27 Yr. government vendetta, Leonard Peltier could die in prison

http://www.canada.com/windsor/story.asp?id=5B15D610-BAA8-4462-9D4C-00E9A21CAEBF

Leonard Peltier
Justice and the president


Nothing seems to change for native activist Leonard Peltier. Despite 27 years of imprisonment, Peltier continues to steadfastly maintain he's innocent of a double murder involving FBI agents at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

And despite the compelling evidence indicating that both the U.S. and Canadian governments are culpable in this controversial case, neither country will acknowledge that Peltier was likely railroaded. All of this adds up to a seemingly hopeless scenario for Peltier, who is serving concurrent life sentences in Leavenworth Prison. Now 59 and in poor health, Peltier is destined to die in jail. Peltier can't even get a proper parole hearing to tell his side of the story. Astonishingly, he has been repeatedly denied this basic right, routinely given to individuals who have served the mandatory 200 months for a murder charge. The latest blow to "early release" came a few months ago when Denver's 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to grant Peltier a parole hearing, even though the court acknowledged that the "government withheld evidence. It intimidated witnesses. These facts are not disputed."
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Bill Clinton's backsliding on a pardon probably dashed his last hope.
Who knows? The FBI may have blackmailed or threatened him somehow.

which was pretty significant politically

what are they so afraid of?
And I just have to wonder why Clinton has seemed to be so careful not to ruffle RW feathers since he left office. :shrug:
He has barely even criticized Bush, that I'm aware of. Whats up with that?

not easy to find his motivation

I never did quite fathum the guy.
He managed to hold off the Republican assault on the environment and he earned out thanks there.
The Peltier thing broke a lot of hearts that I know. There are some who refuse to forgive him for that, including me. He could have gone a very long way in healing some deep and festering wounds in the Native American community. That will certainly not happen with Bush. Clinton was even the first president to visit Pine Ridge, probably the country's poorest community. He raised a lot of hopes. :-(

He is not guilty of all crimes, not by a long shot.
But he was framed for some crimes and has served
much more than enough time.

a corporate nation based on slavery, corruption & injustice.

and the whole world knows it. Agents were killed, and they had to make someone pay. They chose Leonard as their scapegoat. And they wanted to use the incident to break AIM. The imprisonment of Leonard Peltier is a national disgrace. I can not respect a government that knowingly allows a thing like this to happen.
http://www.aimovement.org/peltier/

free Peltier sig !

so sad, it appears he may never get out alive.

Letters from Leonard Peltier--reminder of genocide against Indians

By Saeed Shabazz
Staff Writer
Updated Dec 22, 2003, 3:54 pm

www.FreePeltier.org

NEW YORK (FinalCall.com) - The United Nations defines genocide, under principles of the convention on Human Rights, as: "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group through five types of criminal actions, such as killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

In two recent letters, Native American activist Leonard Peltier, 58, reminded those who received them that the 500-year genocide against his people continues
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I worked with a lawyer who was part of Peltier's defense team. I talked with him several times on the phone, and he was one of the sweetest people I'd ever talked with during that job. This was in 1990, and obviously nothing has changed. It's very sad, and it's just one of those many things we have to wonder what our government is really hiding behind its railroading of Peltier. I hope that something happens to free him--I only wish that someone needs to help him out that hasn't been bought by the bad guys.