutifully left.

Writing about the hope of clemency in this case which by all accounts is another sad chapter in U.S. history and its relationship with Native America, is my small gesture toward the ongoing quest for justice around that day in 1975 when I found myself near the epicenter of the American Indian Movement, 47 years ago.

1. https://reason.com/2015/06/26/40th-anniversary-of-pine-ridge-shootout/

2. https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/citing-covid-19-representatives-deb-haaland-raul-grijalva-ask-trump-to-release-leonard-peltier-immediately

3. https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=https://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/athena/files/2021/11/12/618e7ebde4b04e5bdfcf46c1.pdf

4. https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/letters/ct-leonard-peltier-should-be-released-in-the-interest-of-justice-20170117-story.html

5. https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/citing-covid-19-representatives-deb-haaland-raul-grijalva-ask-trump-to-release-leonard-peltier-immediately

6. https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/citing-covid-19-representatives-deb-haaland-raul-grijalva-ask-trump-to-release-leonard-peltier-immediately

7. https://www.indianz.com/News/2009/01/28/bush_denied_clemency_request_f.asp

8. https://reason.com/2015/06/26/40th-anniversary-of-pine-ridge-shootout/

9. https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/whither-the-peltier-pardon

10. https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/whither-the-peltier-pardon

11. https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/how-soviet-media-used-leonard-peltier-as-anti-us-propaganda-video

12. https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/seven-u-s-senators-ask-president-to-release-leonard-peltier-byline-darren-thompson