h/t Rebekah Sager, DK staff,<big>Peltier in art room at Leavenworth. 6/92 </big>
NativeNewsOnline Native Bidaské (the Potawatomi word for spotlight) with Kevin Sharp on Leonard Peltier’s Upcoming Parole Hearing.
Levi Rickert, Founder and Publisher of Native News Online, interviews former federal judge Kevin Sharp about Leonard Peltier's upcoming parole hearing on Monday, June 10.
Sharp, an advocate for Peltier's release, will discuss Peltier's poor health at the age of 79 after decades of incarceration. He believes that Peltier will be at risk of death if kept in a maximum security prison. We will also learn about the historical context of the 1975 Pine Ridge murders and the turbulent period when Peltier was involved with the American Indian Movement. Sharp believes that Peltier's constitutional rights were violated in his trial and investigation. The parole hearing will consider testimony from Peltier's supporters and the government. Advocates hope that Peltier's release will help remedy past wrongs and allow for healing.
WorkersWorld Peltier: ‘I hope I make it to June 10’
<big> 23 May 2024 Three days in Rome for Leonard Peltier </big>
Next June 10 is an important date for Leonard Peltier and for all the committees calling for his release. A committee in the U.S. may decide on house arrest because of his health condition; Leonard is almost 80 years old and sick.
In different parts of the world, initiatives are multiplying to make the voices of all those close to him heard.
In Rome six events took place in three days: at the Testaccio Library and festival of Lands, at Spin Lab, at the Che Guevara Circle, at Friccicore, meetings and especially screenings of Andrea Galafassi’s excellent documentary, “Mitakuye Oyasin.” So many small occasions, not only to make his story known, but to forge relationships with comrades and companions.
Especially on Saturday 18th May, in the morning, an important presidium was held in front of the U.S. Embassy. Several people thought it would never be allowed, but it was. The digos officers (Italian political police), on this occasion, were particularly polite and some even seemed interested in hearing the incredible story of Leonard Peltier. Many were the speeches, the slogans, the strength expressed by fifteen or so people well convinced of what they were doing.
Now we ask you to sign the following call if you have not already done so: https://chng.it/xkc8sRYK2F...
<big>15 March 2024 Schatz Leads Group of Senators Urging U.S. Attorney General Garland to Allow for the Compassionate Release of Leonard Peltier</big>
For Immediate Release March 15, 2024
Contact: Mike Inacay (Schatz) at press@indian.senate.gov
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, led a group of senators urging U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to allow for the compassionate release of Native American rights activist Leonard Peltier.
“Mr. Peltier, who has been imprisoned for the past 49 years and is suffering from severe health conditions, should be able to return home and live out his remaining days among his own people,” the senators wrote in the letter to Attorney General Garland. “It is time that the federal government rectifies the grave injustice of Mr. Peltier’s continued imprisonment, and strongly urge you to allow for his compassionate release.”
The letter was also signed by U.S. Senators Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai’i), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Peter Welch (D- Vt.).
Text of the full letter sent to Attorney General Garland can be found below. The full letter is also available here.
We write to urge you to allow for the compassionate release of Native American rights activist Leonard Peltier pursuant to the Bureau of Prison’s procedures. Mr. Peltier, who has been imprisoned for the past 49 years and is suffering from severe health conditions, should be able to return home and live out his remaining days among his own people.
In 1975, Mr. Peltier, a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, was arrested and later convicted for his alleged involvement in the murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, despite evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and due process violations mounted throughout his trial. Over the past several decades of Mr. Peltier’s federal incarceration, calls for his release have received widespread and growing support from both faith and human rights leaders – including Pope Francis, Saint Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, and Coretta Scott King – as well as those previously involved in his prosecution. James H. Reynolds, the U.S. Attorney who handled the prosecution and appeal of Mr. Peltier’s case, previously stated that Mr. Peltier’s “conviction and continued incarceration is a testament to a time and a system of justice that no longer has a place in our society.” He further explained that Mr. Peltier has served his sentence “on the basis of minimal evidence, a result that [he] strongly doubt[s] would be upheld in any court today.” The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a 17-page legal opinion reviewing Mr. Peltier’s case, concluding that he “continues to be detained because he is Native American.” And the late Judge Gerald Heaney, who presided over Mr. Peltier’s 1986 appeal in the Eighth Circuit also publicly called for Mr. Peltier’s release – first in 1991 and again in 2000, detailing the injustice of Mr. Peltier’s trial and proclaiming that “a healing process must begin.”
The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) procedures allow its Director to grant a reduction in sentence, or compassionate release, to prisoners that meet certain criteria, including advanced age and deteriorating health; Mr. Peltier is nearly 80 years old and suffers from numerous health conditions, including a potentially fatal abdominal aortic aneurysm. If the Director of the BOP approves a compassionate release, and the Parole Commission agrees, Mr. Peltier could be released immediately.
We commend the steps that the Biden-Harris Administration has taken to right past wrongs of our federal government’s treatment of Native Americans, and the steps you have taken to uphold the American values of liberty and justice, including rectifying inequities in our nation’s criminal justice system. Now, it is time that the federal government rectifies the grave injustice of Mr. Peltier’s continued imprisonment, and strongly urge you to allow for his compassionate release under the BOP’s procedures.
Sincerely,
In 2022, Peltier tested postive for COVID-19.
<big>NDN COLLECTIVE Compassionate Release for Leonard Peltier, NOW • April 16, 2024</big>
n February 6, 2024, Leonard Peltier began his 49th year of incarceration, continuing his time as the longest-held Indigenous political prisoner in U.S. history. Peltier was a member of the American Indian Movement during the height of the Red Power Movement and was convicted in an unfair trial that could not prove his guilt. Since his arrest and nearly five decades of incarceration, he has become a symbol of the fight against systemic racism and the persecution by the federal government of community movements advancing justice and equity.
Peltier, 79, has been in prison for the majority of his life, following a trial filled with discrepancies and rooted in racism. NDN Collective and other justice and human rights advocates, including Native Organizers Alliance, are demanding Peltier be granted compassionate release based on his time served, advanced age, and declining health….
...According to the American Bar Association, compassionate release is available for incarcerated people who seek early release due to extraordinary or compelling circumstances. Access to and eligibility for compassionate release has recently broadened following the COVID-19 pandemic and because of advocacy to end mass incarceration….
...As an enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota, Leonard hopes to return to his homelands to spend his remaining years there. While incarcerated, Leonard’s overall health has declined: he is losing his eyesight, his diabetes is worsening, and he is facing a potentially fatal abdominal aortic aneurysm.
“Many of the people who have advocated for Leonard Peltier’s freedom since he was wrongfully incarcerated have become elders or have transitioned from this world before witnessing his freedom,” said Janene Yazzie, NDN Collective Director of Policy & Advocacy. “We continue to fight for his freedom because we deeply believe in our right and responsibility to take care of our elders, to learn from them, and to honor and cherish them while we still have the privilege of their presence.”
Healthcare for inmates in the prison system is known to be subpar. According to a report by The Sentencing Project, incarcerated people have an equivalent health status of someone 10-15 years older. Prisons are ill-equipped to support the process of aging and declining health….
Amnesty In'tl USA: Urge Parole For Native American Activist
12 September 2023 Supporters of Native activist Leonard Peltier hold White House rally, urging Biden to grant clemency
<big>Navajo-Hopi Observer 23 April 2024 Advocates for Peltier Seek United Nations Help</big>
...Peltier’s declining health has gone untreated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, said advocates from the Leonard Peltier Ad Hoc Committee.
“Leonard is in serious physical trouble,” said Dawn Lawson, secretary of the Leonard Peltier Ad Hoc Committee, to ICT and the Rapid City Journal. “His diabetes has progressed to the point where he could slip into a diabetic coma. He hasn’t seen a dentist in over ten years. He’s in excruciating pain all of the time.”
On April 12, Jenipher Jones, a lead attorney for Peltier’s post-conviction legal efforts, filed a Request for Communications with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and the United Nations Special Procedures group. The request asked for communication between the UN and United States regarding a denial of medical care to Peltier and a need for investigation of human rights violations in United States prisons.
Peltier has a heart condition, kidney disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, degenerative joint disease, injuries to his jaw and is experiencing vision loss. Advocates said each condition requires ongoing medical care, which the Bureau of Prisons has not been providing.
USP Coleman has been on and off lockdown for the past year, limiting Peltier’s access to commissary and other services.
Advocates said if Peltier goes any longer without medical attention he may die in prison.
In 2022, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found Peltier’s imprisonment to be an “arbitrary” detention, referring to a case with little to no evidence that an individual themselves committed a crime. The Ad Hoc Committee said it hopes that the Special Procedures will find similar violations of international law in Peltier’s medical treatment and confinement.
“The denial of medical care to prisoners not only violates the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the domestic disability provisions but also the Convention Against Torture and the Mandela Rules on the treatment of prisoners,” Jones said in an April 16 press release.
Lawson said Peltier is currently living with another prisoner in a one-person capacity cell with no cleaning supplies.
h/t Onomastic
wikipedia
Leonard Peltier (born September 12, 1944) is a Native American activist and a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) who, following a controversial trial, was convicted of "Aiding and Abetting" (without specifying whom) in counts of first degree murder in the deaths of two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in a June 26, 1975, shooting on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment and has been imprisoned since 1977 (currently 47 years).[1][2][3] Peltier became eligible for parole in 1993.[4][5] As of 2022, Peltier is incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Coleman, in Florida.[6]
In his 1999 memoir Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, Peltier admitted to participating in the shootout but said he did not kill the FBI agents.[7][8] Human rights watchdogs, such as Amnesty International, and political figures including Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, and the 14th Dalai Lama, have campaigned for clemency for Peltier.[9][10][11]…