PELTIER PAROLE REJECTED

Hours after his May 4 parole hearing, Native American political prisoner Leonard Peltier's application was denied.  Peltier told a supporter that the hearing "was a set-up" where even his attorneys were not permitted to speak. The board admitted that even though "the government can't prove who is responsible for the agents' death, someone has to pay."  Peltier was also told the board "spoke with one of the agent's wives and she wants you to die in here.  You will not receive another parole hearing until 2008."

Peltier was convicted of the 1975 shooting deaths of two FBI agents during a firefight at a settlement of traditional tribal leaders near Oglala, on the Pine Ridge, South Dakota Indian Reservation, a crime he did not commit.  The day of the gunfight, the corrupt Pine Ridge tribal president was secretly signing away reservation mineral rights to uranium and coal interests.

Four people arrested following a November, 1997, sit-in at the Department of Justice where they called for a decision on Peltier's petition for executive clemency have had their case continued, again.

Supporters of freedom for Peltier are urged to attend a June 27 demonstration, beginning at noon at the Ellipse Park in Washington, DC.  For more information, contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (the LPDC) at (785)842-5774; e-mail:lpdc@idir.net

Correction:  Previous issues of the Nuclear Resister have incorrectly referred to the 1975 incident at Oglala that led to Peltier's prosecution as having occurred at Wounded Knee.  The liberation of Wounded Knee occurred in 1973.

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last updated July 10 1998