A group of lawyers is pushing for President Barack Obama to issue clemency for Leonard Peltier.
Peltier is serving two life sentences for the convicted murders of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the 1970’s.
In 1975, two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ron Williams, were killed on the Pine Ridge Reservation during a shootout near the town of Oglala.
Martin Garbus is a New York attorney and legal counsel for Leonard Peltier. He says Peltier was wrongfully convicted of the murders.
“The political atmosphere when Leonard was tried was horrendous," Garbus says. "You had a state that was nearly at war. You had the Wounded Knee shootout. So, the possibility of getting a fair trial, along with the fact that the government withheld evidence, was impossible.”
Garbus says he hopes President Obama grants either clemency or compassionate release. Garbus says Peltier is eligible for compassionate release due to his age and deteriorating health.
Peltier has been incarcerated for 41 years. Many critics of Peltier’s conviction call him a political prisoner who has served more time than South Africa’s Nelson Mandela.
But others, like Ed Woods, disagree. He’s the founder of the No Parole Peltier Association and a former FBI Agent. He says Peltier is not a political prisoner, but a cold-blooded convicted murderer. Woods says Peltier should finish out the remainder of his two life sentences.
“There’s no politics involved here. It’s a straight adulteration of an otherwise proud native culture where Leonard Peltier and the American Indian Movement did absolutely nothing to help their own people.”
Woods says Peltier doesn’t qualify for clemency or release from Obama because the president is focused on pardoning non-violent drug crimes.
President Obama has until the end of his term to decide whether to issue a pardon.