TRUE DEMOCRACY SPRING 2001 TABLE OF CONTENTS
political prisoners
Leonard Peltier
This is a typical example of what organizations do to attempt to obtain
positive results:
Peltier and supporters say they will not give up. They plan to launch a
major campaign calling for the declassification of the 6000 documents
pertaining to the Peltier case still being withheld by the FBI. Supporters
believe these documents contain evidence that will further expose
misconduct in the gaining of Leonard Peltier's conviction. Their disclosure,
they say, could lead to Peltier's acquittal. 12,000 FBI documents were
released in the early 1980's pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act
lawsuit. Among them was a ballistic test reflecting Peltier's innocence and
prompting the Eighth Circuit to conclude: "There is a possibility that the
jury would have acquitted Leonard Peltier had the records and data
improperly withheld from the defense been available to him in order to
better exploit and reinforce the inconsistencies
casting strong doubts upon the government's case."
Those calling for Leonard Peltier's release include Amnesty
International, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the National Congress of American
Indians, Coretta Scott King, several members of Congress, and the Kennedy
Memorial Center for Human Rights among others.
Leonard Peltier was a prominent member of the American Indian Movement.
He was convicted for the murder of two FBI agents killed during a 1975
shoot-out, which occurred on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in the midst
of intense, local political strife.
In 1985 the US Attorney admitted and later established that he could not
prove who shot the agents.
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