>The following Press Release is from the Leornard Peltier Defense Committee 5/15/96
Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist who is serving two consecutive life sentences for the deaths of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridges Reservation in South Dakota on June 26th, 1975, has filed a May 15th, 1995 motion with the United States Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit requesting an opening of his appeal.
The basis for the Court's 1986 denial for relief has come into question as it has been discovered that a serious misstatement of the trial record may well have caused the three judge panel to falsely believe that witness testimony had placed Leonard Peltier near the two FBI agents at the time of their deaths. In fact, though a witness gave this testimony to the Grand Jury, he recanted at trial, testifying that he had been coerced by the FBI to lie. This misconception was not corrected by either Peltier's lawyers or the government.
Peltier was one of four Native Americans charged. Two of his co-defendants were acquitted in 1976 in Cedar Rapids, IA to which their case, as well as that of Mr. Peltier, had been transferred because of anti-Indian prejudice in the Dakotas. Charges against the third individual were dismissed so that the "full prosecutorial weight of the government" could be used against Leonard Peltier. Following the Cedar Rapids acquittals, Peltier's case was mysteriously transferred to Fargo, ND, and assigned to a judge know for extreme prejudice against Native Americans.
On April 18th, 1977, Leonard was convicted by a Fargo jury and sentenced to two consecutive life terms. Later it was discovered that the FBI had unlawfully suppressed firearms reports stating that a rifle ostensibly attributed to him could not possibly have fired the fatal bullets, totally contradicting the trial testimony of an FBI firearms expert.
There has never been an eyewitness produced placing Peltier near the bodies of the two FBI agents. The ballistics investigation and evidence caused the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to state that agents involved "may not have been telling the truth" and that key, exculpatory ballistics evidence had been "withheld from the defense." The government prosecutors have conceded in court and to the media that they "don't know who killed the agents." No direct evidence exists against him, yet Leonard Peltier approaches the twentieth year of his incarceration.
Now the appellate court which affirmed his conviction on the basis of a misconception is being asked to open the appeal so that the record may be corrected and justice finally granted.
Leonard Peltier is currently represented by Ramsey Clark and William Kunstler of New York; Carl Nadler of Washington, D.C.; W. Lee Hill of California; and Bruce Ellison of South Dakota.
For More Information:
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Box 538, Lawrence, KS 66044 or call 913-842-5774
Visit the International Office of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee web pages.
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