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Wednesday, January 18, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Commentary...
Clemency for Leonard Peltier?
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
As the clock runs down
on the Obama presidency, so
too does the sand run out on
the bid for clemency of one
of the most high-profile pris-
oners in the American prison
system: American Indian
Movement (AIM) activ-
ist and convicted cop-killer
Leonard Peltier.
President Barack Obama
has commuted the sentences
of over 1,000 convicted fel-
ons — mostly lengthy sen-
tences for drug offences.
However, as of press time
— and despite appeals even
from a former U.S. Attorney,
he had not granted clemency
to Peltier. Without it, Peltier,
72 years old and in poor
health, will die in prison.
For many in the law
enforcement community,
that’s exactly the fate he
deserves for his part in the
1975 killing of two young
FBI agents on the Pine Ridge
Reservation, Oglala, South
Dakota. For others, who
view Peltier as a “political
prisoner,” a symbol of ongo-
ing oppression of indigenous
peoples, his nearly 40 years
of incarceration is a blot on
American justice that must
be ameliorated by an early
release.
The fateful firefight went
down on June 26, 1975.
Pine Ridge was a powder
keg, strung fence-wire tight
with tension. A virtual civil
war between AIM activ-
ists and tribal paramilitaries
acting on behalf of Oglala
tribal president Dick Wilson
brought blood and terror.
The paramilitaries called
themselves, with a dose of
mordant irony, Guardians of
the Oglala Nation. GOONs.
To the endemic reservation
conditions of grinding pov-
erty, rampant alcohol and
drug abuse and domestic vio-
lence were added a series of
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killings that gave Pine Ridge
the highest murder rate in
America.
AIM members considered
the FBI an enemy, as the fed-
eral law enforcement agency
attempted to infiltrate and
break up what the Feds per-
ceived as a dangerous, radi-
cal, militant movement.
FBI Special Agents
Jack R. Coler and Ronald
A. Williams entered the
Reservation that summer day
on the trail of a young Lakota
named Jimmy Eagle, who
was wanted in connection
with the robbery and assault
of a couple of local ranch
hands. He had also been in
a scuffle with a friend and
stole a pair of cowboy boots.
On such a trifle turned the
fate of many men that day.
At about 11:50 a.m. Coler
and Williams followed what
they thought was Jimmy
Eagle’s red pickup truck
onto the Jumping Bull prop-
erty on the Reservation and
almost immediately came
under heavy fire, which they
returned as best they could
with their .38 Special service
revolvers.
Williams’ last radio com-
munication was faint: He
was hit.
It wasn’t until the after-
noon that substantial police
reinforcements arrived. A
Bureau of Indian Affairs cop
shot one Indian, Joe Stuntz at
long range at about 2:30 p.m.
When the police stormed
the Jumping Bull compound
later that afternoon, they
found Stuntz’s body where
it had been left as the AIM
members fled. He was wear-
ing Agent Coler’s FBI jacket.
Sometime between the
initial shootout and the
arrival of heavy police
backup, men walked up to
the FBI agents and someone
shot them both at point-blank
range with an AR-15.
Peltier, who was at Oglala
that day, and reportedly
armed with an AR-15, fled
to Canada, where he was
eventually arrested by Royal
Canadian Mounted Police.
Two other men, Darrelle
“Dino” Butler and Robert
Robideau, were arrested and
tried for the killings of Coler
and Williams while Peltier
awaited extradition. They
were acquitted based on self-
defense. They successfully
argued that the conditions on
the Reservation gave them a
reasonable fear for their lives
and safety. The jury was not
shown pictures of the dead
agents, nor told that they had
been killed while wounded
and defenseless.
Peltier was eventually
extradited — based in part
on testimony from a woman
later to be determined to be
mentally unstable — and
was tried and convicted of
the killings. Peltier’s trial did
not include the context of the
Pine Ridge civil war, and the
jury saw pictures of Coler
and Williams’ death scene.
Peltier was sentenced to two
consecutive life terms.
There were a number
of irregularities in his trial,
including the withholding of
ballistic evidence that indi-
cated that a cartridge case
found at the scene might not,
in fact, have come from the
AR-15 Peltier was believed
to be carrying.
None of the irregularities
have been deemed signifi-
cant enough to grant Peltier
a new trial.
It is impossible to know
exactly what went down
when Coler and Williams
were killed at Oglala over
40 years ago. The Parole
Commission “recognizes
that the prosecution has con-
ceded the lack of any direct
evidence that (Peltier) per-
sonally participated in the
executions of the two FBI
agents.” And yet aiding and
abetting such killings is
enough for conviction.
Peltier himself has told
different stories to different
people as to what his actions
were that day. Supporters
floated a theory that a “Mr.
X” actually fired the fatal
shots, but Dino Butler
decried the Mr. X theory as a
complete falsehood.
Clemency is not the
same thing as a pardon, and
it would not require find-
ing that Peltier did not do
the crime. It would simply
reduce his sentence and
allow him to leave prison.
Does Peltier deserve
clemency? Certainly, those
who have maintained his
innocence think so. So does
a former U.S. Attorney who
worked on the prosecution of
the Peltier case.
James Reynolds wrote a
letter last month to President
Obama urging clemency,
and told The New York Daily
News, “… at this point,
we’ve got 40 years on him,
40 pounds of flesh, maybe
it’s time to let him go ... I
don’t think keeping him in
there will make society a bet-
ter place.”
Many in law enforce-
ment, particularly in the
FBI, strongly disagree. They
turned out in their hundreds
to protest when it appeared
that President Bill Clinton
might pardon Peltier at the
end of his term. Their oppo-
sition has not been as public
this time, but they continue
to argue that Peltier was
guilty of the slayings and
should remain in prison for
his full term.
The civil war on Pine
Ridge Reservation in the
1970s brewed a devil’s cock-
tail of tragedy that ended
many lives and blighted oth-
ers for all time.
The fog of time, political
agendas on the part of gov-
ernment and myriad activ-
ists, and mutating memory
have rendered it impossible
to see a clear path in the case
of Leonard Peltier. If he did,
in fact, shoot two wounded
and helpless agents in the
face with an AR-15 at close
range, he deserves to die in
prison. Even in war, such an
action is universally regarded
as a crime. If he was sim-
ply there, caught up in hor-
rific events, participated in
a firefight, and another man
committed the execution by
AR-15, perhaps clemency
does serve justice. And, as
Reynolds says, “it’s time to
call it quits.”
Clemency or no clemency
for Leonard Peltier will be
one of the very last decisions
of the Obama presidency. It
will not be an easy one.
Editor’s note: Links to
more information on the
Leonard Peltier case may be
found with the online version
of this story.
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