BY STEVE CRAINE
DES MOINES, Iowa - On December 12 federal prison authorities, without prior warning, removed Leonard Peltier from the Leavenworth, Kansas, penitentiary and put him on a plane to Oklahoma City. He is now being held in a "temporary" prison there.
In a telephone interview, Bill May of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee said that the Native American leader was told he will be transferred eventually to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, but has been given no reason for the abrupt action.
Lawyers for Peltier appeared in Oklahoma City December 15 to argue for a delay and to reverse this arbitrary move. Peltier wants to stay closer to his family and defense committee, which is based in Lawrence, Kansas.
Peltier has been in prison since 1977, serving two life sentences on frame-up charges of killing two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota. He was indicted along with other leaders of the American Indian Movement (AIM) after federal agents, South Dakota authorities, and goons from the Pine Ridge tribal council laid siege on Oglala, a small town on the reservation where AIM members were camped. The FBI-organized assault took place in 1975 at the center of the battleground between Native American rights fighters and the U.S. government.
Peltier and two other AIM activists were charged for the deaths of two FBI agents during that siege. No one was charged for the killing of a young Indian. The two other AIM defendants were acquitted. Peltier was eventually arrested in Canada and extradited to the United States. He was tried separately in Fargo, North Dakota, and convicted on the basis of fabricated statements and circumstantial evidence the FBI presented. The judge excluded much evidence the defense tried to present, including the fact that the other two AIM activists had been acquitted.
Federal courts have since rejected three appeals by Peltier, even after ruling that the government withheld critical evidence from the defense and the FBI agents who directed the investigation had engaged in "improper conduct." At the original trial, prosecutors claimed Peltier fired the fatal shots. But during the appeals hearings government lawyers admitted they did not know who fired the shots.
The latest harassment of Peltier came just one day after he had participated in a parole hearing at the Leavenworth penitentiary, where he had been held since 1985. In this two- hour hearing Peltier presented his case for parole.
May said that government representative Lynn Crooks told the parole board, "Somebody murdered those agents. Even if it wasn't him, somebody had to do it."
May said the U.S. Parole Commission's representative indicated he was confused as to the original charges against Peltier. He encouraged Peltier's defense team to supply him with further documents.
In 1993, the commission had ruled against parole, telling Peltier he would have to serve 15 more years - until 2008 - before he could again be considered for release. The defense committee expects a decision from the Parole Commission within a month.
Two days prior to the hearing, another inmate had attempted to provoke Peltier. Prison authorities put both Peltier and his assailant "in the hole" from Dec. 9 to Dec. 12, when a disciplinary hearing was held, which cleared Peltier of any wrongdoing in the unprovoked attack. Immediately following this hearing, Peltier was handcuffed and whisked off to Oklahoma City.
The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee is calling on supporters of the Native American leader's fight for justice, and all other democratic-minded people, to call or send messages to the Atlanta prison warden to let officials there know they will be held accountable for Peltier's safety.
You can call Warden Willie Scott at (404) 622-6241 or send a fax to him at USP Atlanta, (404) 331-2137.
Copies of messages can be sent to the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Box 583, Lawrence, Kansas 66044; Tel: (913) 842-5774; Fax (913) 842-5796.