Indian activist asks federal court to grant parole hearing (Peltier)

[Khephra]

Attorneys for jailed American Indian activist Leonard Peltier told a federal appeals court Friday the government is denying him a parole hearing on the unproven claim that he ambushed two FBI agents before gunning them down 28 years ago.

Peltier, 59, will have been in prison twice as long as required by federal guidelines if no hearing is held until 2008 as decreed by the U.S. Parole Commission, attorney Barry Bachrach said.

The commission departed from federal parole guidelines in 1996 after concluding Peltier fired the fatal shots during a 1975 gun battle on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation -- even though that was never proven in court, he said.

"The decision must be reversed if the facts are incorrect and unsupported by the record," Bachrach told a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

more..........

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/09/19/state1325EDT7533.DTL

[stopthegop]

1. never proven in court

wasn't he convicted?

[moof]

2. convicted ?

Oh you mean like the 100 or so people in Illinois
released from death row after finding they were innocent ?

Sorry but being convicted in America is no longer that good of an indication of guilt for the crime. Guilt of being poor, usually, but most times it is being guilty of being convictable.

[stopthegop]

3. oh...

thanks

[Bushfire]

4. Rent "Incident at Oglala" produced by Robert Redford

from memory the FBI agents were in an unmarked car, and in plain clothes while carrying weapons on a reservation without identifying themselves. Peltier, and a few others were protecting the reservation "Pine Ridge" during a period of violence among other native americans. The FBI fired first without identifying themselves, and Peltier fired back in self defense. His friends were freed, but Peltier was railroaded for the death of a FBI agent. Clinton should be ashamed of himself for not giving him a pardon. He paid his debt to society for being guilty of self-defense. The GOP will never grant him a pardon.

http://www.freepeltier.org/