From: info@leonardpeltier.org
Date: 14 October 2003
We thank all of you who have written to the 10th Circuit of
Appeals to urge that the Court grant a pardon to Leonard Peltier. The
volume of letters received by the court will demonstrate the wide
support for justice for Leonard Peltier. A ruling isn't expected for
three or four months.
If you haven't written to the
Court, we urge you to do so now.
Please do not attempt to contact the judges directly or interfere
with the Court in any way. Please be sure to demonstrate your
knowledge of the intricacies of the case. Please also focus only on
the substance of the appeal currently before the court.
Use the following sample letter as your guide. You may also cut
and paste the text into your personal stationery.
Clerk of the Court
10th Circuit Court of Appeals
Byron White U.S. Court House
1823 Stout Street
Denver, Colorado 80257
To Whom It May Concern,
As you know, Leonard Peltier is a federal prisoner serving two
consecutive life sentences at the United States Penitentiary,
Leavenworth, Kansas, in connection with the 1975 deaths of two agents
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in South Dakota.
Despite an almost perfect prison record since 1979, Peltier has
now been incarcerated for over 320 months (over 11 years beyond the
normal time as established by the U.S. Parole Commission's own
regulations) in connection with these offenses. This is significantly
longer than the time at which a prisoner with a good record would
normally have been granted parole under the regulations existing both
at the time of the offense and the current regulation issued by the
Commission. Nevertheless, the Commission has repeatedly stated that it
will not even consider Mr. Peltier's release on parole until December
2008, at which time Leonard will have served almost double the normal
time.
After Peltier's trial, based on documents obtained from the FBI
under Freedom of Information Act requests, Leonard's legal team
discovered that the government had withheld exculpatory evidence,
including critical ballistics data. Specifically, the legal team
discovered a memorandum by a ballistics expert dated October 2, 1975,
that unequivocally ruled out the "Wichita" AR-15 (which was
purportedly used by Leonard Peltier on June 26, 1975) as the alleged
murder weapon. The improperly withheld evidence suppressed by the FBI
struck at the heart of the government's case and the later Parole
Commission findings which were upheld by the U.S. District Court in
Kansas.
One of the most telling factors in Leonard's case is the
government's changing position as the case has evolved and as further
evidence of government misconduct has been unearthed.
In 1985, during oral arguments before the U.S. Eighth Circuit
Court of Appeals on Leonard's first habeas petition, the government
argued that it did not need to prove that Leonard executed the agents
at close range and admitted that " we can't prove who shot those
agents." In 1990, Leonard brought a second habeas petition and
the government again stressed that Leonard's conviction did not rest
on his participating in the close range execution of the agents:
"We knew who participated, we knew who was murdered, but we did
not know quote-unquote who shot the agents. The facts available did
not give us direct evidence as to who did the coup-de-grace. They
simply didn't We argued inferences and we certainly argued that
strongly. But that's not the same thing as saying that we had direct
evidence by any one witness that Peltier was the one that squeezed off
the final rounds."
Thus, as the evidence linking Leonard to shooting the agents
began to evaporate, and as it became more and more clear that the
evidence relied upon by the government was manufactured after the
fact, the government changed its approach from claiming that Leonard
had been the shooter to upholding Leonard's convictions on the theory
of aiding and abetting.
In 1995, Leonard appeared for a statutory interim parole hearing
before the same hearing examiner who had presided over his initial
parole proceeding in 1993. The hearing officer " concluded after
a review of the additional exculpatory evidence that a preponderance
finding that Peltier actually executed the agents cannot be made."
The examiner was moved by the government's statements, especially
those by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynn Crooks who had acknowledged that
" the government does not know, insofar as having the evidence to
sustain a conviction in court, that Leonard Peltier fired the fatal
bullets into the agents." The hearing examiner thus conceded that
the 15-year reconsideration decision in 1993 was based on the mistaken
belief that Peltier's convictions had " included a specific or
directed finding by the jury that Peltier had fired the fatal shots
into the agents causing their deaths."
Dissatisfied with this conclusion, the U.S. Parole Commission
appointed a second hearing officer who had not been present at the
statutory interim hearing and not surprisingly disagreed with the
first examiner's recommendation. The Commission then accepted the
second officer's recommendation. From then to now, the Commission has
steadfastly refused to consider Leonard for parole until December
2008.
The Commission has failed to adequately consider the impact of
the critical exculpatory evidence that was improperly withheld by the
government at trial and which completely undermines the facts relied
upon by the Commission to establish that Leonard shot the two FBI
agents at close range. I can only conclude that Mr. Peltier's
continued incarceration and the failure of the United States to
release him on parole is based on animus. Continued imprisonment is
not supported by the reasons given by the Commission, i.e., its
finding that Leonard had been involved in an "ambush" of the
two FBI agents on June 26, 1975, and had executed them at point blank
range after they had been incapacitated.
On appeal, Leonard's legal team argued that the Commission erred
because its stated reason: (1) is not supported by Leonard's
convictions or the Eighth Circuit decisions addressing post-conviction
petitions; (2) is not supported by the evidence before the Commission;
and (3) is undermined by the material exculpatory evidence the
government improperly withheld at Leonard's trial.
I am certain that the U.S. Parole Commission's denial of parole
constitutes a violation of law, as well as being inconsistent with its
own congressionally mandated guidelines. In short, the denial of
parole in this case is an abuse of power and discretion, and violates
Leonard Peltier's constitutional rights. I urge you to immediately
issue an order that Peltier be given fair consideration for parole
directly, under appropriate factors, which consideration should lead
to his immediate parole.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
(Insert Name)
Send your letter TODAY.
Thank you for your support.
Mitakuye Oyasin.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
LPDC
International Headquarters
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044-0583 USA
785-842-5774; 785-842-5796 (Fax)