On the 13th of November, the final leg of the Leonard Peltier walk to justice, with stops at the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument before finishing the over 1,100 mile walk at the US Capitol. Marchers demanded that Leonard Peltier be released unconditionally from the US prison system, where he has been held hostage for decades for a “crime” he did not commit, for supposedly shooting two FBI agents with rounds ballistics proved his weapon could not have fired. Leonard is a political prisoner.
Peltier’s original codefendents were acquitted in a different trial-and jurors later reported they feared US Marshalls would SHOOT them for refusing to convict Indigenous fighters for an act clearly none of them were “guilty” of. Peltier was convicted in a later trial for supposedly shooting the two FBI agents who had invaded the Lakota reservation at Pine Ridge. There is evidence FBI agents lied on the stand, starting with supposedly entering the reservation pursuing a red truck, when Leonard did not have a red truck all red trucks anywhere near Pine Ridge had been stopped for weeks. Peltier’s SUV was orange and white, it was neither red nor a pickup truck. All of the Indigenous witnesses who testified against Leonard later said they only claimed he had shot the agents because they were personally threatened by the FBI. A ballistics report proved the cartridges from which the bullets striking FBI agents came did NOT match the firing pin in Leonard’s weapon. This was intentionally concealed at trial. The ballistics report proves whatever happened on Pine Ridge that day, no bullet striking any FBI agent emerged from Leonard Peltier’s weapon. Thus he cannot be “guilty” of killing any of them.
On top of all else, under international law, the only crimes committed by anyone at Pine Ridge that day were committed by the FBI. The Indigenous warriors who stood up to the FBI that day are not even accused of doing anything that would not also be done by say, Ukrainian soldiers on seeing Russian soldiers cross their borders armed for war. Whoever did shoot those FBI invaders was a soldier defending their country, nothing less. The “Indian” wars are NOT over.
freeleonard(dot)org/case/
