LEONARD PELTIER LEGAL UPDATE: NOVEMBER 27, 2002
Greetings friends and supporters,
Sorry that it has been such a long time since the last update, but many exciting actions are taking place. The legal team is feverishly working on several fronts to ultimately right the injustice Leonard has suffered for all these years. Below is an update indicating what the legal team is doing at this time. Your continued support is essential to our success.
HISTORY OF THE GOVERNMENT'S WITHHOLDING EXCULPATORY DOCUMENTS IN THE PELTIER CASE:
The United States government has engaged in a long history of withholding crucial documents concerning key aspects of Leonard's case. At Leonard's 1976 trial, the FBI produced approximately 3,500 documents and indicated that these were all the documents that existed. History proves this to be absolutely false. After Leonard was convicted, Peltier's legal team acquired, through Freedom of Information Act requests, 12,000 documents that the FBI had previously withheld. These documents unequivocally demonstrated that the FBI withheld crucial exculpatory evidence which was not presented at trial and that the FBI presented perjurious testimony to wrongfully and unfairly obtain Leonard's conviction. The FBI, under the guise of "national security interests," purportedly withheld 6,000 documents, stating that that was the extent of the documents in the Peltier file. Since that time, the legal defense team has discovered that the government is still withholding approximately 100,000 documents concerning Leonard's case.
SUMMER, 2002: Thirty thousand more pages of FBI documents were produced through the letter writing efforts of grassroots supporters and the office of Congressman Barney Frank. This demonstrates the impact you, as supporters, can have in helping our legal team acquire the evidence Leonard needs to continue to prove his innocence and government misconduct. The legal team spent a weekend combing these documents and finding further evidence of FBI misconduct. Much more work must be done with respect to these documents. Volunteers are in the process of scanning the documents so that the legal team can more readily recover the key documents. This takes money and time but through the strong help of volunteers and our supporters this important task is progressing.
LEONARD PELTIER'S LEGAL TEAM CONTINUES TO PURSUE THE VARIOUS GOVERNMENT AGENCIES TO PROCURE DOCUMENTS WITHHELD:
The government still is admittedly withholding approximately 100 thousand more pages of documents, which are being aggressively pursued by the legal team. After attempting for over a year to amicably acquire these documents which are being withheld by various government agencies concerning Leonard's case, Peltier Attorneys Michael Kuzma and Barry Bachrach filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) complaint in the United States District Court for Massachusetts against the Executive Office of United States Attorneys on November 1, 2002 to require them to produce documents being withheld. Michael Kuzma, Barry Bachrach, Bruce Ellison and Carl Nadler have also filed FOIA complaints against the FBI and CIA in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C., respectively. In addition, Barry Bachrach and Michael Kuzma have issued FOIA requests to 35 FBI field offices, which had not previously been served with FOIA requests. The legal team suggests a letter writing campaign to write letters to the editors of local newspapers to help support efforts in acquiring these documents. The legal team will provide a sample letter within the next few weeks. The legal team is firmly convinced that this effort will yield documents which the government previously withheld on a wrongful basis and which will compel Leonard's relief.
CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE:
Bernard Kleinman continues to pursue the Civil Rights action. The government is acting particularly egregiously in attempting to avoid service of process. In spite of the adoption of rules of federal civil procedure, which seek to make it easy for parties to be served without the incurring of unnecessary expenses, the government refused to follow its own rules and has attempted to make it difficult for Leonard's legal team to achieve service of process. Despite the roadblocks set up by the government, service of process is underway. We hope to have all parties served within the next two weeks so that the government will be forced to address the allegations, which involve outrageous and extreme behavior by current and former FBI agents.
THE APPEAL OF THE DENIAL OF LEONARD'S 1999 HABEAS PETITION CHALLENGING DENIAL OF PAROLE:
Peltier attorneys Carl Nadler and Barry Bachrach are pursuing an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit of the recent denial of Leonard's 1999 Habeas Corpus. The Court took nearly three years to finally address the issues raised by Leonard. The legal team feels that the issues on appeal are strong and the appeal will be pressed vigorously.
CHALLENGE UNDER THE SENTENCING REFORM ACT:
Carl Nadler and Barry Bachrach are presently representing Leonard in a habeas petition pending in Washington, D.C., which challenges the parole commission's failure to provide Leonard with a parole date despite the laws enacted as part of the sentencing reform act by Congress in 1984.
EIGHTH CIRCUIT APPEAL OF DISMISSAL OF MOTION FOR REDUCTION OF SENTENCE:
We are still awaiting decision by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals with respect to the appeal of Leonard's Motion to seek a reduction of sentence. This appeal was argued on Oct. 8th, 2002, by Eric Seitz and Bruce Ellison, both of whom believe the argument went well and that the court was receptive to their arguments.
Finally the legal team has many other avenues it is pursuing to seek Leonard's long overdue freedom. Because of the importance to keep these tactics confidential, the information presented in this update is all that can be revealed now. However, it is the legal team's firm opinion that there are still many avenues of relief, which should ultimately open the prison doors for Leonard. More than ever the legal team and Leonard need your support to keep these avenues alive. The legal team will keep you informed as to how you all can help. In particular, we will inform you as soon as we know who is the new Congressional Government Reform Committee Chair. Your help is so important to Leonard's ultimate freedom from the unjust imprisonment he has faced all these years.
Until Freedom Is Won! The New Leonard Peltier Justice Campaign
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