And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
From: "LPDC" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: The Struggle against Conviction story in Kansan
Date: Mon, 3 May 1999 10:45:56 -0500
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The struggle against conviction
Supporters fight for Leonard Peltier�s freedom as the �political prisoner's�
health continues to fail
By Pallavi Agarwal
Special to the Kansan
A large black-and-white photograph from Leonard Peltier�s younger days
dominates one wall of the international office of the Leonard Peltier
Defense Committee in downtown Lawrence.
His eyes crinkle in a smile. Teeth flash under a bushy eyebrow, and
shoulder-length hair frames a face that falls into a slight double chin.
It is not the same face that an international human rights activist would
find today if she visited the Leavenworth prison to examine the Native
American, who is probably the best known American �political prisoner� in
the world.
Peltier is serving two consecutive life sentences for the death of two FBI
agents who were killed in 1975.
Twenty-three years spent behind bars has left Peltier fighting depression
and bitterness. He has aged in the face and in his body.
Now 54 years old, he has lockjaw due to tetanus. It prevents him from
chewing food properly and is creating concern among his supporters for his
life.
Gina Chiala, legal assistant at the Peltier Defense Committee, said Peltier
could not open his mouth beyond 13 millimeters and was forced to eat his
food by pushing the morsels through a gap in his front teeth and then
mashing them against the teeth with his tongue.
Peltier, who twice has undergone operation by prison doctors, has refused a
third operation, saying that only specialists at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester,
Minn., have the expertise to treat him without endangering his life.
His insistence at being treated at the Mayo Clinic and the refusal of the
Bureau of Prisons to grant his request have sparked publicity campaigns by
the Peltier Defense Committee. It also has prompted today�s visit of
activist Danielle Mitterand, former first lady of France and president of
the France Libertes Foundation, a non-government organization.
Mitterand will address the Lawrence public at 6:30 tonight at the Haskell
Indian Nations University auditorium.
Peltier, in a telephone interview from Leavenworth, said he could only hope
for his plight to improve.
�I need to keep trying. Although new evidence emerged, it has not helped me.
It's been 25 years. In 1985, the government admitted that they didn�t know
who killed the agents. And yet nothing has changed.�
His spirit to survive holds together a three-decade campaign to free him
that has made his name synonymous with the struggle of indigenous people.
Back in Lawrence, a few volunteers refuse to give up their efforts for his
eventual freedom.
�He is always very cheerful,� said Lisa Faruolo, who once worked with the
Peltier Defense Committee.
The committee operates an international campaign from Lawrence, which
Faruolo helped to coordinate until last year.
The dark-haired San Francisco resident left her home in 1991 to help free
Peltier and never returned.
Today, supporters like her, will hear Mitterand talk about Peltier, a man
many consider to be the most famous Native American rebel since Crazy Horse
and who, some add, is better known outside the country than in the land of
his birth and imprisonment.
The man behind the bars
Peltier was indicted for the deaths of two FBI agents who were killed on
June 26, 1975 at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
At that time, he was associated with the American Indian Movement, which
emerged in the 1960s as a radical, activist and sometimes armed group of
Native Americans who fought for the sovereignty of their tribes.
Pine Ridge had been the scene of shootouts and protests since 1973, and
tensions ran high between the AIM and the Lakota Sioux, who ran Pine Ridge's
tribal government. Some on the reservation accused the tribal superintendent
of selling off the uranium-rich land � land the AIM was trying to protect.
On June 26, two FBI agents went looking for a man accused of stealing a pair
of cowboy boots. The search lead to a car chase, a shootout and the agents
never returned alive.
The government has maintained that the agents were killed in cold blood. In
the crossfire, one Native American also lost his life.
Four people, including Peltier, were charged in the deaths. Peltier, who had
escaped to Canada, was later extradited and indicted. Charges were dropped
against the third defendant. The other two faced the jury and were
acquitted.
Peltier, who has maintained his innocence all along, was found guilty and
sentenced to two consecutive life terms.
In 1985, a federal prosecutor admitted to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals
that the FBI did not know who killed the agents. The appeals court upheld
the sentence, however, calling Peltier an �aider and abettor.�
Jean Bordeaux-Roach, Rapid City, S.D., resident and Peltier Defense
Committee spokesperson, said that Peltier was made a scapegoat in a fight
between the United States government and the Native Americans that has
spanned centuries.
She said that if the other defendants were acquitted on the basis of
self-defense, then the same argument applied to Peltier.
Hillary Robinette, communications director with the Society of Former FBI
agents, said that Peltier was only being tried for a crime he committed.
Peltier has thrice appealed unsuccessfully for a retrial. His 1993 plea for
clemency still awaits a reply from President Clinton or his successor. In
1996, the U.S. Parole Commission rejected his appeal for parole, saying he
was not eligible until 2008.
Peltier�s disease
Peltier�s lockjaw problem started from childhood when he stepped on a nail
and developed tetanus.
He said that the problem worsened after the two operations conducted by
Springfield doctors in 1996. He said the lockjaw also was causing constant
earaches and headaches on his right side.
Chiala said the bureau�s refusal to allow Peltier to be examined at the Mayo
Clinic as a sign of the government�s ill-treatment of prisoners.
�Prisoners have no rights,� she said. �We deem this cruel and unusual
punishment and a medical malpractice.�
Meanwhile, the bureau refers all questions on Peltier�s medical condition to
a press release posted on their Web site.
The press release said Peltier and the medical staff at Leavenworth and
Springfield had discussed his medical condition in a recent teleconference,
during which he was told that his condition was stable and that he did not
require prolonged intensive treatment at the bureau medical facility.
Eugene Keller, a specialist with the Mayo Clinic, has written to prison
authorities, offering to examine Peltier and provide a second opinion of his
condition. But Chiala said that as of now, authorities have denied the
physician�s request.
Barbara Fortier, Peltier supporter from Atlanta, sent her mother�s food
chopper to the penitentiary so that Peltier�s food could be ground up,
making it easier for him to eat.
The packet came back.
�They thought it was a bomb,� she said.
Friends in high places
Peltier�s case often has attracted international attention.
On February 11, the European Parliament passed a resolution requesting that
the U.S. government grant him executive clemency.
Amnesty International, a global human rights watchdog organization,
considers Peltier a prisoner of conscience who received an unfair trial and
sentence, and is being denied proper medical treatment.
Peltier also was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Many, like Nobel Peace
prize winners Rigoberta Menchu and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, have spoken in
his support.
Some government officials, like former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, have
turned into supporters. Clark was for several years a part of Peltier�s
defense team.
Peltier�s cause has been documented in films such as the Robert Redford
documentary Incident at Oglala and books like Peter Matthiessen�s �In the
Spirit of Crazy Horse.�
Peltier, paintings decorate the homes of celebrities like Jane Fonda, Val
Kilmer and Robert Redford
This February, 76 Peltier supporters went on a hunger strike around the
world as an appeal to have him transferred to the Mayo Clinic. Other
supporters sent e-mail and letters, Chiala said.
Mitterand�s talk will be followed by presentations from three survivors of
the 1975 shootout � Bordeaux-Roach, Jean Day and Edgar Bear Runner.
The New Dawn Dancers, a youth group organized by the Pelathe Indian Center,
will perform. KU assistant professor Cornel Pewewardy also will play the
flute. The program is free to the public.
Through Mitterand�s visit, the Peltier Defense Committee hopes to whip up
more international pressure for Peltier�s release.
Roach said that the committee saw the international community as Peltier�s
best bet.
Some like Harvey Arden, editor of Peltier�s forthcoming book, �Prison
Writings: My Life is my_ Sun Dance�, agreed.
�Peltier is better known in Europe than in America,� he said.
Peltier often has been visited by celebrities in prison, but Mitterand�s
visit coincides at a time when some of his supporters say that prison
authorities increasingly are isolating him against the outside world so as
to kill any news about him.
�They are trying to break him,� Chiala said.
Some, like Fortier believe, that if it were not for his supporters� constant
monitoring, he would have been dead by now.
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
