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Cathy McCarthy's avatar

I have worked nonstop to free Leonard Peltier since 1995! I met him in Leavenworth in 2000 and have communicated, mostly by letter, ever since. I have sent dozens of emails to the WH during each administration starting with Clinton when there seemed to be a chance. Bottom line -the FBI has every president scared stiff to let him go! The FBI and DOJ railroaded him b/c the real trigger man, the late Bob Robideau, Leonard's cousin admitted under oath to doing the deed after he was acquitted by reason of self-defense. For reasons of double jeopardy they knew they could not touch him. But someone had to pay. The prosecution and appeal judge even admitted to the sound reasons for retrying his case but still refused to do the right thing stating that "someone had to pay" even if that someone was innocent. Is that justice? Still the DOJ would not budge as year after year an army of researchers went through FBI documentation and found tons of evidence of their lying duplicity in the case.

There is a horrid regulation that currently provides the excuse for disallowing compassionate release for Leonard. It also justifies keeping a federal parole board around despite it being disbanded by Act in Congress in 1984. He is an "Old Law" inmate, meaning his conviction predates 1987. "New Law" prisoners convictions post 1987 are eligible for compassionate and mandatory release while "Old Law" prisoners are not and are at the mercy of a parole board controlled by the FBI. This reg. in essence assigns a de facto DEATH PENALTY from COVID 19 to a vast number of minority elderly inmates. Leonard jokingly opines that this regulation was made specifically to keep him in jail forever.

There is currently a bipartisan Senate Bill sponsored by Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley to strike this unconstitutional regulation down. But it will come too late for Leonard. Biden MUST enact an executive order, effective IMMEDIATELY if Leonard is to survive this latest DOJ attempt to execute him. Scream like hell for Leonard, an innocent man and for every elderly inmate stuck in these hell hole death traps!

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Bill Martinez's avatar

Hi Michael. Thanks for your message about Leonard Peltier. There will be an event honoring Leonard on February 24 at Brava Theater in San Francisco (Flor y Canto Indigenista): Please pass the word: https://www.brava.org/all-events/flor-y-canto-indigenista.

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