A participant in the American Indian Movement, he went to assist the Oglala Lakota people on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the mid-1970s where, on June 26, 1975, a tragic shoot out occurred.  He was wrongfully convicted in the deaths of two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and has been illegally incarcerated since 1976.

Federal prosecutors have twice admitted before the Courts of Appeal that they don't know who fired the fatal shots. The government also has admitted that it isn't known what role Leonard Peltier "may have played" in the incident. Since his politically motivated prosecution and conviction, proof of fabricated and suppressed evidence, as well as coerced testimony, has been uncovered.

The Courts of Appeal have repeatedly acknowledged investigative and prosecutorial misconduct in this case, but have failed to take corrective action. A model prisoner, Leonard continues to maintain his innocence and has conseqently been denied fair consideration for parole.

Join with numerous internationally recognized human rights organizations, civil rights leaders, celebrities and other luminaries who have called for the immediate release of Leonard Peltier.

By Ben Carnes
August 22, 2008

As most everyone knows I have been a spokesperson for Peltier in the past. Recently, I was asked by David Hill to help with organizing some events.

Yesterday, David was returning to Oklahoma after visiting with Leonard at the prison in Lewisburg, PA. He said that Leonard really needs help right now and that he wanted see if I could come up with some ideas to focus attention on the injustices of his case. So I may find myself involved again, and I am hoping that many others will renew their involvement with his case.

One way to do something right now is to join Peltier's' branches of support. You can sign up at www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/branches.htm.
And then network with your friends, campus organization, peace/social justice groups and so on.

Leonard's 64th birthday will be on Sept. 12th, and September 6 will mark 32 and half years of imprisonment for something the government cannot prove.

His case has generated support from the entertainment industry, religious/world leaders, 55 members of congress, numerous human rights groups such as Amnesty International, and other respected national and international organizations. Some 25 million letters have been written on his behalf. U.S. Presidents have patronized his supporters and then ignored his appeal for justice.

Attempts to initiate congressional hearings have been blocked, and the judicial system seems to withhold justice they would have granted to others. After being released from prison after evidence of his innocence was presented, Geronimo Ji-jaga Pratt expressed astonishment that Peltier was still held and with more proof and support on his side.

There have been several agents of the FBI who have said that it doesn't matter if Peltier is guilty or not. He will never be freed. The FBI will make sure of that and to me that sounds like a threat. It was the FBI who threatened the life of Anna Mae Aquash if she didn't cooperate in their investigations of who killed the agents. Standing Deer was also threatened with the loss of his life if he revealed the assassination plot in 1978. When Standing Deer was released and became involved with working for Peltier's' freedom, he was murdered in his Houston home in 2003.

In the Aquash case, it seems strange that all of a sudden the Justice Department and FBI are being cast as heroes in solving the case. It is highly questionable though that Looking Cloud got a fair trial. Graham isn't expected to see anything better. So if Graham is convicted, then will the case be over for Indians? Will "justice" be served on a plate of BS and greedily devoured by anti-AIMers and the media?

Will former federal agents David Price, William Wood, Norman Zigrossi, and Richard G. Held ever be tried for their roles in the deaths of AIM activists or the traditional people who supported them? Women and children were murdered, some viciously, and the FBI did nothing to prosecute.

The federal agents will never stand a day in their court. It isn't going to happen and never will. I say that because we have not secured a new trial or the release of Leonard Peltier.

With Graham's trial coming up on October 6th in Rapid City, S.D., it is an opportune time to remind people about who the thugs were that perpetuated the Oglala Civil War of the 1970's. The government has the capability and experience in fabricating their records and evidence. They gained experience from their mistakes.

When Bob Robideau and Dino Butler were found not guilty by reason of self-defense, Leonard would have been freed also had he not been in Canada and later tried before a different judge. The FBI learned after the Robideau and Butler case where their trial strategy failed and then shopped for a different Judge. The FBI created a climate of fear among the jurors and courtroom attendees, with SWAT teams covering their every move.

They made Leonard out to be a very dangerous man and the judge refused to allow Leonard to present the same evidence and testimony as was allowed for his co-defendants. With the court ruling against his defense, he had no defense at all. And years after his conviction, evidence surfaced that would have brought him a new trial. But the court incorrectly applied a strict standard and a new trial wasn't granted despite the prosecutorial misconduct in this case, that is, the withholding of evidence that would have proved his innocence.

This information and so much more I have spoken of since I became involved in 1991, and I've seen a groundswell of support rise and then fade away. There have been several changes in the leadership of the defense committee; others have misused his name for their own gain. The coordinator for the current committee is his younger sister, Betty.

Through their website, you can find resources to educate yourself on Peltier's' case. If you are a student, than write a research paper on the very criminal justice system within the colonial occupying government called America, using Peltier as an example. Obtain handouts on the chronology of his case, and then purchase products to keep Leonard's name and his case in the public mind.

We have held major benefit concerts, spoken at colleges/universities, held mass demonstrations; signed petitions and many other activities have been held around the world. What is it going to take to free him? I really wished I had an answer for you, and especially Peltier.

I know that a movement doesn't exist unless we are in a state of motion. We have to be doing something everywhere. Maybe we will need to have cross-country horse rides to publicize Peltier's case, hold spiritual fasts, or other activities to draw people's attention. I will see what I can come up with and if anything develops, we can get the word out.

Maybe write letters and hold public demonstrations to bring an investigation into the FBI's activities of the Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) that targeted Martin Luther King, the Kennedys and so many activists. The FBI is responsible for the false imprisonment of so many people and the murders and assassinations of so many others. In the era of homeland security, we may receive a visit from the suits and dark glasses threatening to have us taken in because we might be homegrown radicals and violent terrorists. If we are terrorists, then we stand the risk of being detained alongside Al-Qaeda and other people who may or may not be innocent.

It could be something to fear, but I know there were many nameless people who stood with that same fear against the federal government and they called themselves the American Indian Movement. And we have one who is falsely imprisoned and his name is Leonard Peltier.

Ben Carnes