| Jul 30 @ 11:44 PM |
Peltier gets parole hearing
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lacyvsq
Posts: 6,176
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The Associated Press
BISMARCK, N.D. - Imprisoned American Indian activist Leonard Peltier has had his first full parole hearing in 15 years in a Lewisburg, Pa., federal prison.
Peltier's attorney, Eric Seitz, says he expects a decision from the U.S. Parole Commission within three weeks.
Peltier is serving two life sentences for the deaths of two FBI agents during a 1975 standoff on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He was convicted in Fargo, N.D., more than 30 years ago. He has claimed the FBI framed him, which the agency denies. source
Harvey Wasserman
How Leonard Peltier could leave prison by August 18
July 30, 2009
For a formidable and growing global community of supporters, the prospect of Native American activist Leonard Peltier finally leaving prison inspires a longing that cuts to the depths of the soul.
So Peltier’s first parole hearing of the Obama Era---on Tuesday, July 28---inspired hope of an intensity that will have a major impact on the new presidency. A decision must come from the Federal Parole Commission within three weeks. His attorney is calling for a surge of public support that would create an irresistible political climate for Leonard’s release.
The relationship between Peltier and those who have followed his case over the decades can be intensely personal. His imprisonment has come to stand not only for five centuries of unjust violence waged against Native Americans, but also for the inhumane theft of the life of a man who has handled his 33 years in jail with epic dignity, effectiveness and grace. source
It is way past time for this political prisoner to be released.
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| Jul 31 @ 1:15 AM |
Peltier gets parole hearing |
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Angel54214
Posts: 18,201
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I do hope he will be released, especially from the devistating occurances of his dear friend Standing Deer who was murdered...
[snippet]
In 1978, the US government made an attempt to assassinate Peltier, offering another Indian inmate at Marion prison with Leonard Peltier, a chance at freedom. The man was Standing Deer. Standing Deer befriended Peltier in prison and exposed the plot to assassinate him. Standing Deer was murdered in Houston after his release from prison.
LPDOC said, "Standing Deer chose to reveal the plot to him instead of taking his life in exchange for a chance at freedom. When Standing Deer was released in 2001, he joined the former Leonard Peltier Defense Committee as a board member. He also began to speak on Leonard's behalf until his murder six years ago today. Prior to his murder, Standing Deer confided with close friends and associates that the same man who visited him in Marion to assassinate Peltier, had came to Houston and told him that he had better stay away from Peltier and anything to do with him," the LDPOC said. http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/brenda-norrell/2009/01/leonard-peltier-beaten-prison
Standing Deer murdered in Houston: (Fri, 24 Jan 2003)
http://houston.indymedia.org/print.php?id=7001
Sanding Deer's Message to the People June 26, 2002
Greetings to all my sisters and brothers, I pray you, your many relatives, and those you love are well and happy and enjoying all the blessings
our Mother has to offer.
My name is Standing Deer. I've been locked away in supermax Iron
Houses for the last quarter-of-a-century. Eight months ago they got
weak and let me go, and while I'm happy to be out of
prison I'll never be free until my brother Leonard Peltier is free.
So as we approach another June 26 which marks the 27th anniversary
of the firefight at Oglala, South Dakota, where Peltier was framed
and lost his freedom we must remember this indomitable warrior who
is being robbed of his very life because of the lies and injustice
of the takers of the fat. Leonard has been a captive of the united
states going on 27 years for a crime he didn't even commit. I've
known him for 25 of those years and I've seen them force him to exist
in a cage so small that had he been a dog the Humane Society would
have closed the prison down. During these years his keepers have
subjected him to hideous treatment in an effort to break his will
and Spirit but he is protected by the Spirit of Crazy Horse and his
warrior heart remains strong and unyielding serving as an inspiration
to us all. Make no mistake about it - Peltier is an innocent man!
He has committed no crime! He is the victim of a system of injustice
which operates outside the moral boundaries that just people claim
to live by.
Brothers and Sisters, Leonard Peltier is a Prisoner of War unjustly
held captive in his own land by the descendants of the very sea pirates
who murdered his great grandmothers & great grandfathers, decimated
his People., and stole Mother Earth out from under their feet.
Peltier is the longest held Native Prisoner of War in this country
and on June 26th People all across Turtle Island will be holding
events to honor this courageous brother. In Houston we will be having
a march dedicated to Leonard's freedom. You are all invited to attend. Houston will be the only city to have Leonard's grandson, Cyrus, to speak to us with a message directly from his grandfather in Leavenworth
prison. Please come out for this June 26th celebration. We want you
to be there!
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| Jul 31 @ 1:27 AM |
Peltier gets parole hearing
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lacyvsq
Posts: 6,176
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Thanks Angel!
Here is a documentary about the Leonard Peltier story.
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| Jul 31 @ 1:52 AM |
Peltier gets parole hearing |
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Angel54214
Posts: 18,201
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Lacy...thank you for sharing! I will watch it tomorrow after work. Here is more about Standing Deer and Leonard...mostly a dedication to Standing Deer by his family.
http://www.geocities.com/standingdeer1/index.htm
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| Jul 31 @ 10:49 AM |
Peltier gets parole hearing
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Gallows_Humor
Posts: 13,677
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he should have been hung...
On June 26, 1975, Special Agents Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams were searching for a young Pine Ridge man named Jimmy Eagle, wanted for questioning in connection with the recent assault and robbery of two local ranch hands. Eagle had been involved in a physical altercation with a friend, during which he had stolen a pair of cowboy boots.[3] Williams and Coler, driving two separate unmarked cars, in piggy-back fashion, observed and followed a red pick-up truck which matched the description of the one belonging to Eagle. At the time, Peltier was a fugitive, with a warrant issued in Milwaukee charging unlawful flight to avoid prosecution for the attempted murder of an off-duty Milwaukee police officer, of which he was later acquitted.
Williams radioed that he and Coler had come under high-powered rifle fire from the occupants of the vehicle and were unable to return fire to any effect with their .38 pistols and shotguns. FBI Special Agent Gary Adams was the first to respond to Williams' call for assistance, and he also came under intense gun fire from Jumping Bull Ranch.
The FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and the local police spent much of the afternoon pinned down on U.S. Route 18, waiting for other law enforcement officers to launch a flanking attack. At 2:30 p.m., a BIA rifleman shot one of the shooters, Joe Stuntz, and killed him.
At 4:30 p.m., authorities recovered the bodies of Williams and Coler at their vehicle, and at 6 p.m. laid down a cloud of tear gas and stormed the Jumping Bull houses, finding Stuntz's corpse clad in Coler's green FBI field jacket.
The others, authorities later reported, had slipped away from the compound after Stuntz's death, to cross White Clay Creek and hid in a culvert beneath a dirt road. With police focused on the storming of Jumping Bull, the group made a break for the southern hills. In the following days, they split into smaller groups and scattered across the country, setting off a nationwide manhunt that lasted eight months.
The FBI reported Williams had received a defensive wound from a bullet which passed through his right hand into his head, killing him instantly. Coler, incapacitated from earlier bullet wounds, had been shot twice in the head execution style. In total 125 bullet holes were found in the agents' vehicles, many from a .223 (5.56 mm) rifle. The FBI investigation concluded the agents were executed at close range by the same .223 caliber rifle.
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| Jul 31 @ 11:41 AM |
Peltier gets parole hearing |
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lacyvsq
Posts: 6,176
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Source, GH?
According to the documentary, FBI documents that were not released until well after the trial showed an initial report that the firing pin on Peltier's rifle did not match any of the shell casings.
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| Jul 31 @ 11:50 AM |
Peltier gets parole hearing
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Gallows_Humor
Posts: 13,677
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Peltier#Shootout_at_Jumping_Bull_Ranch
Alleged trial irregularities
There has been debate over Peltier’s guilt and the fairness of his trial. Several allegations have been made by Peltier’s supporters which they claim point to his innocence, and all of these have been disputed by the FBI:
An FBI agent who testified that the agents followed a pickup truck onto the scene (a vehicle that could not be tied to Peltier) is alleged to have later changed his account to describe a red and white van, a vehicle type which Peltier did drive. Further, as the FBI did not record radio communications in 1975, there was an unresolved discrepancy between agents as to whether Williams said he was pursuing a "red and white van" or "pickup truck."
Three witnesses testified they saw Peltier approach the slain officers' vehicle. They later alleged that the FBI had threatened and forced them to testify. The FBI answered that the witnesses' testimony was not necessary for conviction.
An FBI ballistics expert testified that a shell casing found near the dead agents' bodies matched the gun tied to Peltier. Critics argued that an FBI teletype stating the firing pin of the recovered weapon did not match the shell casings proved that Peltier’s weapon was not the murder weapon.[citation needed] It was counter-argued in testimony by the FBI that although the marks from the firing pin did not match those on the casing, the firing pin had probably been replaced after the murders, and that the marks made by the rifle’s extractor were an exact match to the recovered weapon.
[edit] Post-trial debate and developments
Peltier's conviction sparked great controversy and has drawn criticism from a number of sources. Numerous appeals have been filed on his behalf; none of the resulting rulings have been made in his favor. Peltier is considered by some[who?] to be a political prisoner and has received support from individuals and groups including Nelson Mandela, Rigoberta Menchú, Amnesty International, the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, Tenzin Gyatso (the 14th Dalai Lama), the European Parliament[5], the Belgian Parliament[6], the Italian Parliament, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Peltier's supporters have given two different rationales for overturning the conviction. One argument asserts that Peltier did not commit the murders, and that he either had no knowledge of the murders (as he told CNN in 1999), or that he has knowledge implicating others which he will never reveal, or (as told in Peter Matthiessen's In the Spirit of Crazy Horse) that he approached and searched the agents but did not execute them. The other rationale holds that the killings (no matter who committed them) occurred during a war-like atmosphere on the reservation in which FBI agents were terrorizing residents in the wake of the Pine Ridge standoff in 1972.
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| Aug 1 @ 2:51 PM |
Peltier gets parole hearing |
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Paralegal_at_Law
Posts: 5,872
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If I were President I would commute Peltier's sentence to time served and take him home in my helicopter.
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| Aug 1 @ 2:57 PM |
Peltier gets parole hearing
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Gallows_Humor
Posts: 13,677
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how would you explain his not arriving at your home??
... 
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| Aug 1 @ 2:59 PM |
Peltier gets parole hearing |
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Paralegal_at_Law
Posts: 5,872
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how would you explain his not arriving at your home??
He is welcome to come to my lodge to exchange gifts.
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| Aug 1 @ 3:06 PM |
Peltier gets parole hearing
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Gallows_Humor
Posts: 13,677
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ah ha.. he was eaten by a bear excuse..... 
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| Aug 1 @ 3:09 PM |
Peltier gets parole hearing |
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Nightowl001
Posts: 7,509
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It was counter-argued in testimony by the FBI that although the marks from the firing pin did not match those on the casing, the firing pin had probably been replaced after the murders, Probably? PROBABLY? THAT'S certainly a new standard of evidence.
"No, your honor, we didn't find his fingerprints, but he probably wiped them off."
"No, your honor, no one has identified him as being at the scene, but he probably was there."
When you are talking about taking a man's life/liberty, probably doesn't cut it. In light of the fact that the weapon apparently was not recovered at the scene at the time of the incident (else there would not have been the opportunity to "probably" replace the firing pin), the FBI has quite a chore placing the weapon in Peltier's hands at the time of the crime and leaving it there, thereafter. The "chain of evidence" is corrupt.
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| Aug 1 @ 3:34 PM |
Peltier gets parole hearing
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MotownManiax
Posts: 9,737
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Whenever I hear someone like Jesse Jackson takes on a case I'm immediately skeptical.
In the interests of fairness, since the OP used obviously biased and prejudiced sources in "defense" of Peltier and his case seems to be a cause celebre for many, here's one that stands up for the victims.
Main Page: Welcome to the Official NPPA Web site PURPOSE No Parole Peltier Association (NPPA) 12455 days, 15 hours, 19 minutes, and 57 seconds have passed since Agents Coler and Williams were murdered on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. They will never come home Today is Saturday, August 1, 2009 The stated purpose of the NPPA is to respond to the erroneous statements and allegations made by the International Office of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC)*. The NPPA will forego political rhetoric and name-calling and concentrate on the record of the events reviewed. Its central focus will be to review and analyze public statements made by Leonard Peltier which further indicate his guilt, and to provide interested readers and researchers with a another view, long missing from the public debate, of this very serious matter. The NPPA opposes parole or clemency for Leonard Peltier. IMPORTANT NOTE: It is critically important for any concerned reader and researcher to review the Court Decisions (this is a link found on the source page) regarding Peltier's conviction and appeals. It is within those decisions that each and every issue and allegation raised by Peltier, and repeated by the LPDC, has been addressed and resolved. Correcting Wrongs of the Past Anyone who has even a basic understanding of the history and plight of Native Americans recognizes their terrible treatment at the hands of the U.S. Government. That history cannot be altered. Nothing can change the broken promises and treaties and subjugation of the first peoples to inhabit this continent. It is easy to understand how and why The Spirit of Crazy Horse, fostered by four hundred years of distrust, prevails. Viewing an event like the shooting at Pine Ridge on June 26, 1975, from these divergent perspectives, provides dissimilar accounts of what exactly may have happened. It is crucially important to carefully measure the words and deeds of those involved to form an accurate composite of the event. It is in this spirit, searching for that factual common ground, that the June 26, 1975 incident is presented to the concerned reader to engender an understanding of that day. Clemency and Parole Concerted efforts by Leonard Peltier and the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee to secure Executive Clemency and a pardon from the President of the United States have been unsuccessful. Peltier is entitled to a full public parole hearing sometime in 2009 at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The purpose of the previous parole reviews was to determine whether there were any mitigating or new circumstances since the last review that the parole authorities should consider. Until that time he will be afforded a parole review hearing in approximately May June of 2002, 2004 and 2006: The July 9, 2002 hearing was held and parole was denied. Peltier waived his 2004 parole hearing. *For the concerned reader and researcher, the LPDC can be found at www.whoisleonardpeltier.info. The FBI's review of the Peltier case can be found at http://minneapolis.fbi.gov/history_peltier.htm. (It is noted that Darrelle (Dino) Butler has not been listed as director/advisor of the LPDC. Robert Robideau has been in and out of the organization several times.) "People are entitled to their own opinions, they are not entitled to their own facts." ---Vincent Bugliosi Source
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| Aug 1 @ 4:23 PM |
Peltier gets parole hearing |
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Gallows_Humor
Posts: 13,677
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you must have missed this part ..
It was counter-argued in testimony by the FBI that although the marks from the firing pin did not match those on the casing, the firing pin had probably been replaced after the murders, and that the marks made by the rifle’s extractor were an exact match to the recovered weapon.
as you posted this...
"No, your honor, we didn't find his fingerprints, but he probably wiped them off."
"No, your honor, no one has identified him as being at the scene, but he probably was there."
When you are talking about taking a man's life/liberty, probably doesn't cut it.
remember this fact...
"People are entitled to their own opinions, they are not entitled to their own facts."
---Vincent Bugliosi
good post mo... 
ok.a little know fact is.... the more times a gun is fired.... the harder it is to match up critical wear pieces...
the firing pin could have worn down in use.. or it could have been replaced.. but the forensic scientists in this case decided it probably was replaced....
( the ejector mechanism is much more durable as who cares what it does to the brass after the bullet has left the gun...)
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| Aug 1 @ 4:42 PM |
Peltier gets parole hearing
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Nightowl001
Posts: 7,509
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?? No, I didn't miss the fact that they matched the ejector mechanism... which COULD have been removed and placed into a different weapon. If you accept that the gun COULD have been altered, in fact, if your assertion is that the gun was PROBABLY altered, "We believe this was altered but this wasn't" is the lamest "expert testimony" you can come up with.
What I saw was they failed to establish, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they could match this weapon to the shell casings recovered.
The likelihood, or probability of something occurring, certainly doesn't meet the standard of proof, to my mind, required in a court of law.
This is only one piece of the evidence in the case, but it is such a weak piece of evidence, that had I been the prosecutor, I don't believe I would have included it. It raises more questions than it answers (based only on what little information is presented here).
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| Aug 1 @ 4:55 PM |
Peltier gets parole hearing |
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Gallows_Humor
Posts: 13,677
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What I saw was they failed to establish, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they could match this weapon to the shell casings recovered.
over all.. the total evidence was enough to convict...
and unless you can come up with new evidence...it is a circle jerk to complain about it..
even you had to admit here
..that the ejector mechanism..a main part of the whole gun..( whereas the firing pin ..as they do break.. is just a small piece of it... was a part of the perp's' gun... and as such.. the casing found came from that gun...
to me..that is all this evidence states..
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| Aug 1 @ 5:09 PM |
Peltier gets parole hearing
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Angel54214
Posts: 18,201
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Affidavits from Myrtle Poor Bear....Peltier's girl friend: (increase zoom to 150% to read them)
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/peltier/poorbearaffidavits.html
The Leonard Peltier Trial
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/peltier/peltierhome.html
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| Aug 1 @ 5:30 PM |
Peltier gets parole hearing |
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Nightowl001
Posts: 7,509
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even you had to admit here No, actually I could be a Republican and refuse to ever admit anything.  And I did not "admit" to anything in that following statement.
Again, you have a weapon not recovered at the scene of the crime that has been materially altered. That's incredibly weak evidence.
By the late 1980s, even Prosecutor Lynn Crooks was forced to admit that the government did not know who shot the two FBI agents. Crooks said, "We did not have any direct evidence that one individual as opposed to another pulled the trigger." Crooks added "What we argued to the jury was quite simply that this man was a guilty participant in a murder....The facts available did not give us direct evidence as to who did the coup-de-grace.... there was no direct evidence upon which we could make a factual argument. We argued inferences...but that's not the same thing as saying that we had direct evidence...that Mr. Peltier was the one that squeezed off the final rounds." In other words, the government never had any evidence that Peltier shot anyone.
However, after years of hearings, the court system has still not released Leonard Peltier from his unjust imprisonment. On October 5, 1987 the Supreme Court refused to review the case. In 1993 the federal courts denied Peltier's appeal again. They argued that even if there's no evidence of "close-up killing," Peltier was guilty of "long-range aiding and abetting." A few months after the December 1993 hearing where the parole board denied his parole and said he would have to wait until 2009 for another hearing, Leonard told the RW "The government has admitted in two courts of law at the Appellate Court level that they don't know who killed the agents....And now the government on their most recent decision is claiming that I am an `aider and abettor.' Basically, that was their theory--I was aider and abettor at 15 to 20 feet or 200 yards, about two football fields away. They don't know where I aided and abetted--but I was on the reservation."
In other words, the federal court says Peltier must spend life in prison for being present as the AIM encampment defended itself. The system believes that someone has to pay for the armed resistance at Oglala. The Railroad of Leonard Peltier
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| Aug 1 @ 6:20 PM |
Peltier gets parole hearing
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Gallows_Humor
Posts: 13,677
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"We did not have any direct evidence that one individual as opposed to another pulled the trigger."
one of the two present killed ( executed) the FBI agents.. or..they both might have...
end of story in California.. they are both guilty of murder..unless one can prove that he was totally innocent of any crime..( read..a hostage..)
even Patty Heart was convicted of her crimes...even though she was initially a kidnap victim..who said... she was forced to go along with them..
but the evidence did not show it...
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| Aug 1 @ 6:32 PM |
Peltier gets parole hearing |
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Nightowl001
Posts: 7,509
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one of the two present killed ( executed) the FBI agents.. or..they both might have... One of what two present where? What are you talking about?
The shootout at Pine Ridge involved somewhere between 25-50 Native Americans. (The FBI never had an accurate count.) ALL of whom escaped, except one who died in the incident.
Incidentally, I don't care what the laws say in California. I don't even care what laws have been passed in South Dakota, where the incident occurred. Because state statutes do not apply on a federal reservation.
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