Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist, has been imprisoned for nearly 50 years in the USA for a crime he maintains he did not commit. There are serious and ongoing concerns about the fairness of his trial and conviction. Tribal Nations, Nobel Peace Laureates, former FBI agents, numerous others, and even the former U.S. Attorney, James Reynolds, whose office handled the prosecution, have called for Leonard Peltier’s release.
Now 78 years old, he contracted COVID-19 in 2022 and suffers from several chronic health ailments, including one that is potentially fatal. Not eligible for parole again until 2024, his lawyers submitted a new petition for clemency in 2021.
I was the United States Attorney whose office handled the prosecution and appeal of Leonard Peltier’s case…I write today from a position rare for a former prosecutor: to beseech you to commute the sentence of a man who I helped put behind bars.”
