Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 12:57:56 -0400
From: Chuck0 <chuck-AT-tao.ca>
Subject: Fwd: Peltier's case back in court!/FWD. from LPDC




-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Peltier's case back in court!/FWD. from LPDC
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 23:41:20 -0500
From: Freedom Heart Rising <freedom-AT-prairienet.org>
To: Freedom Heart Rising <freedom-AT-bluestem.prairienet.org>

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>From: "LPDC" <lpdc-AT-idir.net>
>Subject: Peltier's case back in court!
>Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 19:00:03 -0500
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>To: freedom-AT-prairienet.org
>
>Dear Peltier supporters,
>Here is another press release.  Please fax it to your local media and pass
>it on to other supporters.  It is extremely important we prepare to mobilize
>and fill the court room as soon as there is news of a hearing.  We will let
>you know what is happening every step of the way!
>
>---LPDC staff collective
>
>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, June 22, 1999
>
>FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL CHALLENGES THE U.S. PAROLE COMMISSION ON BEHALF
>OF NATIVE AMERICAN POLITICAL PRISONER, LEONARD PELTIER
>
>Conact:
>Contact:
>Gina Chiala
>Lawrence Schilling
>The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee               Law Office-Ramsey Clark
>785-842-5774
>212-475-3232
>
>
> For the first time in any court, a habeas corpus petition challenging the
>denial by the U.S. Parole Commission of Leonard Peltier's substantive and
>procedural parole rights has been filed in federal district court in Topeka,
>Kansas. This is the first attempt to enter Peltier's case into the courts
>since he last appealed his conviction in 1993.  Peltier, who is considered
>to be a political prisoner by Amnesty International who insists he be
>immediately and unconditionally released, has become a notorious symbol of
>injustice against Indigenous Peoples of the Americas.  Peltier was
>originally convicted in 1977 for the first degree murders of FBI agents,
>Jack Coler and Ronald Williams.
>
>
>The petition was filed by former Attorney General and lawyer, Ramsey Clark
>with attorneys Carl Nadler and Lawrence Schilling.  It was filed on June 4,
>1999 and  challenges as illegal, clearly erroneous, arbitrary, capricious,
>and unconstitutional, the Commission's denial of parole to Peltier and its
>decision to schedule Peltier's next parole release hearing in December
>2008 -- 15 years in the future, 17 years in excess of the Commission's
>applicable guidelines and 6 years after the date set by Congress for the
>total abolition of the Parole Commission itself.  Peltier's petition also
>charges that as a result of changes in federal parole laws, practices and
>procedures since 1975, Peltier has been imprisoned longer than the law then
>authorized in violation of the Constitution's ex post facto clause, as well
>as Peltier's right to due process and equal protection of the laws. The
>Parole Commission is required to substantiate its reasons for denying a
>prisoner parole beyond the guidelines.  Peltier claims the Commission's
>stated reasons have been based on discriminatory and erroneous reasoning..
>
>Additionally, the petition points to the dismantling process of the federal
>parole commission since the Comprehensive Crime Control Act was passed in
>1984 and ties this process to the denial of parole to prisoners like Peltier
>for reasons of self interest.   Also challenged is the Commission's refusal
>to acknowledge Peltier's current health condition as a substantial reason to
>consider his release.  Peltier is currently suffering from a condition that,
>according to prison officials, causes his jaw to be frozen open 13
>millimeters.
>
>
>Although government prosecutors have openly stated that there was not enough
>evidence to prove that Peltier was responsible for the deaths of the two
>agents killed during the 1975 shoot out on the Lakota Reservation, the
>Commission has ignored this and repeatedly refused to reconsider parole,
>stating that Peltier has not yet taken criminal responsibility for the
>deaths.  After a  December 1995 Interim Parole Hearing Review, the
>Commission stated in its subsequent decision, "The Commission recognizes
>that the prosecution has conceded the lack of any direct evidence that you
>personally participated in the executions of the two FBI agents. . . .
> Later in the decision they stated that they would not reconsider parole for
>Peltier because of his, "evident decision not to accept criminal
>responsibility."  Peltier, who has always maintained his innocence, is now
>spending his twenty-fouth year in prison.
>
>Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
>PO Box 583
>Lawrence, KS 66044
>785-842-5774
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