The agents marched two-by-two around the White House, wearing their FBI badges and blue memorial ribbons, and carrying pictures of their colleagues, Ron Williams and Jack Coler. Peltier is serving two consecutive life sentences in the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, for a conviction on frame-up charges of killing the two FBI agents.

John Sennett, the president of the FBI Agents Association, carried a petition signed by 9,500 active and retired law enforcement officers opposed to Peltier's release.

New York Times reporter David Johnson was one who was struck by the "highly unusual" cop demonstration. "For a civilian agency steeped in paramilitary tradition, the protest was a serious break from discipline," he wrote.

Another 100 FBI agents staged a similar demonstration in El Paso, Texas, in front of the agency's headquarters. Their head officer, Edmundo Guevara, read out a statement opposing any clemency for Peltier.

While they did not grant the Washington march official sanction, FBI Director Louis Freeh and other officials expressed approval of the action. Freeh, who spoke at a memorial service for Williams and Coler before the march, has written to President William Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno expressing his "abhorrence" over the possibility of Peltier's release.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde and 21 other members of the U.S. Congress have also written to Clinton recommending denial of Peltier's request for clemency.

Clinton has been noncommittal in his brief remarks on the case--one of a number he has been asked to consider in his last days in office--saying only that "I know it's very important to a lot of people, maybe on both sides of the issue," and that he would give the matter a "look-see."

Peltier, who is 56, has already served more than two decades in prison. He has repeatedly denied involvement in the deaths of the agents, stressing in an interview earlier this year with the Seattle Times that "I didn't kill those people."  
 
25-year frame-up
Williams and Coler died from shots to the head in June 26, 1975, on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. The FBI claims they were searching for robbery suspects at the time. Peltier was on the reservation to help defend the rights of local people under attack from tribal council goon squads. At the April 1977 trial, the government argued that Peltier possessed a weapon of the type claimed by investigators to have been used in the killings.

According to the decision of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, Peltier's trial and previous appeals had been riddled with FBI misconduct and judicial impropriety.

"It has been established that no one knows who fired the fatal shots," said Jennifer Harbury, one of Peltier's attorneys, who contends that Peltier was convicted on false testimony and fabricated evidence. "FBI agents coerced and intimidated witnesses, intentionally used false testimony, and concealed from the defense a critical ballistic test reflecting his innocence," she said.

Peltier's fight for justice has gained widespread support in the United States and around the world.

Thousands held a march December 10 near the United Nations in New York to demand Peltier's release. Among the many well-known figures who have voiced their support is former South African president Nelson Mandela.

Peltier was denied parole in a hearing earlier this year. He does not become eligible again until 2008.  
 
 
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