Clinton to Look at Peltier Case

By
ABC News
January 7, 2006, 9:57 AM ET
2 min read

W A S H I N G T O N, Nov. 27, 2000 -- President Bill Clinton willreview pending requests for executive clemency before he leavesoffice in January, including that of Leonard Peltier, anAmerican Indian leader convicted of murdering two FBI agents inSouth Dakota in 1975, the White House said Sunday.

“The president will focus on as many clemency cases as hecan before he leaves office, and the Peltier case will be oneof them,” said White House spokesman Daniel Cruise.

Earlier this month, Amnesty International urged Clinton topardon Peltier, who has spent 24 years in prison for killingtwo FBI agents during the 1975 siege at the Pine Ridge IndianReservation.

The international human rights organization said his casewas riddled with prosecutorial misconduct, perjury, fabricationof evidence and suppression of exculpatory evidence.

‘An Honest Look-See’

In an interview with WBAI-FM in New York City on Nov. 7,Clinton said he would look at the Peltier case as part of anoverall review of clemency cases, according to excerptsreleased by the White House.

Asked specifically about Peltier, Clinton said he has“never had time actually to sit down myself and review thatcase.”

“I know it’s very important to a lot of people, maybe onboth sides of the issue,” Clinton told the radio station. “AndI think I owe it to them to give it an honest look-see.”

Double Homicide

On June 26, 1975, FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Colerwere shot and killed during a gunfight involving federal agentsand American Indian activists at the Pine Ridge reservation.

Peltier was arrested, found guilty and sentenced to twoconsecutive life terms in June 1977.

Peltier has maintained his innocence.

Amnesty International said the trial judge refused to let awitness that could have swayed the jury’s opinion take thestand and that prosecutors withheld a ballistics report thatcould have proved Peltier was not the killer.

The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee says the FBI singledout Peltier as a leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM)and had made him and other AIM members the subjects of theso-called COINTELPRO program. The group said the program wasaimed at silencing AIM through attacks and arrests.