Leonard Peltier: Calls for clemency continue after 48 years of incarceration
C oleman, Florida - Demands for clemency and justice for Leonard Peltier resounded once again on the Global Day of Solidarity marking the Indigenous freedom fighter's wrongful incarceration.
Leonard Peltier, now 79 years old , has spent 48 full years behind bars as of February 6, 2024.
A member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Peltier was taken into US custody after he was convicted of killing two FBI agents in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in June 1975.
The killing of an Indigenous man, Joseph Stuntz, during the shootout was never investigated, nor have any charges ever been issued.
Tensions had erupted two years prior, when around 200 Oglala Lakota people and members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) occupied the town of Wounded Knee on the reservation.
The federal government responded by setting up roadblocks and cutting off access to electricity, food, and water in a brutal 71-day siege.
The Wounded Knee Occupation came amid generations of state-sanctioned abuse targeting Indigenous Peoples, including land theft, economic deprivation, racial discrimination, and forced cultural erasure . Today, it is widely regarded as a powerful symbol of Indigenous resistance to colonialism and white supremacy.
FBI accused of shady dealings in Leonard Peltier trial
Peltier, who joined AIM in 1972 to fight back against Indigenous oppression, was ultimately sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment for his alleged role in the 1975 shootout.
He is currently incarcerated in a maximum-security facility in Coleman, Florida – far from his family and his homeland.
There is no evidence to justify locking Peltier up for nearly five decades and repeatedly denying him parole, his supporters say. Records suggest the FBI coerced witnesses and excluded and falsified critical evidence in the 1977 murder trial.
Even the top prosecutor in the case, former US Attorney James Reynolds, has called for Peltier's release, as has retired FBI special agent Coleen Rowley, who last year described the bureau's continued opposition as having the appearance of an "emotion-driven 'FBI Family' vendetta."
On top of mass public demonstrations, Peltier's cause has received support from the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention as well as a bipartisan group of US lawmakers .
President Joe Biden has the authority to grant clemency to Peltier without congressional approval, but has so far ignored overwhelming demands to do so.
Pressure mounts for Leonard Peltier's release
Peltier's age and ailing physical health have added renewed urgency to calls for his immediate release.
Last October, Indigenous advocates traveled to the United Nations in Geneva to push for an end to US death by incarceration sentences like Peltier's.
Natali Segovia, executive director of the Water Protector Legal Collective , was among the advocates who made the trip to Switzerland. Her organization is an Indigenous-led legal nonprofit bringing together attorneys and community organizers working alongside Peltier towards his freedom.
"On this day of global solidarity with Leonard Peltier, as Indigenous Peoples and allies across Turtle Island and the world have done for 48 years, we again call for the release of the longest-serving political prisoner in the US, Indigenous elder, Leonard Peltier," Segovia told TAG24 NEWS on Tuesday.
"During these unsettling times in which we have all become collective witnesses to injustices, one need not be a legal scholar to understand that Leonard's continued imprisonment runs afoul of justice. He deserves to be home, he deserves to be free," she continued.
"We are hopeful, as he is, that the day for freedom will be soon."
LINK TO SEEDED ARTICLE: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/leonard-peltier-calls-for-clemency-continue-after-48-years-of-incarceration/ar-BB1hS7uD?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=82ef405e22b5436eb7cf96cfbbd3739f&ei=24
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It's time for Leonard Peltier release.
To be familiar with the case it is best to review as much as possible there are plenty of articles on this incident.
Do not vote for him.
As did Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush Sr. and none of them did shit.
"In The Spirit of Crazy Horse" will give you a vast amount of information - even information from FBI agents who have stated that Leonard DID NOT commit the crimes he was tried for.
So, why's he still locked up????
I have all the links to all of the things that the FBI did wrong, including that his rifle did not match the ballistics of the weapon used in the killings.
... that's the kind of FBI that rwnj's are nostalgic for.
During this time period the FBI infiltrated the American Indian Movement and everything we did was considered by the FBI to be subversive to the US. It started with Alcatraz and from there to Jumping Bull where Leonard Peltier was arrested and charged with two first degree murder charges. John Trudell, poet, author and Indian activist has a FBI file that is 17,000 page long and the FBI said about him that ''he was very intelligent, therefore very dangerous'' and at one point the FBI was going to charge him with insurrection. Dennis Banks and others have FBI files thousands of pages long.
AIM was founded in 1968 in Minneapolis MN along Franklin Ave. (Indian town) to provide protection for Indians that were being harassed and many times beaten and left on the Mississippi river bank in Minneapolis. It is called ''rolling Indians'' and it was a game that the police played with us. The four founders of the group were Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, Edward Benton Banai, and George Mitchell all from the Ojibwe nation in MN.
All founding members have walked on and joined their ancestors.
The American Indian Movement was much to aggressive and confrontational for many tribes, but if you look at our history in the US the only time we ever won or stopped the injustices was when we fought back, physically and in the courts. AIM totally changed the way the US government related to us and many major laws were passed because of our confrontational nature, at the same time there was a price to pay and many of us paid a high price for what most Americans expect and receive.
There are still some living links to the formation of AIM and the protests, not many but Leonard Peltier is one.
The Siege at Wounded Knee, SD 1973
He has already been mentioned once, may I bring him in as well?
"Why are today's promises and different than yesterday's?"...Crazy Horse.
I hope that we can finally agree that the FBI sometimes investigates people without a valid reason.
A great line, but it came from the movie, Crazy Horse and I believe that Victor Mature played Crazy Horse, he made a fine Wannabe.
The time frame being talked about in this article the 60s into the 70s, in which J. Edgar Hoover was head of the FBI until he died in mid 72, that time frame with the FBI was rife with lack of a better word, corruption, and for the next couple of years the Bureau was in shambles. It has improved since then but have they investigated people without a valid reason, in our case yes and to be clear I have never made the claim that the FBI is perfect in any way, having lived through a dozen years of their harassment and BS I am keenly aware of their faults.
I always preferred Anthony Quinn. He was Crazy Horse in "They died with their boots on."
The time frame being talked about in this article the 60s into the 70s, in which J. Edgar Hoover was head of the FBI
Oh ya, that's right, the FBI has been stellar since then.
You must be infatuated with Wannabe's and phony Western movies.
There you go again, Vic. You've tried the same old nonsense of cherry picking my comments and only posting what fits you incorrect needs. How many times are you going to keep trying this childish act?
Now here is the complete comment.
You really need to pick up your game and deal with reality, not what you want to call realiy.
Cheers.
You brought up the movies.
You really need to pick up your game and deal with reality
I'm not the one who tried to shame that Native American kid.
Ta ta.
I pointed out that the quote that you tried to attribute to Crazy Horse was from a movie. You got caught not knowing what the heck you talking about...LMAO
You got caught in that lie once before and now here you are lying about it again. You know I never tried to shame an NA kid, but as usual, you have nothing so you make up things trying not to look foolish.
You should have stopped when you were ahead:
crazy horse quotes - Search Images (bing.com)
It is quite easy for me to stay ahead as has been demonstrated over the years on here.
The stories about Crazy Horse and the West have reached a romanticized mythical version some true, most not. The quote you posted sounds good but some the other entities I checked posting per Crazy Horse quotes didn't show it at all. So was it his, or made up or did someone else say it, perhaps Black Elk who was a contemporary, cousin, and author who fought with Crazy Horse at Greasy Grass?
Crazy Horse was a most interesting person, a very secretive person who no one knows what he actually looked like since he would not allow a photo or painting to be taken of him.
You didn't cover everything in my comment to you. Perhaps it's better that you stopped when you were behind.
BTW, the article is about Leonard Peltier do you have anything to say about that?
Waasa Inaabidaa
I wonder if he is receiving assistance from the Innocence Project. They have a pretty good rate of success.
Not to my knowledge, G.