Support Parole for Leonard Peltier
Posted by questionmarkinc on July 9, 2009
Express your support for parole for Native American leader and political prisoner
Leonard Peltier!
Hearing scheduled for July 27. Your letter must be received before July 14.
Leonard Peltier, Native American leader, Ojibwa-Sioux of Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota, has been unjustly imprisoned for 34 years in U.S. federal prison, a victim of FBI political persecution. His upcoming parole hearing is Monday, July 27. We urge you to write letters of support for Leonard’s parole to the Bureau of Prisons.
Leonard Peltier - one of many U.S. political prisoners
Act Today! Letters should be received by the BOP before July 14. Add your voice to help free Leonard Peltier!
The FBI has persecuted Peltier ever since a 1975 FBI armed raid on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, in which two of their agents were killed.
The FBI raid was the culmination of three years of a murderous U.S. government war on the residents of Pine Ridge, in which over 60 traditional members and American Indian Movement activists were murdered. Leonard Peltier was among the young AIM members who came to Pine Ridge to protect elder residents who had pleaded for AIM’s protection.
On June 26, 1975, using the theft of a pair of boots as a pretext, the FBI agents raided a reservation ranch of the Jumping Bull family, racing onto the land in an unmarked car. A shoot-out ensued. One Native man, Joe Stuntz, and the two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, were killed.
As dozens of FBI encircled the ranch in the hours that followed, several AIM members, including Peltier, escaped. Two AIM members, Bob Robideau and Darrell “Dino” Butler, were arrested and tried in Rapid City, Iowa, for the killing of the FBI agents. They were acquitted by an all-white jury, which agreed that their actions were in self-defense.
Because Peltier had successfully escaped to Canada and did not face trial with Robideau and Butler, the FBI waged an all-out campaign so that someone would pay for the FBI deaths. The FBI fabricated a false claim to secure Peltier’s extradition from Canada. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
During Leonard’s trial, numerous irregularities were committed by the prosecution and FBI, including falsification of evidence, forced testimony later recanted by witnesses, deliberate withholding of tens of thousands of pages of FBI documents, and more.
Since his conviction in 1977, numerous appeals for a new trial for Peltier have been denied on technical grounds, despite overwhelming evidence of massive FBI misconduct in the prosecution. Peltier has many supporters in the United States and around the world, including hundreds of U.S., European and Latin American parliamentarians, Nelson Mandela, Rigoberta Menchú, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Jesse Jackson, and the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights.
Take action now!
The following may be used this as a sample letter that can be sent to the United States Parole Commission to express your support for parole for Leonard Peltier. Justice is long overdue:
United States Parole Commission
5550 Friendship Boulevard, Suite 420
Chevy Chase, MD 20815-7286
To whom it may concern,
I am contacting you to express my views and support of Leonard Peltier
and his upcoming review for parole. I feel that the matter of Leonard
Peltier’s parole and release is of paramount significance.
I feel that it is relevant to point out that Leonard Peltier has been
incarcerated thirty-three years based upon what the courts have
admitted was fabricated evidence, both withheld, and then later
discovered to be tampered with and questionable. These very courts
have admitted that Leonard Peltier did not commit the murders of the
FBI agents at the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1976. It is clear Leonard
Peltier was persecuted based upon his beliefs and refusal to accept the
injustices imposed upon the peoples at Pine Ridge during that time.
Because of these facts, I feel that the system has failed, and the
continued incarceration of Leonard Peltier is an enduring injustice.
I express a deep hope that your commission will grant parole and
release to Leonard Peltier. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Write to Leonard
You can also write a letter directly to Leonard to express your support for his case. Letters should be addressed to:
Leonard Peltier
Reg. 89637-132
USP LEWISBURG
U.S. PENITENTIARY
P.O. BOX 1000
LEWISBURG, PA 17837
