And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
From: "LPDC" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Peltier's case back in court!
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 19:00:03 -0500
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Dear Peltier supporters,
Here is another press release. Please fax it to your local media and pass
it on to other supporters. It is extremely important we prepare to mobilize
and fill the court room as soon as there is news of a hearing. We will let
you know what is happening every step of the way!
---LPDC staff collective
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, June 22, 1999
FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL CHALLENGES THE U.S. PAROLE COMMISSION ON BEHALF
OF NATIVE AMERICAN POLITICAL PRISONER, LEONARD PELTIER
Conact:
Contact:
Gina Chiala
Lawrence Schilling
The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee Law Office-Ramsey Clark
785-842-5774
212-475-3232
For the first time in any court, a habeas corpus petition challenging the
denial by the U.S. Parole Commission of Leonard Peltier’s substantive and
procedural parole rights has been filed in federal district court in Topeka,
Kansas. This is the first attempt to enter Peltier’s case into the courts
since he last appealed his conviction in 1993. Peltier, who is considered
to be a political prisoner by Amnesty International who insists he be
immediately and unconditionally released, has become a notorious symbol of
injustice against Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. Peltier was
originally convicted in 1977 for the first degree murders of FBI agents,
Jack Coler and Ronald Williams.
The petition was filed by former Attorney General and lawyer, Ramsey Clark
with attorneys Carl Nadler and Lawrence Schilling. It was filed on June 4,
1999 and challenges as illegal, clearly erroneous, arbitrary, capricious,
and unconstitutional, the Commission’s denial of parole to Peltier and its
decision to schedule Peltier’s next parole release hearing in December
2008 -- 15 years in the future, 17 years in excess of the Commission’s
applicable guidelines and 6 years after the date set by Congress for the
total abolition of the Parole Commission itself. Peltier’s petition also
charges that as a result of changes in federal parole laws, practices and
procedures since 1975, Peltier has been imprisoned longer than the law then
authorized in violation of the Constitution’s ex post facto clause, as well
as Peltier’s right to due process and equal protection of the laws. The
Parole Commission is required to substantiate its reasons for denying a
prisoner parole beyond the guidelines. Peltier claims the Commission’s
stated reasons have been based on discriminatory and erroneous reasoning..
Additionally, the petition points to the dismantling process of the federal
parole commission since the Comprehensive Crime Control Act was passed in
1984 and ties this process to the denial of parole to prisoners like Peltier
for reasons of self interest. Also challenged is the Commission’s refusal
to acknowledge Peltier’s current health condition as a substantial reason to
consider his release. Peltier is currently suffering from a condition that,
according to prison officials, causes his jaw to be frozen open 13
millimeters.
Although government prosecutors have openly stated that there was not enough
evidence to prove that Peltier was responsible for the deaths of the two
agents killed during the 1975 shoot out on the Lakota Reservation, the
Commission has ignored this and repeatedly refused to reconsider parole,
stating that Peltier has not yet taken criminal responsibility for the
deaths. After a December 1995 Interim Parole Hearing Review, the
Commission stated in its subsequent decision, “The Commission recognizes
that the prosecution has conceded the lack of any direct evidence that you
personally participated in the executions of the two FBI agents. . . .
Later in the decision they stated that they would not reconsider parole for
Peltier because of his, “evident decision not to accept criminal
responsibility.” Peltier, who has always maintained his innocence, is now
spending his twenty-fouth year in prison.
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
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Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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