**Patrick Leahy Calls For Leonard Peltier's Release From Prison after 44 years**

[hlthe2b]

Patrick Leahy Calls For Leonard Peltier's Release From Prison
The former Judiciary Committee chairman and longest-serving U.S. senator says it's time for the Native American activist to go home after 44 years.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/patrick-leahy-leonard-peltier-prison-release_n_61a690e0e4b0ae9a42b4b8ff

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the former longtime chair of the Judiciary Committee and the longest-serving member of the U.S. Senate, said Tuesday that it’s time for Native American activist Leonard Peltier to be released from federal prison and go home.

Without hesitation, Leahy, who is currently chair of the Appropriations Committee, answered yes to all of HuffPost’s questions about Peltier.

Do you know who Peltier is? “Yes.”

The Native American activist who’s been in prison? For decades? “Yes.”

Is it time for him to be released? “Yes.”

--snip--

Peltier has been in prison for 44 years for a crime he says he didn’t commit. His trial was riddled with misconduct. Prosecutors hid key evidence. The FBI threatened and coerced witnesses into lying. A juror admitted she was biased against Peltier’s race on the second day of the trial but was allowed to stay on anyway.

There was never proof that he killed two FBI agents in a 1975 shootout on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. But the FBI needed someone to take the fall. It had just lost two agents, and Peltier’s co-defendants were all acquitted on grounds of self-defense. His trial was also happening as the FBI was trying to suppress the activities of the American Indian Movement (AIM), a grassroots group of activists focused on drawing attention to federal treaty rights violations, discrimination and police brutality targeting Native Americans.

I hope to hell Biden will listen to Leahy. This has been an incredibly prolonged travesty.

[ismnotwasm]

1. Let that man out.

My God, let him free.

[zipplewrath]

4. Probably not

If anything he'll get let out on parole, with an entire justice department looking to stick him back in jail.

[LoisB]

2. Should not have been imprisoned in the first place.

[LT Barclay]

6. No, but note the line in the article where it says it came at a time when the FBI was trying to

suppress the activities of the American Indian Movement.
That was all the reason they needed. At least he didn't end up like a lot of other leaders who challenged the establishment.

[Lucid Dreamer]

3. 'Bout time

I read the book about his case back in 1990.
I could never understand how his imprisonment could have been extended so long.
No justice here at all.
I hope there is unanimous support for Peltier's release.

[bahboo]

5. WAY beyond time for this....

[2naSalit]

7. +1

[Mopar151]

8. Cops get mean QUICK when justice for Lenoard is mentioned.

[love_katz]

9. Free Leanord.

Make it so!

[JoeOtterbein]

10. K n R ! Thanks for posting! nt

[doublethink]

11. RATM ...

[Raine]

12. I wish they would let him out but so far no president has dared go against the FBI and set a Peltier

free.