On 2 July 2024 the United States Parole Commission refused parole to 79-year-old Leonard Peltier, telling him it would next consider his case in 2039. Peltier will then be 95 years old. He has been imprisoned since 1976.
In the 1970s, the FBI sponsored a reign of terror against the indigenous people of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Between 1973 and 1975 FBI law enforcement officers killed more than 60 unarmed Lakota people. During this period, Leonard Peltier was a key organiser of the American Indian Movement (AIM). On 26 June 1975 the FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which ran Pine Ridge, engaged in a shootout with AIM members at the Jumping Bull family ranch at Oglala, which resulted in deaths of AIM member Joe Stuntz and of two FBI agents.
Leonard Peltier then became the main target of the FBI. He escaped to Canada and was later extradited back to the United States. He was subsequently convicted of the murder of the two agents. He has continued to refute these charges but has exhausted the appeals process and so is dependent either on an application for clemency or on the Parole Commission to release him. Parole was first refused in 1993 and has been denied at 10-15 year intervals since then. The most recent parole hearing took place on 10 June 2024.
Leonard Peltier’s prolonged incarceration is a slow death sentence. For decades, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has deprived him of medical care. This is in violation of the American Disabilities Act and the US Constitution’s 8th Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment. Leonard is diabetic, has difficulty eating and walking, has to use a walking frame and is losing his sight. He is at risk of falls and he needs treatment and adjustments for his disabilities. Instead, the prison authorities periodically withhold his insulin, as well as depriving him of adequate dental care. He is held in a bare and dirty cell in which the toilet does not flush properly.
Leonard’s legal team are challenging both the parole decision and the conditions in which he is held.
Show your solidarity by writing to:
Leonard Peltier #89637-132
USP COLEMAN I
P.O. BOX 1033
COLEMAN, FL 33521, USA
Cinaed De Canntun
International Committee for Political Prisoners London
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 301 August/September 2024
