On Friday, January 28, 2022, Leonard Peltierâs attorney Kevin Sharp, confirmed what had been feared for several months. Peltier, who is incarcerated at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Florida, had been diagnosed with Covid. Since Peltier also suffers from heart problems and diabetes this diagnosis may become his death sentence if he is not released now.
Peltier has been in prison for 45 years without any evidence, as we now know from freedom of information records, that he committed a crime. He was charged with the 1975 murders of two FBI agents during a shootout on the Pine Ridge reservation.
There are few political prisoners in the US who had, and continue to have, as much support for their release. Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, and Coretta Scott King have all asked for him to be free.
Even the U.S. attorney, who helped put Peltier in prison in the 1970s, James Reynolds, has written a letter to President Joe Biden asking to grant Peltier clemency. Reynolds confirms that federal officials never had evidence that Peltier committed a crime.
Peltier was born n 1944, on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota. At the age of nine, he was enrolled at an Indian School and forced to speak English only. In 1965, Peltier relocated to Seattle, Washington, and worked as a welder, construction worker, and co-owner of an auto shop. In Seattle, Peltier became involved in a variety of causes championing Native American civil rights. It was Dennis Banks who invited him to join AIM, the American Indian Movement in 1972.
Three years later Peltier traveled as a member of AIM to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to try to help reduce the violence among political opponents and protect the traditional Indian families.
Leonard Peltierâs Covid diagnosis has given the movements to free him a new sense of urgency. Among the recent articles and reports is this interview by the Pulitzer Prizeâwinning journalist and author Chris Hedges of Kevin Sharp, a former federal judge, and now Leonard Peltierâs attorney. This program, The Framing of Leonard Peltier, was posted on Jan. 30, 2022. https://www.rt.com/shows/on-contact/547591-kevin-sharp-former-federal-judge/
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