In the waning hours of the Clinton presidency, the ultimate news was about legal bargaining, which may be the true Clinton legacy. The soon-to-be ex-president cut a deal with special prosecutor Robert Ray. In his statement, Bill Clinton continued to dispense words carefully and the tone was petulant rather than penitent, evidence that personal morality remains an area of ignorance for an otherwise knowledgeable man.
On Inauguration Day, as Mr. Clinton rode to the capitol with his successor, the White House press office announced 140 pardons. Among them was absolution for the president’s brother Roger Clinton, Arkansas associate and perhaps accomplice Susan McDougal, a billionaire fugitive with close ties to the Democratic Party, Patty Hearst, Henry Cisneros and assorted other scoundrels
A man who did not receive a pardon Saturday is prisoner 89637-132, who is serving two consecutive life sentences plus seven years at the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. I wonder how he got the news. Was he listening to a radio in his cell? Was he at work in the prison’s furniture shop? Did he look up to see a guard staring at him, a guard who shook his head and walked away?
Federal prisoner 89637-132 is Leonard Peltier, a member of the American Indian Movement, who was convicted of killing two FBI agents at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in June 1975.
What exactly happened at Pine Ridge that day is the subject of much dispute and speculation, but this much is known – there was an hours-long firefight between various federal agencies and Native American activists, two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ron Williams and one Native American activist, Joseph Stuntz, were shot dead and Leonard Peltier was at Pine Ridge that day. That’s all we know for sure.
Given the benefit of hindsight, the incident at Pine Ridge described the outlines of other, subsequent federal raids gone bad at places like Ruby Ridge and Waco. Federal agents engaging in an ill-conceived and poorly executed operation and initiating unintended tragedy. Unlike Ruby Ridge or Waco, there have been no formal inquiries into the Pine Ridge incident. There were trials. Four men were accused of killing the FBI agents. Two were acquitted, charges were dropped against the third. Only Leonard Peltier was convicted. No one was ever indicted in the death of Joseph Stuntz.
Since his conviction, it’s become clear how flawed the government’s case against Leonard Peltier was. Exculpatory evidence was withheld from Mr. Peltier’s lawyers, forensic evidence was fabricated, over 6,000 pages of documents relating to the incident remain sealed under the excuse of “national security.” By the 1990s, the attorney who prosecuted Mr. Peltier admitted in court that the U.S. government cannot tell who fired the fatal shots. That admission alone should have freed Leonard Peltier, but he remains in jail. The violent deaths of over 60 Native Americans at Pine Ridge have never been investigated.
Why was the FBI at Pine Ridge in the first place? Why all the talk about national security? At the time of the Pine Ridge shootout, the federal government was negotiating to take over a substantial portion of the reservation, to strip mine it for uranium. Leonard Peltier and other American Indian Movement activists wanted to prevent that, wanted to hold onto what little remained of the Sioux nation’s land. For that, Leonard Peltier got life times two. Sixty others got death times one. Now Mr. Peltier will wait some more. It may be eight, 12 or 20 years before a presidential pardon opens the door to his cell, if ever.
On February 6, a week from Tuesday, federal prisoner 89637-132 will begin his 26th year of incarceration.
89637-132
In the waning hours of the Clinton presidency, the ultimate news was about legal bargaining, which may be the true Clinton legacy. The soon-to-be ex-president cut a deal with special prosecutor Robert Ray. In his statement, Bill Clinton continued to dispense words carefully and the tone was petulant rather than penitent, evidence that personal morality remains an area of ignorance for an otherwise knowledgeable man.
On Inauguration Day, as Mr. Clinton rode to the capitol with his successor, the White House press office announced 140 pardons. Among them was absolution for the president’s brother Roger Clinton, Arkansas associate and perhaps accomplice Susan McDougal, a billionaire fugitive with close ties to the Democratic Party, Patty Hearst, Henry Cisneros and assorted other scoundrels
A man who did not receive a pardon Saturday is prisoner 89637-132, who is serving two consecutive life sentences plus seven years at the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. I wonder how he got the news. Was he listening to a radio in his cell? Was he at work in the prison’s furniture shop? Did he look up to see a guard staring at him, a guard who shook his head and walked away?
Federal prisoner 89637-132 is Leonard Peltier, a member of the American Indian Movement, who was convicted of killing two FBI agents at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in June 1975.
What exactly happened at Pine Ridge that day is the subject of much dispute and speculation, but this much is known – there was an hours-long firefight between various federal agencies and Native American activists, two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ron Williams and one Native American activist, Joseph Stuntz, were shot dead and Leonard Peltier was at Pine Ridge that day. That’s all we know for sure.
Given the benefit of hindsight, the incident at Pine Ridge described the outlines of other, subsequent federal raids gone bad at places like Ruby Ridge and Waco. Federal agents engaging in an ill-conceived and poorly executed operation and initiating unintended tragedy. Unlike Ruby Ridge or Waco, there have been no formal inquiries into the Pine Ridge incident. There were trials. Four men were accused of killing the FBI agents. Two were acquitted, charges were dropped against the third. Only Leonard Peltier was convicted. No one was ever indicted in the death of Joseph Stuntz.
Since his conviction, it’s become clear how flawed the government’s case against Leonard Peltier was. Exculpatory evidence was withheld from Mr. Peltier’s lawyers, forensic evidence was fabricated, over 6,000 pages of documents relating to the incident remain sealed under the excuse of “national security.” By the 1990s, the attorney who prosecuted Mr. Peltier admitted in court that the U.S. government cannot tell who fired the fatal shots. That admission alone should have freed Leonard Peltier, but he remains in jail. The violent deaths of over 60 Native Americans at Pine Ridge have never been investigated.
Why was the FBI at Pine Ridge in the first place? Why all the talk about national security? At the time of the Pine Ridge shootout, the federal government was negotiating to take over a substantial portion of the reservation, to strip mine it for uranium. Leonard Peltier and other American Indian Movement activists wanted to prevent that, wanted to hold onto what little remained of the Sioux nation’s land. For that, Leonard Peltier got life times two. Sixty others got death times one. Now Mr. Peltier will wait some more. It may be eight, 12 or 20 years before a presidential pardon opens the door to his cell, if ever.
On February 6, a week from Tuesday, federal prisoner 89637-132 will begin his 26th year of incarceration.