It's Time: Call for Clemency for Leonard Peltier
brianlux
Posts: 42,040
I'm totally with this. It's time.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jack-healey/its-time-call-for-clemenc_b_6828084.html
It's Time: Call for Clemency for Leonard Peltier
Not many blog posts start off with a listing of the deceased, but in Leonard Peltier's clemency request to President Obama, he will say the following:
After 40 years in prison, it is with sadness that I write the names of some of my dearest friends and strongest supporters who have passed on: My friend, Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii who was my great champion is one. My dear friend, writer Peter Matthiessen along with Bill and Rose Styron, and Kurt Vonnegut were some of the writers who cared about me and stayed in contact with me. Marlon Brando and Steve Allen were my friends. Looking back so many members of my family and so many friends and many of my lawyers have gone on. I miss them all.
Today on YouTube we are releasing a second request for citizens to join the long list of Nobel laureates, civil and human rights leaders, religious and political leaders and scholars calling for clemency for Leonard Peltier. Bonnie Raitt and Robbie Robertson are featured in the new edition of our PSA.
Is it not time for you to join this effort? Clemency is a request any citizen can make of our government, and all our voices need to be heard. We just want Leonard to go to his home on the northern plains and be able to spend what remains of his life with his family and be able to rest and be at ease with his people of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, his relatives in Indian country, and with us.
Pope Francis recently said that "long prison sentences are death sentences." We believe Peltier is innocent, but we are not arguing that anymore. What happened on that bitter day in 1975 was part of an ongoing conflict, and we may never know what really happened. Forty years is long enough, in any case. Another life has been taken for all practical purposes.
Today, with the passage of four decades, Peltier's supporters have included the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand and Pete Seeger. The late Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa spoke and wrote for him. Civil rights giants Coretta Scott King, Congressman John Lewis and many members of the Congressional Black Caucus stood up for him in very meaningful ways that included helping him get some badly needed medical care. The late, wrongly convicted boxer Ruben "Hurricane" Carter spoke strongly for Peltier's release and shared his own story of years behind bars without the benefit of a fair trial.
Sixty members of the U.S. House of Representatives signed an amicus brief calling for a new trial. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for his release, as did 55 members of Canada's Parliament.
Nobel laureates including Rigaberta Menchu Tum of Guatamala, Mairaid Maguire and Betty Williams of Northern Ireland, Jose Ramos Horta and others have come to his aid. Yet he still wastes away in a super-max prison 2,000 miles from his home on the northern plains.
On human rights day of last year, Leonard's supporters called for his release. Kris Kristofferson, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Carlos Santana, Harry Belafonte, Robbie Robertson, Pam Anderson, UK's Peter Gabriel, Michael Moore, Wes Studie, Irene Bedard, the National Congress of American Indians (representing 566 tribes), The Assembly of First Nations Chiefs of Canada, the Oglala Sioux Tribe of Pine Ridge (South Dakota) and more then 500 other tribes in the U.S. and Canada, award-winning Native American film director Chris Eyre and many Native actors and musicians are part of his support groups. Human Rights Action Center, the UN Commission on Human Rights and Amnesty International have all called for clemency.
Names like Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte and Steve Allen seem from a long-ago era. Only Mr. Belafonte survives to this day. As a longtime singer, actor, artist and human rights activist, Belafonte received a special lifetime Humanitarian Oscar at this year's Academy Awards. He has supported the efforts to secure the freedom of Leonard Peltier from the beginning and calls it one of the most important issues of his time.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jack-healey/its-time-call-for-clemenc_b_6828084.html
It's Time: Call for Clemency for Leonard Peltier
Not many blog posts start off with a listing of the deceased, but in Leonard Peltier's clemency request to President Obama, he will say the following:
After 40 years in prison, it is with sadness that I write the names of some of my dearest friends and strongest supporters who have passed on: My friend, Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii who was my great champion is one. My dear friend, writer Peter Matthiessen along with Bill and Rose Styron, and Kurt Vonnegut were some of the writers who cared about me and stayed in contact with me. Marlon Brando and Steve Allen were my friends. Looking back so many members of my family and so many friends and many of my lawyers have gone on. I miss them all.
Today on YouTube we are releasing a second request for citizens to join the long list of Nobel laureates, civil and human rights leaders, religious and political leaders and scholars calling for clemency for Leonard Peltier. Bonnie Raitt and Robbie Robertson are featured in the new edition of our PSA.
Is it not time for you to join this effort? Clemency is a request any citizen can make of our government, and all our voices need to be heard. We just want Leonard to go to his home on the northern plains and be able to spend what remains of his life with his family and be able to rest and be at ease with his people of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, his relatives in Indian country, and with us.
Pope Francis recently said that "long prison sentences are death sentences." We believe Peltier is innocent, but we are not arguing that anymore. What happened on that bitter day in 1975 was part of an ongoing conflict, and we may never know what really happened. Forty years is long enough, in any case. Another life has been taken for all practical purposes.
Today, with the passage of four decades, Peltier's supporters have included the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand and Pete Seeger. The late Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa spoke and wrote for him. Civil rights giants Coretta Scott King, Congressman John Lewis and many members of the Congressional Black Caucus stood up for him in very meaningful ways that included helping him get some badly needed medical care. The late, wrongly convicted boxer Ruben "Hurricane" Carter spoke strongly for Peltier's release and shared his own story of years behind bars without the benefit of a fair trial.
Sixty members of the U.S. House of Representatives signed an amicus brief calling for a new trial. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for his release, as did 55 members of Canada's Parliament.
Nobel laureates including Rigaberta Menchu Tum of Guatamala, Mairaid Maguire and Betty Williams of Northern Ireland, Jose Ramos Horta and others have come to his aid. Yet he still wastes away in a super-max prison 2,000 miles from his home on the northern plains.
On human rights day of last year, Leonard's supporters called for his release. Kris Kristofferson, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Carlos Santana, Harry Belafonte, Robbie Robertson, Pam Anderson, UK's Peter Gabriel, Michael Moore, Wes Studie, Irene Bedard, the National Congress of American Indians (representing 566 tribes), The Assembly of First Nations Chiefs of Canada, the Oglala Sioux Tribe of Pine Ridge (South Dakota) and more then 500 other tribes in the U.S. and Canada, award-winning Native American film director Chris Eyre and many Native actors and musicians are part of his support groups. Human Rights Action Center, the UN Commission on Human Rights and Amnesty International have all called for clemency.
Names like Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte and Steve Allen seem from a long-ago era. Only Mr. Belafonte survives to this day. As a longtime singer, actor, artist and human rights activist, Belafonte received a special lifetime Humanitarian Oscar at this year's Academy Awards. He has supported the efforts to secure the freedom of Leonard Peltier from the beginning and calls it one of the most important issues of his time.
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.
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http://www.oregonlive.com/washingtoncounty/index.ssf/2015/04/longtime_prisoner_leonard_pelt.html
(see here for a more complete list: http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/home/about-peltier/support/ )
Sherman Alexie
Steve Alllen
Ed Asner
Harry Belafonte
Marlin Brando
Jackson Browne
Dr. Helen Caldicott
Ruben "Hurricane" Carter
Noam Chomsky
Ward Churchill
Ramsey Clark
Peter Coyote
The Dalai Lama
Angela Davis
Jane Fonda
Peter Gabriel
Danny Glover
Whoopi Goldberg
Indigo Girls
Senator Daniel Inouye
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson
Coretta Scott King
Kris Kristofferson
Congressman John Lewis
Nelson Mandela
Peter Matthiessen
N. Scott Momaday
Michael Moore
Tom Morello
Rage Against the Machine
Bonnie Raitt
Robert Redford
Robbie Robertson
Winona Ryder
Carlos Santana
Pete Seeger
Rev. Al Sharpton
Barbra Streisand
Gloria Steinem
Little Steven
William Styron
Buffy St. Marie
Oliver Stone
Mother Teresa
John Trudell
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Tom Waits
Alice Walker
James Welch
I am no expert this case and what I've read has always left more questions than answers. Is the argument for clemency that he is not guilty of killing the two agents? Or that the FBI's conduct prevented him from ever receiving a fair trial? Or both?
"...I changed by not changing at all..."
Amnesty International put together this concise article that explains the reason the trial was faulty and why Peltier should be freed:
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/americas/5-reasons-president-obama-should-release-leonard-peltier/
And yes, if clemency is granted by President Obama it probably won't be until toward the end of his term but I brought this up mainly in light of the news that his son Chauncey has recently taken over the as interim head of the Who is Leonard Peltier Defense Committee which the article in my second post here talks about. The struggle to free Peltier has gone on a long time- 40 years!- and this will very likely be the last opportunity to make this happen. Peltier is getting old, he has been brutalized many times while in prison and his health his not good.
Freeing Peltier would be the right think to do and I hope Obama come through on this.
You can sign petitions here:
http://freepeltiernow.blogspot.com/2015/02/ask-president-obama-to-grant-clemency.html
http://www.freepeltiernow.org/
"...I changed by not changing at all..."