Free Leonard Peltier ….. sticker

Description

Leonard Peltier (born September 12, 1944) is a Native American activist and member of the American Indian Movement (AIM). In 1977 he was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for first degree murder in the shooting of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents during a 1975 conflict on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Peltier’s indictment and conviction is the subject of the 1992 documentary Incident at Oglala, a film directed by Michael Apted. Peltier’s supporters present him as a political prisoner, although his murder conviction has survived appeals in various courts. Amnesty International has expressed concern about the fairness of the proceedings. Numerous lawsuits have been filed on Peltier’s behalf, but none has succeeded.

In 2002 and 2003, Paul DeMain, editor of News From Indian Country, wrote that sources had told him that Peltier had said he killed the FBI agents; DeMain withdrew his support for clemency. At the trials in 2004 and 2010 of two men indicted for the murder of Anna Mae Aquash in December 1975 at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, prosecution witnesses testified that Peltier had told them and a small group of fugitive activists, including Aquash, that he had shot the two FBI agents. Peltier issued a statement in 2004 accusing one witness of perjury for her testimony and being a sellout. The two men charged in the murder of Aquash were convicted.

Peltier is incarcerated at the the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex, Florida. His projected release date is October 11, 2040. His last parole hearing was in July 2009; his request for parole was denied. Peltier’s next scheduled hearing will be in July 2024.