WASHINGTON ― With only one week left in Joe Biden’s presidency, greater than 120 tribal leaders on Monday urged him to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier, the ailing Native American rights activist who has been in jail for almost 50 years after a trial riddled with misconduct and a damaged parole course of.
“Mr. President, we honor your demonstrated dedication to Indian Nation. You might have stood with us many instances – each within the White Home and within the U.S. Senate,” reads their letter. “Our standing on the earth as a champion of freedom, justice, and human rights can’t be maintained in a system that enables Leonard Peltier to die in jail.”
Various distinguished tribal leaders are on the letter, together with Frank Star Comes Out, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota; Nick Tilsen, founder and CEO of NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led advocacy group; Mark Macarro, president of the Nationwide Congress of American Indians and tribal chair of the Pechanga Band of Indians in California; and Deborah Parker, govt director of the Native American Boarding Faculty Coalition.
A White Home spokesperson declined remark.
Right here’s a replica of their letter:
Peltier has been in jail ever because the U.S. authorities accused him of murdering two FBI brokers in a 1975 shoot-out on a reservation in South Dakota. There was never evidence that Peltier dedicated a criminal offense, and the federal government never did figure out who shot these brokers. However federal officers wanted somebody to take the autumn and all of Peltier’s co-defendants had been acquitted on grounds of self-defense. So, they settled on Peltier.
His trial was riddled with misconduct: The FBI threatened and coerced witnesses into mendacity. Federal prosecutors hid proof that exonerated Peltier. A juror admitted on the second day of the trial that she had “prejudice against Indians,” however she was saved on anyway.
The U.S. authorities’s case fell apart after these revelations, so it simply revised its costs towards Peltier to aiding and abetting whoever did kill the brokers ― primarily based fully on the truth that he was considered one of dozens of individuals current when the shoot-out befell.
Peltier, now 80, has maintained his innocence the complete time he’s been in jail, which has virtually actually led to him being denied parole. His extended imprisonment is so uncommon that it prompted a panel of United Nations authorized specialists to assessment his case in 2022. In a damning 17-page legal opinion, they concluded his imprisonment is “arbitrary,” and the one cause he’s nonetheless being detained is “as a result of he’s Native American.”
Peltier’s well being has faltered in recent times. He’s principally blind now and makes use of a walker to get round when he’s not confined to the inches of area in his cell. He has struggled with an aortic aneurysm and diabetes, which despatched him to the hospital in July with “open wounds and tissue dying on his toes and toes.” He was hospitalized again in October.
The one cause Peltier continues to be in jail is due to staunch opposition from the FBI, at the same time as its acknowledged arguments for blocking his launch are both outdated, misleading or simply false.
The FBI nonetheless hasn’t publicly addressed the important thing context of that 1975 shoot-out, both: The bureau itself was deliberately fueling tensions on that reservation as a part of a covert marketing campaign to suppress the actions of the American Indian Motion (AIM), a grassroots motion for Indigenous rights. Peltier was an energetic AIM member and an FBI goal.
Just about each worldwide human rights chief in trendy historical past, together with Pope Francis and Nelson Mandela, has known as for Peltier’s launch. Remarkably, so have a few of the similar individuals who put Peltier in prison within the first place.
Former U.S. Legal professional James Reynolds, who prosecuted Peltier many years in the past, has been privately urging Biden to grant him clemency. He did so in a stunning letter to the president just a few years in the past, and once more, in a brand new video launched Monday.
“I had been, as a U.S. Legal professional, I had been concerned within the prosecution of Leonard’s case,” Reynolds says within the video. “Because it went on and went on and went on, and increasingly stuff was revealed, it turned fairly embarrassing that I had something to do with it.”
“Once I noticed that Leonard was asking for clemency, I made a decision alone, and I hadn’t talked to folks or anybody, I simply determined alone it was my responsibility because the U.S. Legal professional that was concerned within the case to jot down to the president,” he stated.
You catch watch Reynolds’ video right here:
The handfuls of tribal leaders now urging Biden to launch Peltier are hoping to enchantment to the president’s pleasure in his legacy of supporting Indigenous peoples’ rights.
As president, Biden has made historic investments in tribes and Native communities, between directing billions in federal {dollars} to tribal communities and populating his administration with high-profile Indigenous appointments, together with Inside Secretary Deb Haaland. He’s arguably the strongest ally tribes have had within the White Home, and granting clemency to Peltier could be welcomed as a closing act of mercy to many.
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“Mr. Peltier’s continued incarceration is an emblem to Native People of the systemic inequities of the felony justice system in America,” the tribal leaders wrote to Biden.
“We ask that you just urgently think about this chance to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier,” they stated. “Stand with us once more.”
