Free Leonard Peltier

  • 15 years ago
Leonard Peltier (born September 12, 1944) is a Native American activist and member of the American Indian Movement. In 1977 he was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for the murder of two FBI Agents who died during a 1975 shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. There is considerable debate over Peltier’s guilt and the fairness of his trial. Some supporters and organizations, including Amnesty International, consider him to be a political prisoner.Amnesty International said, for example, that "Although he has not been adopted as a prisoner of conscience, there is concern about the fairness of the proceedings leading to his conviction and it is believed that political factors may have influenced the way the case was prosecuted." Numerous lawsuits have been filed on his behalf but none have succeeded. Peltier is currently incarcerated at the United States penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
Early life
Leonard Peltier was born in September 1944 in Grand Forks, North Dakota, the son of Leo Peltier and Alvina Robideau. He spent his early years living with his grandparents on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation. Peltier became involved in the American Indian Movement (AIM), eventually becoming the only person to serve a lengthy prison term for any of numerous incidents arising from the conflicts that occurred on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the early 1970s.[citation