To: MainLineNews-AT-egroups.com, Bay_Area_Activist-AT-egroups.com, armchairactivist-AT-egroups.com, Indigenous_Circles-AT-egroups.com, senaa-AT-egroups.com
Cc: eternera-AT-listbot.com
From: "Claudia K. White" <Msdarkstar1-AT-angelfire.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 18:47:32 -0800
Subject: !b_a_Act: [Fwd: 11-16-00 (Reuters)  Amnesty International urges Clinton to pardon Peltier]



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--------- Forwarded Message ---------
 Date:  Thu, 16 Nov 2000 21:17:45 -0500 
From:  Felipe Ixcot <imlusa(a)sover.net>  

Subject:  [Fwd: 11-16-00 (Reuters)  Amnesty International urges Clinton to pardon Peltier] 
Organization:  The International Mayan League/USA 
Reply To:  imlusa(a)sover.net 
   

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Date:  Thu, 16 Nov 2000 20:19:23 EST 
From:  FreedomCampaign(a)aol.com  

Subject:  11-16-00 (Reuters)  Amnesty International urges Clinton to pardon Peltier 
To:  erickson-AT-nhpr.org, Arnie1590-AT-aol.com, jmilne-AT-conknet.com,mtrahant(a)seattletimes.com 



Amnesty urges Clinton to pardon Peltier
By Mark Wilkinson

WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Amnesty International on Thursday urged 
President Bill Clinton to pardon Leonard Peltier, an American Indian leader 
who has spent 24 years in prison for killing two FBI agents during the 1975 
siege at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. 

The international human rights organization said Peltier's case was riddled 
with prosecutorial misconduct, perjury, fabrication of evidence and 
suppression of exculpatory evidence. 

"We have believed since we first started working on the case (in 1977) that 
the legal proceedings did not reach the standards that trials ought to 
reach," Amnesty International spokesman Alistair Hodgett said in a telephone 
interview. 

"(Prosecutors) were eager to find Leonard Peltier guilty," Hodgett said. 
"When there is a rush to convict, innocent people are convicted." 

On June 26, 1975, FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler were shot and 
killed during a gunfight involving federal agents and American Indian 
activists at the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. 

Peltier was arrested, found guilty and sentenced to two consecutive life 
terms in June 1977. 

Hodgett said the trial judge refused to let a witness that could have swayed 
the jury's opinion take the stand and that prosecutors withheld a ballistics 
report that could have proved Peltier was not the killer. 

The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee says the FBI had singled out Peltier as 
a leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and had made him and other AIM 
members the subjects of the so-called COINTELPRO program. The group said the 
program was aimed at silencing AIM through attacks and arrests. 

Amnesty International stated it was concerned that the FBI had allegedly 
coerced witnesses into giving false testimony both to secure Peltier's 
extradition from Canada and his conviction. 

"We have statements from people whose testimony was used in the original 
trial that in fact their statements were false," Hodgett said. 

Hodgett cited the particular case of Myrtle Poor Bear, Peltier's 
then-girlfriend, who first told prosecutors she had seen him shoot the 
agents. 

Later, she recanted her testimony, admitting she was 50 miles away from the 
scene when the shooting took place. 

Although Peltier has exhausted all his legal options, Hodgett said he was 
confident all hope was not yet lost. 

"The fact that this has remained on the political radar and on the agenda is 
a success. We'll be satisfied when he receives clemency," he said. 

Amnesty International said that during a recent radio address on Pacifica 
Radio, Clinton said he owed it to both sides to consider the pardon request 
seriously. 

Hodgett said if Clinton fails to grant Peltier presidential pardon, the 
organization would continue to push for his release. 

"We've outlasted many (presidents), so we'll continue to work on this case," 
he said. 

18:22 11-16-00

Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited. 

Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html 
doctrine of international copyright law.
                   
                 <><<<<<>>>>><><<<<>
           Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
            http://ishgooda.nativeweb.org/      
                  <><<<<<>>>>><><<<<>
  
Native News:
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Call the White House Comments Line Today
Demand Justice for Leonard Peltier! 
202-456-1111
or
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The New Hampshire Leonard Peltier Support Group
e-mail:  FreedomCampaign(a)aol.com
phone:  603-431-8888, 603-588-2916
us mail:  po box 4111, portsmouth, nh 03802
www.freepeltier.org
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