Supporters of convicted killer Leonard Peltier are rebuilding momentum after former president Bill Clinton rebuffed their pleas for a presidential pardon in January (see “Justice Files,” This Just In, January 4). Advocates have now set their sights on the one branch of government they had overlooked: the US Congress.

Activists from across the country hope to flood congressional offices on Capitol Hill with calls, email, and letters urging legislators to help free Peltier, who is currently imprisoned for the 1975 murders of two FBI agents. They want legislators to launch an investigation of the bureau, thus forcing the FBI to release as many as 6000 classified documents related to the Peltier case. Local activists will circulate petitions and postcards at a vigil on Boston Common on June 26, the 26th anniversary of the day Peltier was sent to prison.

“We basically have only one branch of government left,” says Bruce Gurwitz of the Council for Native American Solidarity, one of seven groups organizing the vigil. “The other two branches have already let Leonard down.”

Peltier has been serving life sentences for the murders of two FBI agents killed after entering the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in pursuit of a robbery suspect. Peltier — an outspoken American Indian Movement activist — was convicted; two other men were acquitted.

Supporters have long argued that Peltier was framed. An FBI ballistics report essentially exonerates him by proving that his gun was not used to kill the agents. Even federal prosecutors now admit they cannot prove with direct evidence that Peltier is responsible for the two agents’ deaths.

Gurwitz, whose late brother Lou Gurwitz represented Peltier, believes the release of the remaining, sealed FBI reports could free Peltier. “The truth is that Leonard did not kill those men,” he says, “and that truth would be revealed in those documents.” The existing evidence against him may be sparse, but Peltier has exhausted his appeals. So the last hope for him and his supporters, Gurwitz explains, “is in the documents. There may be a basis to go back to court.”

“We won’t stop until we get a new trial,” he vows, “and until Leonard is free.”

The 26th Anniversary Vigil for the Freedom of Leonard Peltier will take place on Boston Common, behind the Park Street T station, on June 26, from 4 to 8 p.m. For more information, contact the Council for Native American Solidarity at (617) 846-1644 or at ahornbein@earthlink.net.

Issue Date: June 21 - 28, 2001