Let Leonard Peltier Go Free
Interview with a Native American Seeking Clemency After 41 Years Behind Bars
I don’t know which Native Americans killed FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams in the notorious 1975 shootout in Oglala, South Dakota. Nor do I know the identity of the federal lawman who shot and killed Joe Stuntz, the American Indian Movement (AIM) member. But what is troubling is that federal prosecutors don’t know either, yet Leonard Peltier has spent 41 years behind bars for the FBI agents’ deaths. Now, in the waning days of the Obama administration, Peltier has petitioned President Obama to commute his sentence.
I was there on the Jumping Bull ranch on that hot June day in 1975 when some of the bullets were flying, recording the exchange of gunfire as part of my coverage for NPR. I’ve been able to interview Peltier several times since then, most recently from Florida’s maximum-security Coleman penitentiary. The audio file of that conversation is below, and edited-for print extracts follow this story.
Over the last four decades, many groups, including Amnesty International, have advocated for Peltier’s release. Amnesty maintains that Leonard Peltier, who is 72 and in ill health, did not get a fair trial. The former director of Amnesty International U.S.A., Jack Healey, has produced 11 video testimonials for Peltier’s release in recent years from famous actors and musicians, including Ringo Starr, Bonnie Raitt, Harry Belafonte, and the late Pete Seeger.
