[[link removed]]

LEONARD PELTIER’S CONTINUED IMPRISONMENT  
[[link removed]]


 

Amy Goodwin
September 13, 2024
Democracy Now [[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Amnesty Calls for Leonard Peltier’s Freedom as He Turns 80 Behind
Bars _

Leonard Pelitier, Becker1999 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

 

Supporters of Leonard Peltier are calling on President Biden to grant
clemency to the Indigenous leader and activist, who marked his 80th
birthday behind bars on Thursday after nearly a half-century in prison
for a crime he says he did not commit. The ailing Peltier, who uses a
walker and has serious health conditions, including diabetes, has
always maintained his innocence over the 1975 killing of two FBI
agents in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation. His conviction was
riddled with irregularities and prosecutorial misconduct, and he is
considered to be the longest-serving political prisoner in the United
States. For much of the last four years, Peltier has been held under
near-total lockdown. For more on Peltier and the campaign to free him,
we speak with Nick Tilsen, president of the NDN Collective, and two
attorneys on Peltier’s legal defense team, Jenipher Jones and Moira
Meltzer-Cohen.

AMY GOODMAN: This is _Democracy Now!_, democracynow.org, _The War and
Peace Report_. I’m Amy Goodman.

Amnesty International is calling on President Biden to grant clemency
to the Indigenous leader Leonard Peltier, who turned 80 years old
Thursday after nearly half a century in prison for a crime he says he
did not commit. Peltier has always maintained his innocence over the
1975 killing of two FBI agents in a shootout on the Pine Ridge
Reservation, his conviction riddled with irregularities and
prosecutorial misconduct.

In a letter to President Biden last week, Amnesty International USA
wrote, quote, “Given the ongoing, unresolved concerns about the
fairness of Leonard Peltier’s trial and legal process, that he has
spent nearly 50 years in prison, his age, the recent denial of parole
and compassionate release, and ongoing and chronic health issues, we
are asking you to commute Leonard Peltier’s sentence and release
him. This is not only timely but a necessary measure in the interests
of both justice and mercy,” they wrote.

For more on Leonard Peltier’s case, we’re joined by Nick Tilsen,
president of the NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led organization,
citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation, joining us from Atlanta, Georgia.
We’re also joined by two members of Leonard Peltier’s legal
defense team. Jenipher Jones is the managing attorney at the law firm
For the People, lead counsel for Leonard Peltier’s case, joining us
from Denver, Colorado. And here in New York, we’re joined by Moira
Meltzer-Cohen, co-counsel on the case, educator and abolitionist.

We welcome you all to _Democracy Now!_ I want to begin with Jenipher
Jones. For people who have not followed Leonard Peltier’s case — I
know he’s in the Coleman prison in Florida, and he just came out of
a number of days in the prison hospital, just turned 80 years old
— explain why he is behind bars and still behind bars after 50
years.

JENIPHER JONES: Well, good morning. Thank you, Amy, for having me on.

And that is quite a question and a complex question, because it has a
lot to do with Leonard, what is keeping Leonard in prison now. I think
what’s important to clarify is the things that put Leonard in
prison, those irregularities, those defects, the misconduct, are
different from the things that are holding him in there today, so the
procedures, the conditions of confinement, the law that is being used
by the United States Parole Commission, which we assert is the wrong
law and, therefore, in violation of the _ex post facto_ clause to the
U.S. Constitution. And that’s also consistent with the United
Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in their evaluation of
Leonard’s current detention and incarceration right now.

He’s an old law prisoner. There’s a complex set of laws that are
currently keeping him in. And so, we’ve been very clear, myself and
co-counsel, that we intend to bring this to court. Leonard’s case
has not been reviewed by a court in over a decade, and yet there are
still matters, substantive matters, that have not been raised in his
case, and we intend to do that, including the medical issues, of
course, other treaty violations and due process — serious due
process issues that are causing him to be bound within the carceral
system at this point, though he is 80 years old, reliant on a walker,
has severe diabetes and a host of other health conditions for which he
should not at all be incarcerated at this time, and apart from the
fact — notwithstanding the fact that Congress did not intend for
Leonard to be — or any prisoner convicted at that time of the
offense, to be incarcerated in this particular manner.

AMY GOODMAN: I spoke
[[link removed]]
to Leonard Peltier on the phone from prison in Florida in 2012 during
the Obama administration.

AMY GOODMAN: Leonard, this is Amy Goodman from _Democracy Now!_ I was
—

LEONARD PELTIER: Oh, hi, Amy. How are you?

AMY GOODMAN: Hi. I’m good. I was wondering if you have a message for
President Obama.

LEONARD PELTIER: I just hope he can, you know, stop the wars that are
going on in this world, and stop getting — killing all those people
getting killed, and, you know, give the Black Hills back to my people,
and turn me loose.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you share with people at the news conference and with
President Obama your case for why you should be — your sentence
should be commuted, why you want clemency?

LEONARD PELTIER: Well, I never got a fair trial, for one. … They
wouldn’t allow me to put up a defense, and manufactured evidence,
manufactured witnesses, tortured witnesses. You know, the list is —
just goes on. So I think I’m a very good candidate for — after 37
years, for clemency or house arrest, at least.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that was Leonard Peltier in 2012. In November 2000,
on Election Day, I had a chance to interview
[[link removed]]
then-President Bill Clinton, who had called in to our radio station,
Pacifica station WBAI, to get out the vote for Hillary for Senate and
Al Gore for president. I used the opportunity to ask him about the
case of Leonard Peltier.

AMY GOODMAN: President Clinton, since it’s rare to get you on the
phone, let me ask you another question. And that is, what is your
position on granting Leonard Peltier, the Native American activist,
executive clemency?

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Well, I don’t — I don’t have a position
I can announce yet. I think if — I believe there is a new
application for him in there. And when I have time, after the election
is over, I’m going to review all the remaining executive clemency
applications and, you know, see what the merits dictate. I will try to
do what I think the right thing to do is based on the evidence.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that was almost a quarter of a century ago. Moira
Meltzer-Cohen, you’re co-counsel on the case. You attended the
parole hearing in July. Talk about the significance of this.

MOIRA MELTZER-COHEN: Well, Leonard had not had a full reconsideration
hearing for parole, I believe, since 2008. We put together a
comprehensive parole submission for him. We were really committed to
getting all of the evidence before the Parole Commission. And just to
give you a sense of this, his parole submission was two volumes. It
was nearly 500 pages, or a little over 500 pages. And, of course, it
included not only letters of support and assurance from his friends
and family and supporters, but many, many letters from experts,
including, of course, a doctor and a social worker, his spiritual
adviser, but also from historians, sociologists, criminologists,
experts on aging in prison, experts on the history of the case. We had
a really beautiful letter on the ways in which his continued
confinement far from his ancestral lands is a violation of not only
treaty law, but religious free exercise rights. We included letters
from people who had lived through the reign of terror on Pine Ridge,
not just people who had been present, but former law enforcement. We
had letters supporting release from people who had been involved in
the original prosecution and appeal, not just his defense attorneys,
but people who had represented the government in prosecuting Mr.
Peltier, about why they had ultimately, if belatedly, determined that
he ought to be released. And even the Vatican sent a message of
support for his release.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring Nick Tilsen into this conversation,
president and CEO of NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led organization,
usually on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where the
shootout took place. Your parents were at that time there. If you can
talk about the history of Leonard Peltier’s case? Now you’re in
Atlanta. And the significance of what he has argued all of these
years, with these two FBI agent coming onto the reservation? The case
against Leonard Peltier, he has always denied that he killed these two
FBI agents in a shootout.

NICK TILSEN: I mean, I think the most important thing to remember or
for people to understand is there was a war happening on that side —
at that time. And the United States government was arming one side of
that battle. And there was hundreds of agents in and out of Pine Ridge
during that time. Those agents came up to the camp in 1975 with
aggression, at a time in which people were being killed for standing
up for Indigenous peoples’ rights.

The conditions at that time were directly related to why his
co-defendants were originally let off, Dino Butler, Bob Robideau. And
they were let off because of reasons for self-defense and because of
the climate that was happening at that time on the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation.

And the United States government and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation were engaging in a counterintelligence war to shut down
the American Indian Movement and the Indigenous Peoples Movement at
that time, because it was building power and it was becoming a threat
to the United States. And it was showing — it was holding up the
mirror of what happened to Indigenous people throughout history. It
was in that climate and those conditions in which the shootout
happened.

AMY GOODMAN: And explain where Leonard Peltier was, why he wasn’t
tried at that time and could well have been acquitted with the other
two.

NICK TILSEN: He was in Canada at the time. He was in Canada at the
time. He had evaded to Canada. And while he was in Canada, the United
States government engaged in an illegal extradition from Canada. And
they coerced witnesses, and they provided falsified documents to the
Canadian government. And those falsified documents, the coerced
witness, it was later found out that, of course, those were
— contributed to the illegal extradition of Leonard Peltier from
Canada back to the United States. But they continued his prosecution
anyway.

AMY GOODMAN: And talk about who Leonard Peltier was and is, Nick, his
significance in the community, his standing back then in 1975, and
what he’s been able to do from prison right through to now. And then
I want to ask about the lockdown.

NICK TILSEN: Well, Leonard Peltier was an organizer and an activist of
the American Indian Movement, that helped fight for the Native
American Freedom of Religion Act, that helped fight for the Indian
Self-Determination Act, that were fighting for many of the things that
we are beneficiary of today as Indigenous people. And they were
fighting for liberation of people and the rebuilding of Indigenous
nations. Also, he was doing so, organizing, as a boarding school
survivor, raising awareness about what was happening at that time in
Indian country. And so, he created the conditions, many of the things
that we benefit from today throughout Indian country, but he has never
been able to benefit from them himself.

Now, from prison, he has been a writer. He has helped raise money and
awareness around Indigenous issues. He has continued to maintain his
position as a human rights leader and bringing light to what’s
happening to Indian people even from prison. And today, you know, he
is one of the most world-renowned Indigenous human rights advocates,
and he’s been doing that from prison. He has stayed his course. He
has stayed strong. He has helped bring light to Indigenous issues not
just on Pine Ridge, in the United States, but around the world. And
so, he is revered by Indian country as a leader. And it would mean the
world to have him come back and have him released from prison. And I
think it would absolutely be part of the legacy of the Biden
administration and its relationship to Indigenous peoples of this
land.

AMY GOODMAN: Is there any indication — and I’ll put this question
to all three of you, whoever wants to take it — of what Biden — I
mean, I was asking President Clinton a quarter of a century ago if
he’s weighing clemency. He said, “Yes, we’re looking at this.”
Moira, do you have any indication from the Biden administration right
now?

MOIRA MELTZER-COHEN: I have not been in touch with the Biden
administration. I think Nick may have a better sense of that.

AMY GOODMAN: Nick Tilsen?

NICK TILSEN: Where it’s at right now is there’s a pending
application. There’s a pending application to move forward for
executive clemency. And President Biden could act on that any day. He
could act on that any day. If we’re going to sit here and think
about the political landscape, the biggest likelihood of him doing
executive clemency will happen after the election, before the
inauguration. So, during that time is the absolute time that we have
to build up the pressure and put the pressure on him. And so, at that
time, we’ll have more of an indication of what’s happening.

You know, we’re maneuvering — the FBI is one of the biggest
challenges right now. It’s because the FBI continues — all of
these, you know, five decades later, it’s continuing their effort to
keep Leonard Peltier in prison. And so, we have to rise up and, you
know, hope that the president of the United States has some courage,
some compassion to do what is right and to release Leonard Peltier
through executive clemency.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Jenipher, if you could talk about the lockdown right
now, Jenipher Jones, lead counsel for Leonard Peltier?

JENIPHER JONES: Yes, absolutely. These lockdowns having been chronic
and consistent, particularly for the last four years of Leonard’s
incarceration. They are called modified operations by the Bureau of
Prisons. But what it means for Leonard, someone who is an elder, who
is medically vulnerable, it means that he does not get the diabetic
food that he needs, the exercise that he needs, the religious services
that he requires, and he is locked down for 22 hours a day, only
allowed to take a shower.

But it’s uncharacteristic right now, because I’ve not heard from
him in over seven days. And that is concerning. Obviously, it is
heartbreaking, because he is sitting in lockdown on his 80th birthday
— or, was sitting in lockdown on his 80th birthday. And really, this
is a form of solitary confinement and a means of hastening death by
incarceration. All of these different characteristics of Leonard’s
incarceration are, in fact, means of death by incarceration. So, we
wholly object to the lockdowns. We believe that Leonard — and we
have requested a medical transfer. It is wholly inappropriate for him,
for many reasons, notwithstanding his medical reasons, for him to be
at USP Coleman I sitting in lockdown, reliant on a walker, at 80 years
old.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Jenipher Jones, as well as Nick Tilsen — Jenipher
Jones and Moira Meltzer-Cohen are co-counsels. Jenipher is lead
counsel on the Leonard Peltier case. I want to thank you all for being
with us.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United
States License [[link removed]].
Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some
of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be
separately licensed. For further information or additional
permissions, contact us.

* Leonard Peltier
[[link removed]]
* Amnesty International
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]