Leonard Peltier, Political Prisoner

[Liar]

What if he did it?

"What if" is not supposed to send people to rot in jail. Political or not. And from the look of it, there are holes in this case that I could pass Titanic through.

But I haven't read more than there is in ths thread, an IANAL, so that's my amateur opinion.

#L

 

[Blackie Malone]

Bump for the man.

 

[cloudy]

Bump for the man.

I ordered a "In the spirit of Crazy Horse" t-shirt yesterday - only available in large and x-large, so it'll swallow me whole, but the profit goes to his defense fund.

 

[Blackie Malone]

I ordered a "In the spirit of Crazy Horse" t-shirt yesterday - only available in large and x-large, so it'll swallow me whole, but the profit goes to his defense fund.

Cool, where did you order it from?

 

[cloudy]

Cool, where did you order it from?

Here.

You can also get a copy of his book (which is the next thing I'll order), and other merchandise that contributes to his defense fund.

 

[Blackie Malone]

Here.

You can also get a copy of his book (which is the next thing I'll order), and other merchandise that contributes to his defense fund.

Thanks for the link, some cool stuff there.

 

[cloudy]

Bumping because he shouldn't be forgotten.

 

[cloudy]

*bump*

 

[My Erotic Tale]

Trail of tears

Seems the Trail of Tears is still evident ...

here's a tribute to those sorrow filled days
The Fire (Trail of Tears) by Art~

hey cloudy,
missed the native american thread, this one is astounding!

 

[cloudy]

Seems the Trail of Tears is still evident ...

here's a tribute to those sorrow filled days
The Fire (Trail of Tears) by Art~

hey cloudy,
missed the native american thread, this one is astounding!

Very strong poem, Art. Thanks for sharing it, darlin'.

******************************************​

Got the following from Advocates for Justice for Leonard Peltier. They update their site with news regularly.

From: The Peltier Legal Team
Subject: 29 Years
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2005

"PeltierSupport" DIGEST - February 1, 2005
==============================

The Discerning Kind

==============================

If the FBI and federal prosecutors were right about the Peltiercase, wouldn't you expect the entire law enforcement community to actively support the government's position?

In comments made recently (when signing the online petitionfor an award of parole for Leonard Peltier at http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/parole2008/), Mr. M. Wesley Swearingen (author of "FBI Secrets: An Agent's Expose") stated: "I was an FBI agent in Los Angeles when Leonard Peltier was convicted, & I know from FBI documents that I read & from statements made by fellow FBI agents, that
Peltier was wrongfully convicted of murdering two FBI agents just because the agents investigating the case wanted someone to pay for killing the two FBI agents. I know, for a fact, that the FBI is also covering up its culpability in the death of the two FBI agents."

On the basis of fabricated affidavits, a Canadian court was convinced to extradite Peltier to the U.S. for trial. Bob Newbrook, a retired police officer who arrested Peltier in Alberta in 1976, recently stated that he has thoroughly investigated the Peltier case and has come to regret his role. "I'm haunted by the fact that I now think we seized an innocent man, with no valid Canadian arrest warrant, based on false evidence from the U.S.," he said.

Rep. Don Edwards served 16 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the long-time chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights (that had oversight over the FBI). Himself a former FBI agent, Edwards stated publicly that he was convinced that Peltier never
received a fair trial. In light of the government's admission that the theory it presented against Mr. Peltier at trial was not true, and the fact that the FBI continues to deny its improper conduct on the Pine Ridge Reservation during the 1970s (as well as in the trial of Leonard Peltier), Edwards argued that Peltier should be set free. Leonard's release, he said, "would recognize past
wrongdoing and the undermining of the government's case since trial."

Why isn't the law enforcement community united in their opposition to Peltier's release? Because those of good conscience see the truth and, to their credit, cannot remain silent. We call on others to follow their example.

 

[rgraham666]

Nice to know there's always honest people everywhere in the world.

 

[cloudy]

Official Misconduct in Indian Country:

The U.S. Department of Justice

PART 1. COINTELPRO & AIM​

Most if not all of the tactics identified in exhibit 2 were used against the American Indian Movement in the 1970s. With AIM, however, the tactics used took unique twists & turns.

Malicious or Vindictive Prosecution

Records show that activists in the 1960s & 1970s were repeatedly arrested "on any excuse" until "they could no longer make bail".

In the case of AIM, however, virtually every known AIM leader in the United States was incarcerated in either state or federal prisons since (or even before) the organization's formal emergence in 1968, some repeatedly. Organization members often languished in jail for months as the cumulative bail required to free them outstripped resource capabilities of AIM & supporting groups.

After the 1973 siege of Wounded Knee in South Dakota (Part 2), the FBI caused 542 separate charges to be filed against anyone thought connected with the Wounded Knee occupation. This resulted in only 15 convictions. Most charges were dismissed because of court rulings that the U.S. military was illegally used to suppress the occupation. Organization members were tied up in criminal prosecutions that were intended to destroy the Movement. This in part caused Amnesty International to call for investigations into the use of the criminal justice system by the FBI for political purposes.

Informants

The most pervasive surveillance technique traditionally used by the FBI is the informant.

In a random sample of domestic intelligence cases in 1976, as reported to the Church Committee, 83 percent involved the use of informants. Informants often were used against peaceful, law-abiding groups; they collected information about personal & political views & activities. Not surprisingly, the FBI also used informants in their domestic intelligence operation against the American Indian Movement.

However, as revealed by the Church Committee & subsequent congressional inquiries, there were concerns about the conduct of informants & their FBI handlers.

FBI informants, often quite violent & emotionally disturbed individuals, were used to present false testimony to the courts & frame COINTELPRO targets for crimes the FBI knew they did not commit. In some cases the charges were quite serious, including murder.

In addition, to maintain their credentials in violence-prone groups, some informants involved themselves in violent activity. This phenomenon is well illustrated by informants in the Ku Klux Klan. One such informant was present at the murder of a civil rights worker in Mississippi & subsequently helped to solve the crime & convict the perpetrators. Earlier, however, while performing duties paid for by the FBI, he had previously "beaten people severely, had boarded buses & kicked people, had [gone] into restaurants & beaten them [blacks] with blackjacks, chains, [and] pistols". Although the FBI requires agents to instruct informants that they cannot be involved in violence, it was understood that in the Klan, "he couldn't be an angel & be a good informant".

This misuse of informants wasn’t limited to the FBI’s investigations & surveillance of political dissidents, however. For example, in November 20, 2003, a congressional report issued by the House Committee on Government Reform detailed misconduct by agents of the FBI & their supervisors (right up to former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover), in the 1965 murder of Edward "Teddy" Deegan. Evidence had emerged that showed that the FBI cultivated a Mafia hit man as a star informant & government witness, & then silently watched as he falsely accused four innocent men of the Deegan murder. Internal FBI documents showed that agents & their supervisors knew the identities of the real killers. Not only did the FBI & federal prosecutors fail to prevent the wrongful conviction of the four innocent men, but they also took "affirmative steps" to make sure that they "would not obtain post-conviction relief & that they would die in prison". As a result, murderous government informants were protected over a 38-year period and, tragically, two innocent men died in prison. When asked by the congressional committee how he felt about the wrongful imprisonment of one of the four men, i.e., Joseph Salvati, for more than 30 years, retired FBI agent H. Paul Rico replied, "What do you want? Tears?"

The Agent Provocateur

As with many dissident groups, the FBI relied on the use of informants to "neutralize" AIM, but also used a different type of informant, the agent provocateur, to cause disruption within the organization & by so doing render it ineffective.

These informants played a wider & more insidious role within organizations the Bureau investigated. At the direction of FBI handlers, agent provocateurs raised controversial issues at meetings to take advantage of ideological divisions; promoted enmity with other groups; or incited the group to violent acts, even to the point of providing them with weapons. More importantly, over the years, this type of informant repeatedly urged & initiated violent acts such as forceful disruptions of meetings & demonstrations, attacks on police, bombings, etc.

Example:

Douglass Durham – who showed up at the siege of Wounded Knee in 1973 (see page 11) claiming he was of Indian descent (one-quarter Chippewa) & carrying press credentials from a leftist newspaper – was one such agent provocateur.

Durham was immediately suspected by many AIM members of being an informant. This was largely a matter of style, but also because he had what was considered unusual contacts & methods. He also was familiar with airplanes & electronics, as well as firearms & cameras.

However, Durham proved useful & even invaluable on a number of occasions to AIM co-founder Dennis Banks who came to rely on Durham’s resourcefulness. Durham then was able to isolate Banks from the rest of the AIM members & slowly interject himself to the activities of & policy decisions made by AIM.

Durham often encouraged rash & inflammatory acts that might have destroyed AIM. Failing this, given the opportunity, Durham created what bad press that he could for AIM, & also disrupted fundraising efforts.

As AIM’s first security director & the coordinator of the WKLDOC (Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee, see Part 2) office during the trial of Dennis Banks & Russell Means for charges stemming from the Wounded Knee takeover, Durham had been the only person besides the defendants & their lawyers who was privy to stratagems of the defense – information that made its way into the hands of government prosecutors. It is believed that the FBI, in appreciation, raised Durham’s salary from $900 to $1,100 a month; this money was in addition to the $100,000 that AIM people estimate he stole from the Movement while in charge of all incoming contributions.

As it happened, rampant FBI & prosecutorial misconduct led not to a mistrial in the Banks-Means case, but to Judge Nichols’ dismissal of all remaining charges against the defendants. The judge chastised the prosecutor for over an hour, & voiced his bitter disappointment at the behavior of FBI agents.

During the Banks-Means trial, federal prosecutors & FBI agents had steadfastly denied the presence of an informant. In late 1974, however, irrefutable evidence (a report signed by Durham related to another WKLDOC case) was discovered by one of the WKLDOC attorneys.

In 2003, attorneys for Leonard Peltier discovered – amongst documents withheld by the FBI for 26 years – evidence that, despite Durham’s presence, the FBI in fact had another informant (as yet unidentified) who was a member of the actual WKLDOC legal team.

AIM leaders watched Durham very carefully during the next several months, even following him to a FBI debriefing in Miami during December 1974.

In March 1975, AIM leaders confronted Durham who eventually admitted to working for the FBI. He was then publicly exposed as an FBI informant by the AIM leadership at a press conference on March 12, 1975.

Durham had a history of being a blackmailer, thief, & cheat. A former police officer in Iowa, Durham had been dismissed from the force when a police psychiatrist diagnosed him as a "paranoid schizoid" personality with "violent tendencies" & termed him "unfit for employment involving the public trust" after the unexplained death of his first wife, in 1964. Durham also had been the major culprit in a police corruption scandal in 1972, according to the findings of a Des Moines grand jury.

Durham’s public exposure as an agent provocateur attracted the attention of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, headed by Senator Frank Church. The Church Committee staff questioned Durham on May 2, 1975. Durham was then subpoenaed to appear before the full committee, but he never did so. Events during the summer of 1975 suddenly ended the Committee’s investigation of COINTELPRO & AIM.

"Snitch Jacketing"

Another COINTELPRO tactic was "snitch jacketing" where the FBI intentionally made the target look like a police officer, federal agent, or an informer. This served the dual purposes of isolating & alienating important leaders, often, as well as increasing the general level of fear & factionalism in the group. "When a member of a nonviolent group was successfully mislabeled as an informant, the result was alienation from the group. When the target belonged to a group known to have killed suspected informants, the risk was substantially more serious. On several occasions, the Bureau used this technique against members of the Black Panther Party (BPP); it was used at least twice after FBI documents expressed concern over the possible consequences because two members of the BPP had been murdered as suspected informants."

Effects of COINTELPRO Tactics

Any one of these three approaches (standard informant, agent provocateur, or "snitch jacketing") alone might have been effective in "neutralizing" AIM. But the concurrent use of these COINTELPRO tactics had a particularly deleterious effect on the Movement.

External oppression, i.e., the unjust exercise of authority & power by one group over another, was (and some would argue, still is) a fact of life for American Indians. The belief systems, values & life ways of the dominant U.S. population were imposed on Native Americans daily over the course of their lifetimes, generation after generation. In psychological terms, over time, external oppression became "internalized oppression" when the Indigenous people came to believe & act as if the dominant culture’s beliefs, values, & way of life were reality. "Internalized oppression" – or "internalized racism" (also known as "self-hatred") – resulted in shame & the disowning of individual & cultural reality.

Despite the cultural reawakening that AIM represented to Native peoples in the U.S. during the 1970s, on an individual level, "internalized oppression" meant that the government often had to exert only minimal pressure to achieve the desired effect. The FBI discovered that Native Americans would readily destroy themselves & each other. Why? Divide & conquer worked. The FBI understood this all too well.

"Snitch jacketing" was a particularly effective device when combined with "internalized oppression" & produced severe paranoia among some AIM members. The discovery of FBI operatives, informants, & agent provocateurs in their midst intensified that fear. This fear led to tragic events that all but destroyed the American Indian Movement. The impact of such events is still felt today.

 

[rgraham666]

Never forget; just because they're evil, doesn't mean they're stupid.

 

[cloudy]

Official Misconduct in Indian Country:

The U.S. Department of Justice

PART 2. The Pine Ridge "Reign of Terror"​

Many of the COINTELPRO tactics, although effective, were slow to come to fruition. Therefore, in 1975, against AIM, the FBI went one step further. The FBI conducted a full-fledged counterinsurgency war on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota – complete with death squads, disappearances & assassinations.

In the early 1970s on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, tensions between then tribal chairman Dick Wilson & the traditionalists began to escalate. Wilson was pro-assimilation, meaning he believed Native Peoples should discard their traditions to join mainstream American society. Traditionalists, on the other hand, felt it important to maintain their culture & land base. Wilson favored those who were pro-assimilation by giving them jobs & other assistance while neglecting the needs of the traditionalists who often lived in the worst poverty.

The growing conflict prompted traditionalists to join together with AIM to protect their way of life. In response, Wilson joined with the FBI to destroy the Movement the agency perceived as a threat to the American way of life. The result was disastrous.

In 1973, local traditionalists & AIM occupied the Pine Ridge hamlet of Wounded Knee to protest the many abuses they were suffering. (This was the same site where, less than 100 years earlier, the horrific Wounded Knee massacre was perpetrated against over 300 Lakotas, mostly women & children.) Instead of listening to the Natives' grievances, the government responded militarily, moving armored vehicles into the area & firing over 250,000 rounds of ammunition at the protesters. Two occupants were killed. Their deaths were never investigated. The occupation lasted 71 days & ended only after the government promised investigations into the Indians' complaints. The investigations never materialized & conditions on the reservation worsened.

A group of attorneys & volunteers formed the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee (WKLDOC) to fight what they saw as an illegal invasion of the reservation by government forces & to defend those already arrested or indicted.

After Wounded Knee, Wilson outlawed AIM activities on the reservation. Traditionalists were not allowed to meet or attend traditional ceremonies. Wilson hired vigilantes who called themselves Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs) to enforce his rules.

The three years following Wounded Knee are often referred to as the Pine Ridge "Reign of Terror" because persons associated with AIM – including WKLDOC attorneys – were targeted for violence. Associates' homes were burned & their cars were run off the road. They were struck by cars, shot in drive-by shootings, & beaten. Between 1973 & 1976, over 60 traditionalists were murdered. Pine Ridge had the highest murder rate in the United States. Scores of other people were assaulted. In almost every case, witness accounts indicated GOON responsibility, but nothing was done to stop the violence. On the contrary, the FBI supplied the GOONs with weaponry & intelligence on AIM, & looked the other way as the GOONs committed crimes against members as well as supporters of AIM.

 

[cloudy]

Official Misconduct in Indian Country:

The U.S. Department of Justice

PART 3. Leonard Peltier​

In 1975, as the situation worsened on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the traditionalists asked AIM to return to the reservation to offer protection. Leonard Peltier was among those who answered the call. He & a dozen others set up camp on the Jumping Bull ranch, the home of a number of traditional families.

The Shootout

On June 26, 1975, two FBI agents in unmarked cars pursued a red pickup truck onto the Jumping Bull ranch. They were ostensibly looking for Jimmy Eagle, who had gotten into a fistfight & stolen a pair of cowboy boots. Gunshots rang out. While mothers fled the area with their children, other residents started to return fire. A shootout erupted between the FBI agents & the residents.

Law enforcement immediately mobilized. Within a couple hours, over 150 FBI swat team members, Bureau of Indian Affairs police, & GOONs surrounded the ranch.

Peltier helped lead a small group of teenagers out of the area, barely escaping through the hail of bullets.

When the shootout ended, AIM member Joseph Killsright Stuntz lay dead, shot in the head by a sniper. His death has never been investigated.

The two FBI agents also lay dead – wounded in the gun battle, then shot at point blank range.

Years later, through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, it was documented that:

• The FBI had been closely monitoring AIM activities on & off the reservation & had even been preparing for "paramilitary law enforcement operations" on the Pine Ridge Reservation one month before the shootout.

• The two agents had possessed a map that highlighted the Jumping Bull Ranch & labeled the family’s storage cellars as "bunkers".

According to FBI documents, over 40 Native people (AIM & non-AIM) participated in the shootout. Yet only 4 persons were indicted for the deaths of the agents: 3 AIM leaders – Darrell "Dino" Butler, Robert Robideau, & Leonard Peltier – & the original suspect the agents sought, Jimmy Eagle. Eagle’s charges were later dropped.

Butler & Robideau were the first to be arrested & go to trial. In the summer of 1976, a jury found that Butler & Robideau were justified in returning fire given the atmosphere of terror that existed on the Pine Ridge Reservation during that time. Further, they were not tied to the point blank shootings. Butler & Robideau were found innocent on grounds of self-defense.

The FBI was outraged by the verdict. They dropped charges against Jimmy Eagle so that, according to their own memos, "…the full 'prosecutive' weight of the federal government could be directed against Leonard Peltier," the only remaining defendant who was also a member of AIM.

Peltier, meanwhile, had fled to Canada believing he would never receive a fair trial. On Febuary 6, 1976, Peltier was apprehended & imprisoned to await extradition to the United States.

The Extradition

The FBI presented the Canadian court with affidavits from a woman named Myrtle Poor Bear who claimed she had been Peltier’s girl friend & had witnessed him shoot the agents. Peltier was extradited to the U.S.

The affidavits had been prepared by FBI agents who knew they were not true. They also knew Poor Bear was mentally incompetent & her statements false when she stated that she saw Leonard Peltier kill Agents Coler & Williams. Poor Bear had never met Peltier, it was later discovered, nor had she been present at the time of the shooting – a fact later confirmed by the U.S. Prosecutor. Despite this & Poor Bear's subsequent declaration that she had signed the false statements under duress, having been terrorized by FBI agents, Peltier's extradition was not reversed.

Bob Newbrook, a retired police officer who arrested Peltier in Alberta in 1976 recently stated, "Canada should have learned from the Peltier case that it cannot trust U.S. evidence presented against American Indian activists.

Newbrook said he has thoroughly investigated the Peltier case & has come to regret his role.

"I'm haunted by the fact that I now think we seized an innocent man, with no valid Canadian arrest warrant, based on false evidence from the U.S.," he said.

Warren Allmand, a former Canadian justice minister & the judge who extradited Peltier, said the court would never have agreed to his extradition had it been known affidavits & evidence presented by the U.S. were false.

 

[My Erotic Tale]

a travesty
the usual under the rug shuffle

the new era has the snakes running to their holes for poeple
wish to capture them for their venom, when it use to be they
were left alone for fear.

 

[cloudy]

a travesty
the usual under the rug shuffle

the new era has the snakes running to their holes for poeple
wish to capture them for their venom, when it use to be they
were left alone for fear.

I don't know why the things our government does should continue to surprise me, but they do.

*sigh*

...and I'm still fighting ignorance with a knee-jerker on my culture thread. Will it ever end?

 

[rgraham666]

Unfortunately cloudy, no it won't.

Ignorance is a person's natural state. It can only be corrected by huge blocks of time and effort on the part of the individual, those responsible for their upbringing and society in general.

Individuals won't often take the time to correct their ignorance because they're not willing to take the time or willing to suffer the ego blows that learning often entails.

People responsible generally pass on their own ignorance and are busy 'staying inside the lines' of the group they most identify with.

And society is usually more interested in maintaining the status quo than transmitting wisdom.

Sad, but there it is.

But as long as the battle between wisdom and ignorance goes on, it isn't over, which leaves the possibility of wisdom's eventual victory.

For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments. This you may say of man--when theories change and crash, when schools, philosophies, when narrow dark alleys of thought, national, religious, economic, grow and distintegrate, man reaches, stumbles forward, painfully, mistakenly sometimes. Having stepped forward, he may slip back, but only half a step, never the full step back. This you may say and know it and know it. This you may know when the bombs plummet out of the black planes on the market place, when prisoners are stuck like pigs, when the crushed bodies drain filthily in the dust. You may know it in this way. If the step were not being taken, if the stumbling-forward ache were not alive, the bombs would not fall, the throats would not be cut. Fear the time when the bombs stop falling while the bombers live--for every bomb is proof that the spirit has not died. And fear the time when the strikes stop while the great owners live--for every little beaten strike is proof that the step is being taken. And this you can know--fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe."

--The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 14

 

[cloudy]

Unfortunately cloudy, no it won't.

Ignorance is a person's natural state. It can only be corrected by huge blocks of time and effort on the part of the individual, those responsible for their upbringing and society in general.

Individuals won't often take the time to correct their ignorance because they're not willing to take the time or willing to suffer the ego blows that learning often entails.

People responsible generally pass on their own ignorance and are busy 'staying inside the lines' of the group they most identify with.

And society is usually more interested in maintaining the status quo than transmitting wisdom.

Sad, but there it is.

But as long as the battle between wisdom and ignorance goes on, it isn't over, which leaves the possibility of wisdom's eventual victory.

Thanks, Rob.

I badly needed that after the last couple of days when I've had such ignorance and hate thrust into my face. Guess that's why I keep on...someone has to.

 

[cloudy]

Judge rejects request to release FBI documents in Peltier case

Apr 06 15:01
By CAROLYN THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- An attorney for imprisoned American Indian activist Leonard Peltier said Wednesday he will appeal a federal judge's ruling that allows the government to withhold documents Peltier supporters believe could help lead to his release.

Peltier's attorneys are particularly interested in a 1975 message from the FBI's Buffalo office to the agency's headquarters indicating there may have been a government informant near Peltier's defense team, said attorney Michael Kuzma. The lawyer accused the FBI of misusing exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act to avoid releasing that and other documents that could reveal department misconduct.

U.S. District Judge William Skretny, in a March 31 ruling, rejected the argument.

Peltier attorneys are seeking tens of thousands of pages of FBI documents from field offices nationwide as they fight to have his conviction overturned.

The FBI in Buffalo has released nearly 800 pages of material, but is withholding 15 pages, citing exemptions allowed under the Freedom of Information Act for national security concerns and to protect the identity of agents and confidential sources.

In his ruling, Skretny did agree to review seven of the withheld pages, deferring a final decision on their release.

Peltier, a North Dakota native, is serving two consecutive life sentences at the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan., for the June 1975 killing of two FBI agents during a standoff on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He was convicted in Fargo in 1977.

Supporters have for decades campaigned to free Peltier, claiming he was unfairly targeted because of his political activism.

Kuzma and attorney Barry Bachrach are scheduled to appear April 15 in a federal courtroom in St. Paul, Minn., where they will seek the release of roughly 90,000 pages from the FBI's Minneapolis field office.

"We'll argue vigorously that all these materials should have been turned over at trial," Kuzma said.

In the meantime, Peltier attorneys and the FBI have been discussing a deal that would have the FBI release all of its Peltier records to the National Archives to be made public. In exchange, Peltier's defense team would agree not to file additional lawsuits seeking their release.

Peltier has been the subject of several documentary films and the best-selling novel "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" by Peter Matthiessen. His supporters plan to return to Pine Ridge June 26 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the firefight.

 

[cloudy]

Some names y'all might recognize that have signed the International Freedom for Peltier letter...please, join them here.

Mikail Gorbachov
Rev. Desmond Tutu
Giorgio Armani
Betsey Johnson
Calvin Klein
Stella McCartney
Yves Saint Laurent
Anna Sui
Donatella Versace
Naomi Campbell
Jerry Hall
Kate Moss
Cher
Charlie Clouser (Nine Inch Nails)
Phil Collins
Coolio
Peter Gabriel
Kris Kristofferson
Madonna
Marilyn Manson
Kylie Minogue
Sting
Pamela Anderson
Klaus Maria Brandauer
Peter Coyote
Melanie Griffith
Dustin Hoffman
Jeremy Irons
Jude Law
Helen Mirren
Samantha Morton
Michael Moore
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow
Tim Robbins
Marla Rubin
Susan Sarandon
Kristin Scott Thomas
Oliver Stone
Raquel Welch
Dame Edna
Trudie Styler

 

[Kassiana]

Hm. After so much time, what do you think the chances are that he will be freed?

Sometimes, having time pass actually can help in getting someone freed. After all, he's far older and less likely to cause harm now, but on the other hand, that would require our government to admit it was wrong.

It does happen, though. In my death penalty seminar, we studied various cases where innocent people had been convicted. The particular one I got went up before the same judge the innocent man had at trial, and that judge was honest enough (humble enough?) to reverse his own trial decision and free the man. (The government appealed, though, so the Supreme Court of Illinois had to be the ones who freed him.) I was impressed by that. You don't often get to be a judge and think that your own opinions should be overruled.

 

[cloudy]

Hm. After so much time, what do you think the chances are that he will be freed?

Sometimes, having time pass actually can help in getting someone freed. After all, he's far older and less likely to cause harm now, but on the other hand, that would require our government to admit it was wrong.

It does happen, though. In my death penalty seminar, we studied various cases where innocent people had been convicted. The particular one I got went up before the same judge the innocent man had at trial, and that judge was honest enough (humble enough?) to reverse his own trial decision and free the man. (The government appealed, though, so the Supreme Court of Illinois had to be the ones who freed him.) I was impressed by that. You don't often get to be a judge and think that your own opinions should be overruled.

Leonard Peltier's only crime was being a member of AIM......so he didn't commit any "harm" back then, either. He was doing what he had to do to stand up for his people....I have nothing but admiration for the man.

It concerns me more than most realize, I suppose, that our country is content to let him sit in prison, when the man who actually did kill those two FBI agents still walks around.

 

[Just-Legal]

I... just... Gods.

 

[Kassiana]

Leonard Peltier's only crime was being a member of AIM......so he didn't commit any "harm" back then, either.

--Well, I wasn't actually trying to say he was. I was trying to speak in terms of a reason to release him.

our country is content to let him sit in prison

--Sad. I guess there's not much chance of getting him out yet, then.

Our country is content to kill people for crimes they don't commit, Cloudy, so I'm not surprised that they'll wrongly imprison people. Rolando Cruz could easily have been executed, or Randall Dale Adams, or numerous others who through luck escaped the executions scheduled for them. And we know that numerous people are still in prison at Guantanamo Bay for the horrible crime of being Muslim.

With this kind of celebrity backing, though, I hope there can be some good outrage that builds such that they do free Peltier.