FACTS ABOUT
Leonard Peltier's Case
Leonard Peltier, 80, a Native American activist and citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians (ND), is now in his 49th year of incarceration. He is serving two life sentences in a maximum-security federal prison for his alleged role in the deaths of two FBI agents during a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota in 1975. Imprisoned at the age of 31, Mr. Peltier is now elderly, and his conviction is turning into a de facto death sentence.
Leonard Peltier is serving a sentence for aiding and abetting in a case where his co-defendants were found not guilty on grounds of self-defense. In fact, the prosecutors acknowledged in 1978 that they did not know who killed the agents, and the facts did not directly indicate the person responsible. For this, he is serving a longer sentence than most principals in murder convictions.
For decades, Peltier’s unjust imprisonment has been recognized as the product of a flawed prosecution, trial, and conviction by national and international human rights organizations, leading voices on criminal justice issues, dignitaries from around the world, and many current and former members of Congress. Leonard’s advancing age and fragile health status place renewed urgency behind the worldwide support for the effort to gain his release.
Thirty years ago, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI), then-Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, endorsed clemency for Mr. Peltier and stated,
The current Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), wrote a letter to the President in January of 2022, saying,
Gerald Heaney, the judge who presided over Mr. Peltier’s 1986 appeal in the Eighth Circuit, called for his release in 1991 and again in 2000. Our cry for justice is also joined by former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds, whose office successfully fought the appeal of Mr. Peltier’s case. In an extraordinary letter to President Biden, Mr. Reynolds said:
Reynolds’ letter further highlights the injustice of Mr. Peltier’s continued incarceration, noting the prosecutorial misconduct and constitutional violations committed by his office at the time and one juror’s early trial admission of racism against Native Americans.
In June of 2022, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention joined the call for justice with the release of an opinion calling for the immediate release of Leonard Peltier. The opinion deemed Peltier’s detention prolonged, indefinite, and arbitrary and specifically noted the anti-Indigenous bias surrounding Peltier’s detention, stating that –
Finally, on December 3, 2022, Retired FBI Special Agent – Minneapolis Office Coleen Rowley added her voice to the call for clemency for Leonard Peltier in a remarkable letter to President Biden. Her letter noted the key role that the “long-standing horribly wrongful oppressive treatment of Indians in the U.S.” played in Peltier’s case and, critically, the “FBI Family” vendetta behind their opposition to clemency that has kept Peltier behind bars for nearly five decades.
There has also been recognition of the FBI’s role in creating the volatile atmosphere on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation as a result of its efforts to interfere with the work of the American Indian Movement (AIM). At the time of the shooting, the FBI was actively engaged in and funding a covert campaign to suppress the activities of AIM, whose advocacy on behalf of Indigenous people was viewed as “extremist” political activity.
The FBI’s misconduct resonates deeply in Indian Country and represents a time of open oppression, racism, and aggression by federal law enforcement on Indian reservations throughout the United States. Their continued opposition to clemency for Leonard Peltier is now an emotion-driven vendetta with no place in our criminal justice system today.
Detail of Constitutional Violations & Prosecutorial Misconduct in Handling of Case:
>The government withheld exculpatory evidence: a ballistics report showed the shell casings collected from the scene did not come from Mr. Peltier’s weapon.
>The prosecution of Leonard Peltier relied on testimony from witnesses who later recanted their statements, asserting that FBI agents threatened and coerced them into lying.
>Counterpoint to assertion that his conviction has been upheld by the U.S. District Court, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court:
>No denial of the prosecution’s misconduct.
>The Eighth Circuit stated that “[t]he use of the affidavits of Myrtle Poor Bear in the extradition proceedings was a clear abuse of the investigative process of the F.B.I.” See United States v. Peltier, 585 F.2d 314, 335 n.18 (8th Cir. 1978).
>The Eighth Circuit later acknowledged the “improper conduct” by the FBI and noted that the explanation for the initial ballistics report authored four months prior to the one used at trial – showing that “[n]one of the other ammunition components recovered at the [shoot-out] scene could be associated with [the Wichita AR–15]” – was “facially inconsistent with the newly-discovered evidence.” See United States v. Peltier, 800 F.2d 772, 776, 778 (8th Cir. 1986) (some alterations in original, some added).
>Despite this, the Court applied a standard of review requiring a finding “that it is reasonably probable the jury would have acquitted Peltier had it been aware of [the hidden] evidence”. The law has subsequently been clarified to only require a finding that the defendant was deprived of a fair trial. Consequently, if the case was tried today, under these circumstances he most certainly would get a new trial.
>Mr. Peltier was also the victim of admitted juror bias. In what would today be considered “ineffective assistance of counsel”, Mr. Peltier’s attorneys failed to challenge a juror who on the second day of trial admitted to the Court that she “disliked Indians” that she was “prejudiced against Indians” – a clear violation of his Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury.
>Judge Gerald Heaney (deceased), the author of the above-referenced opinion, supported clemency for Mr. Peltier and in 1991 (and again in 2000) wrote to Senator Daniel Inouye, then Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and an ardent supporter of clemency for Mr. Peltier, voicing his support for clemency.
