#free leonard peltier

[mypatchworkreflection]

President Biden is running out of time to change course on human rights before his legacy is sealed.

Before his term ends, there are six crucial things he can do without Congress or anyone else. And WE can apply the pressure needed to make them happen!

Sign on to our letter urging President Biden to take action while he still can:

Change course on Gaza: Stop all U.S. arms transfers to the government of Israel to protect civilians, ensure a ceasefire, and free all hostages

Commute the death sentences of the 40 people on federal death row

Act for racial justice and set up a commission to examine reparations for slavery

Rectify a long standing case of injustice: free Indigenous elder and activist Leonard Peltier

Transfer the 16 people cleared for release out of Guantánamo Bay to countries where their human rights will be respected

Take a human rights-first approach at the border: Prioritize, protect and fulfill the right to seek asylum

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jennifer Bendery at HuffPost:

WASHINGTON ― After nearly 50 years in prison, Native American rights activist Leonard Peltier is about to get what may be his last chance at freedom. Peltier, 79, is up for a parole hearing on Monday. His last parole hearing was in 2009. Given his poor health and the many years he’d likely have to wait for his next hearing, it is unlikely he would survive to make another one.

The U.S. government put Peltier in prison in 1977 after he was convicted for killing two FBI agents in a 1975 shoot-out on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. But his trial was riddled with misconduct, and his prolonged imprisonment has drawn sharp condemnation from prominent human rights leaders, including Pope Francis, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela. Dozens of U.S. senators and members of Congress have urged his release. So have dozens of Indigenous legislators. Amnesty International, an organization typically focused on human rights violations abroad, has an entire campaign centered on Peltier’s case. “Leonard Peltier has been imprisoned for nearly 50 years, and now suffers from severe health issues,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, told HuffPost in a statement. “It’s time for him to go home and live out his remaining days with his family and his community.”

There was never evidence that Peltier committed this crime. The FBI and U.S. attorney’s office never did figure out who killed those agents. But Peltier, who was one of dozens of people present at the shoot-out, was the only person left for them to go after. He had been separated from his co-defendants, all of whom had already been acquitted on grounds of self-defense. Prosecutors in his trial hid key evidence. The FBI threatened and coerced witnesses into lying. On the second day of the trial, a juror admitted she was biased against Native Americans but was kept on. Peltier has maintained his innocence the entire time he’s been in prison. He had a chance to be released in 2009 when he was up for parole, but it would have required him to say that he murdered the two FBI agents. He wouldn’t do it. His parole was denied.

[...] If Peltier’s parole is denied again on Monday, there’s really only one other way he’s got a chance at living out his final years at home in North Dakota with his family and tribe: if President Joe Biden grants him clemency. The president could do this unilaterally at any point. So far, he has chosen not to. As a political matter, the issue of Peltier’s release isn’t going away. Democrats in Congress have publicly appealed to Biden at least four times to grant clemency to Peltier. The National Congress of American Indians, the largest and most powerful Indigenous rights group in the country, has said Peltier’s freedom is a priority for the organization and its membership heading into the November elections. In 2022, the Democratic National Committee unanimously passed a resolution calling on Biden to grant clemency to Peltier.

It’s well past time to #FreeLeonardPeltier.

[amastelle]

[yetisidelblog]

Leonard Peltier is almost 80 years old. He’s a Native activist in the American Indian Movement (AIM), a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and is now serving his 49th year of incarceration, making him the longest-serving political prisoner in U.S. history.

Leonard, now elderly and battling chronic health conditions that were made even worse after he contracted COVID while in prison, is serving two life sentences for his alleged role in the deaths of two FBI agents during a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Principally charged with the murders, Peltier’s co-defendants were found not guilty on grounds of self-defense. In Leonard’s case, exculpatory ballistics evidence was withheld, testimony coerced by the FBI was recanted, and a recognition of the violation of his Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury has fueled the global support for his release.

Over the years, the level of clear misconduct has prompted the very officials who put him behind bars to step forward and join the cry for justice for Leonard Peltier. Former FBI Special Agent and former Minneapolis Division Counsel Coleen Rowley wrote to President Biden asking to release Leonard Peltier and James Reynolds, the former federal prosecutor who oversaw Leonard Peltier’s post-trial sentencing and appeals, also wrote to Biden asking for clemency, saying:

“I have realized that the prosecution and continued incarceration of Mr. Peltier was and is unjust. We were not able to prove that Mr. Peltier personally committed any offense on the Pine Ridge Reservation.”

We have a lot of support in this urgent fight for justice. UN experts, U.S. Congressmembers, Amnesty International, the Democratic National Committee's Native American Caucus, the National Caucus of Native American State Legislators, the National Congress of American Indians, human rights leaders (such as Nelson Mandela, Coretta Scott King, and the Dalai Lama), and many others have called for Peltier to be released.

In addition to celebrities, human rights leaders, and United Nations legal experts calling on President Biden to grant Leonard Pelter his freedom, hundreds of Indigenous artists wrote in a letter to President Biden: “Nothing is more emblematic of the mistreatment of American Indians and the uneven hand of the criminal justice system than the handling of his case by the federal government.”

The time has long past for Leonard to be freed. Compassionate release was denied. We petitioned the Parole Commission to finally grant Leonard his freedom, and it was denied.

Now, President Joe Biden may be Leonard Peltier’s last and best hope for freedom. But let’s be clear, the only way Leonard Peltier can get his freedom restored is through public pressure on President Biden.

Peltier should be able to live out the rest of his life in dignity, with his family on his ancestral homelands.

Now, together with a broad coalition of organizations representing millions of people across the country, we’re asking you to join the fight.

Click ‘START WRITING’ to sign and send your message urging President Biden to grant executive clemency and free Native activist Leonard Peltier from federal prison now.

Time Sensitive! Please send your message now!

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[misfitwashere]

Free Leonard Peltier.

From Huffington Post:

The U.S. government put Peltier in prison in 1977 after he was convicted for killing two FBI agents in a 1975 shoot-out on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

There was never evidence that Peltier committed this crime. The FBI and U.S. attorney’s office never did figure out who killed those agents.

But Peltier, who was one of dozens of people present at the shoot-out, was the only person left for them to go after. He had been separated from his co-defendants, all of whom had already been acquitted on grounds of self-defense. Prosecutors in his trial hid key evidence. The FBI threatened and coerced witnesses into lying. On the second day of the trial, a juror admitted she was biased against Native Americans but was kept on.

Peltier has maintained his innocence the entire time he’s been in prison. He had a chance to be released in 2009 when he was up for parole, but it would have required him to say that he murdered the two FBI agents. He wouldn’t do it. His parole was denied.

You may not know Leonard Peltier's story. I encourage you to give an old man five minutes of your time and read the article.

[tiliman2]

Leonard Peltier is the longest held political prisoner in US history. He’s also a brilliant painter & author. Call your representatives and even Byron to demand he be pardoned 🪶

[musingmollusk]

There's a claxon in my head this month that is just "Leonard Peltier" repeated over and over. The volume increases as the month progresses and when Biden pardons someone else.

please. he's so old. let us have this at least before the end of days.

[poetry-feeling42]

Luigi Mangione is innocent until proven guilty

[ozahnmcclarnono]

Tomorrow is Leonard Peltier’s parole hearing. Probably his last. I hope with every fiber of my being that he is finally released and can spend his remaining time with his family, friends and community. Please pray and send him positivity.

[prairiedeath]

source

[bringerofjollity44]

Free Leonard Peltier! Text quoted from NDN Collective's social media

35 people were arrested today at the #FreeLeonardPeltier 79th Birthday Action in so-called Washington DC.

“Getting arrested today, I’m resisting. I’m dissenting against the 48 years that Leonard Peltier has been illegally incarcerated by the United States government. I’m dissenting against the system, white supremacy, the police state and the system of incarceration and we’re doing it in solidarity with Leonard Peltier. We’re asking President Joe Biden for Executive Clemency. We will keep coming back to the White House and we’ll be pressuring all parts of the government until we see justice for Leonard Peltier and see him come back with his family, community and people.” - @Nick Tilsen, President and CEO of NDN Collective.

WAYS TO TAKE ACTION TO #FREELEONARDPELTIER

📱Call The White House at (202) 456-1111 📧 Email The White House at: whitehouse.gov/contact ✍🏽 Write your Reps & Senators - ask them to urge @POTUS to #FreeLeonardPeltier: https://ndnco.cc/FindYourRep 📄 Sign & Share Native Organizer Alliance’s ndnco.cc/signtofreeleonard ✍🏽 Write to Leonard Peltier: LEONARD PELTIER #89637-132 USP COLEMAN I P.O. BOX 1033 COLEMAN, FL 33521

👀 Watch and Share: X Spaces conversation featuring @HollyMacarro & @NickTilsen co-hosted with @amnestyusa: https://ndnco.cc/3ONZMdP ✊🏽 Join NDN Collective’s Leonard Peltier Campaign and Listserv to get the latest updates ➡️ https://ndnco.cc/LPNetwork

[13thpythagoras]

the past is fixed...

existentialists are all about free will, so any solid existentialist philosopher needs a manifesto about how free will cannot actually change the past.

Revisionist history is part of how oppression works. They tell us we have a history of being different "color" races yet all humans are the human race. Make it make sense...

Only oppressors try to rewrite the past, and they do this constantly.

Like for example how the GOP trolls are always blaming Democrats for slavery, even though the Confederate south at that time were Democrats, and Republicans were in the north hunting slavers and shooting to kill, and today again we see racist-revivalists in the south are now Republican and the north are Democrats.

If you have under a 5th grade reading level like Trumpo Marx and his band of angry closed-minded goons, you probably got lost and confused before reading about how this switch occurred during LBJ's extremely weird presidency where they had just killed JFK so they could start the Vietnam Genocide/"wAr" -so they revise all of that history and pretend like the Gulf of Tonkin was real and that there was no political party reversal in 1964 with the signing of the bill of rights, which is sad that we needed that but now that I'm thinking about it, this seems like a cruel negotiation. Was the bill of rights the chip traded behind the scenes with fascist powers for the Vietnam Genocide? History is complex and unresolved as you can see.

Yet philosophically speaking, "in theory," the past is absolutely and completey determined.

Free will has nothing, just absolutely zero to say about changing the past, and revisionist history is a primary tool of oppressors, as illustrated so well by Orwell's 1984. Yet there are myriad unique perspectives to history that all must be accounted for.

So when I say "maximize free will" is like my own personal "hakuna matata" phrase, or "live long and prosper," it is just a mantra of positivity, except this one didn't come from the approval of Disney bosses...

Traditional or old school utilitarians would say maximize happiness. To me, happiness is trite amidst ongoing genocides and oppression. Did we incarnate here to spiritually retire or did we incarnate here to help heal this troubled, troubled world? Maximize happiness to me strikes as hollow, shallow, like eh go see a movie and get therapy and some prozac and you're done? No, happiness is a product of the journey, not the destination. Free will leaves that door open for me to say, what if I'm like YOLO fuck happiness I want to free the people in chains

[MAXI] [MIZE] [FREE] [WILL]

[eternalegoist]

Do the right thing, the only thing 👏

The 50th anniversary of AIMs (American Indian Movement's) occupation at Wounded Knee is coming up, so the Lakota People's Law Project is leading another push to free an AIM activist who was wrongly convicted of killing two federal agents in 1975- Leonard Peltier. He was convicted on false evidence and false testimony and sentenced to two life sentences. He is now 78.

LPL has a formatted email up on their website now which you can personalize and send to Biden to ask for clemency. (Please personalize emails like this so it doesn't get filtered as spam. Just move some words around, add some, take some, you don't have to write a whole email.) Please pass this around.

[amastelle]

[misfitwashere]

Free Leonard Peltier