TRUE DEMOCRACY SPRING 2001 TABLE OF CONTENTS
political prisoners
Leonard Peltier
EXPOSE FBI MISCONDUCT IN PELTIER CASE!
May 11, 2001
FBI Withholding of Evidence Not Uncommon 6000 FBI Documents Remain Secret in
Peltier Case
The withholding of evidence and obstruction of justice appear to be
habitual FBI practices. In recent months, this pattern has become frightfully
clear.
Revelations of FBI misconduct in Boston are appalling. The FBI
manufactured evidence, which put two innocent men in prison, while the real
murderers were protected and allowed to kill with impunity. Evidence about
FBI misconduct in the Birmingham bombings is no less disturbing. For years
the FBI did nothing to pursue the racist murderers of the four young girls,
all the while knowing who the culprits were. And now it has been revealed
that the FBI illegally withheld evidence relating to the Oklahoma bombing.
Somehow, the news comes as no surprise.
Equally troublesome is the case of Leonard Peltier, the Indigenous
rights activist considered by Amnesty International a "political prisoner"
who should be "immediately and unconditionally released." The FBI is also
withholding evidence in his case.
Peltier was convicted of killing two FBI agents after the FBI coerced
witnesses, utilized false testimony, and intentionally withheld a ballistic
test reflecting his innocence at trial. The ballistic test was later
released through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and it prompted the
U.S. Prosecutor to admit, "we can't prove who shot those agents." Yet,
Peltier has remained in prison for over 25 years and the FBI refuses to
release the 6000 documents still held in secret files today.
Before another victim is allowed to languish one more year in prison,
Congress should hold investigations into the FBI's handling of the Peltier
case and subpoena the remaining 6000 documents. When the most powerful law
enforcement agency in the country considers itself above the law, each of us
becomes a potential victim of injustice.
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