SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is seen at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on November 30, 2021. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Patrick Leahy Agrees: It's Time to Free Leonard Peltier
The American Indian Movement activist—often called America's longest-incarcerated political prisoner—has been jailed 44 years after being dubiously convicted of murdering two FBI agents.
Dec 01, 2021
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy has become the most senior U.S. government official to support the release of American Indian Movement militant Leonard Peltier, who supporters say was framed and falsely convicted of murdering two federal agents during a 1975 reservation shootout.
HuffPost reported Tuesday that Leahy (D-Vt.)--the Senate's president pro tempore who will retire after this term as the chamber's longest-serving member--responded affirmatively when the outlet asked if it was time to free Peltier.
Peltier, now 77 years old, admits to having participated in the June 26, 1975 gunfight at the Oglala Sioux Reservation at Pine Ridge, South Dakota but denies killing Federal Bureau of Investigation agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams.
From the time Canada granted a fraudulent U.S. extradition request for Peltier in 1976, his case has been marred by improprieties.
Senior HuffPost reporter Jennifer Bendery writes:
Peltier has been in prison for 44 years for a crime he says he didn't commit. His trial was riddled with misconduct. Prosecutors hid key evidence. The FBI threatened and coerced witnesses into lying. A juror admitted she was biased against Peltier's race on the second day of the trial but was allowed to stay on anyway.
There was never proof that he killed two FBI agents in a 1975 shootout on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. But the FBI needed someone to take the fall. It had just lost two agents, and Peltier's co-defendants were all acquitted on grounds of self-defense. His trial was also happening as the FBI was trying to suppress the activities of the American Indian Movement (AIM), a grassroots group of activists focused on drawing attention to federal treaty rights violations, discrimination, and police brutality targeting Native Americans.
AIM activist Joe Stuntz Killsright was also killed at Pine Ridge when a U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs agent sniper shot him in the head after Coler and Williams were killed. Stuntz' death has never been investigated.
Peltier was found guilty and given two consecutive life sentences. Now in poor health, he is often referred to as America's longest-incarcerated political prisoner. Hundreds of thousands of people--including the Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, Coretta Scott King, John Lewis, and Nelson Mandela--and numerous advocacy groups have called for his release over the years.
Both the Canadian solicitor-general at the time of Peltier's extradition and the U.S. federal prosecutor who helped convict him have also pleaded for his freedom.
"I write today from a position rare for a former prosecutor: to beseech you to commute the sentence of a man who I helped put behind bars," former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds wrote to President Joe Biden earlier this year. "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."
Successive presidential administrations have declined to free Peltier, although he and his advocates are hopeful that could change under President Joe Biden. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland--the first Native American Cabinet secretary--advocated for Peltier's release due to the Covid-19 pandemic while she was serving in the House of Representatives last year.
In an action update in October, Amnesty International USA said Biden "must grant Leonard Peltier clemency on humanitarian grounds and as a matter of justice."
"I still hold out hope that I can make it home to Turtle Mountain while I can still walk out under my own power," Peltier wrote in a statement last week. "I remain grateful for the gift of life."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy has become the most senior U.S. government official to support the release of American Indian Movement militant Leonard Peltier, who supporters say was framed and falsely convicted of murdering two federal agents during a 1975 reservation shootout.
HuffPost reported Tuesday that Leahy (D-Vt.)--the Senate's president pro tempore who will retire after this term as the chamber's longest-serving member--responded affirmatively when the outlet asked if it was time to free Peltier.
Peltier, now 77 years old, admits to having participated in the June 26, 1975 gunfight at the Oglala Sioux Reservation at Pine Ridge, South Dakota but denies killing Federal Bureau of Investigation agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams.
From the time Canada granted a fraudulent U.S. extradition request for Peltier in 1976, his case has been marred by improprieties.
Senior HuffPost reporter Jennifer Bendery writes:
Peltier has been in prison for 44 years for a crime he says he didn't commit. His trial was riddled with misconduct. Prosecutors hid key evidence. The FBI threatened and coerced witnesses into lying. A juror admitted she was biased against Peltier's race on the second day of the trial but was allowed to stay on anyway.
There was never proof that he killed two FBI agents in a 1975 shootout on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. But the FBI needed someone to take the fall. It had just lost two agents, and Peltier's co-defendants were all acquitted on grounds of self-defense. His trial was also happening as the FBI was trying to suppress the activities of the American Indian Movement (AIM), a grassroots group of activists focused on drawing attention to federal treaty rights violations, discrimination, and police brutality targeting Native Americans.
AIM activist Joe Stuntz Killsright was also killed at Pine Ridge when a U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs agent sniper shot him in the head after Coler and Williams were killed. Stuntz' death has never been investigated.
Peltier was found guilty and given two consecutive life sentences. Now in poor health, he is often referred to as America's longest-incarcerated political prisoner. Hundreds of thousands of people--including the Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, Coretta Scott King, John Lewis, and Nelson Mandela--and numerous advocacy groups have called for his release over the years.
Both the Canadian solicitor-general at the time of Peltier's extradition and the U.S. federal prosecutor who helped convict him have also pleaded for his freedom.
"I write today from a position rare for a former prosecutor: to beseech you to commute the sentence of a man who I helped put behind bars," former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds wrote to President Joe Biden earlier this year. "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."
Successive presidential administrations have declined to free Peltier, although he and his advocates are hopeful that could change under President Joe Biden. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland--the first Native American Cabinet secretary--advocated for Peltier's release due to the Covid-19 pandemic while she was serving in the House of Representatives last year.
In an action update in October, Amnesty International USA said Biden "must grant Leonard Peltier clemency on humanitarian grounds and as a matter of justice."
"I still hold out hope that I can make it home to Turtle Mountain while I can still walk out under my own power," Peltier wrote in a statement last week. "I remain grateful for the gift of life."
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy has become the most senior U.S. government official to support the release of American Indian Movement militant Leonard Peltier, who supporters say was framed and falsely convicted of murdering two federal agents during a 1975 reservation shootout.
HuffPost reported Tuesday that Leahy (D-Vt.)--the Senate's president pro tempore who will retire after this term as the chamber's longest-serving member--responded affirmatively when the outlet asked if it was time to free Peltier.
Peltier, now 77 years old, admits to having participated in the June 26, 1975 gunfight at the Oglala Sioux Reservation at Pine Ridge, South Dakota but denies killing Federal Bureau of Investigation agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams.
From the time Canada granted a fraudulent U.S. extradition request for Peltier in 1976, his case has been marred by improprieties.
Senior HuffPost reporter Jennifer Bendery writes:
Peltier has been in prison for 44 years for a crime he says he didn't commit. His trial was riddled with misconduct. Prosecutors hid key evidence. The FBI threatened and coerced witnesses into lying. A juror admitted she was biased against Peltier's race on the second day of the trial but was allowed to stay on anyway.
There was never proof that he killed two FBI agents in a 1975 shootout on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. But the FBI needed someone to take the fall. It had just lost two agents, and Peltier's co-defendants were all acquitted on grounds of self-defense. His trial was also happening as the FBI was trying to suppress the activities of the American Indian Movement (AIM), a grassroots group of activists focused on drawing attention to federal treaty rights violations, discrimination, and police brutality targeting Native Americans.
AIM activist Joe Stuntz Killsright was also killed at Pine Ridge when a U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs agent sniper shot him in the head after Coler and Williams were killed. Stuntz' death has never been investigated.
Peltier was found guilty and given two consecutive life sentences. Now in poor health, he is often referred to as America's longest-incarcerated political prisoner. Hundreds of thousands of people--including the Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, Coretta Scott King, John Lewis, and Nelson Mandela--and numerous advocacy groups have called for his release over the years.
Both the Canadian solicitor-general at the time of Peltier's extradition and the U.S. federal prosecutor who helped convict him have also pleaded for his freedom.
"I write today from a position rare for a former prosecutor: to beseech you to commute the sentence of a man who I helped put behind bars," former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds wrote to President Joe Biden earlier this year. "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."
Successive presidential administrations have declined to free Peltier, although he and his advocates are hopeful that could change under President Joe Biden. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland--the first Native American Cabinet secretary--advocated for Peltier's release due to the Covid-19 pandemic while she was serving in the House of Representatives last year.
In an action update in October, Amnesty International USA said Biden "must grant Leonard Peltier clemency on humanitarian grounds and as a matter of justice."
"I still hold out hope that I can make it home to Turtle Mountain while I can still walk out under my own power," Peltier wrote in a statement last week. "I remain grateful for the gift of life."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.