Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

http://www.freepeltier.org/story.htm

Leonard Peltier, a citizen of the Anishinabe and Lakota Nations, is a father, a grandfather, an artist, a writer, and an Indigenous rights activist. He has spent more than twenty-seven years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Amnesty International considers him a "political prisoner" who should be "immediately and unconditionally released."

I had never heard of him before today.

How about you? Are you familiar with this situation?

Recording of Peltier's 2002 parole hearing is here.

http://www.freepeltier.org/multimedia_room2.htm

I haven't listened yet, but I'm going to.

Here's what I was told about it...

"He's in prison for supposedly having killed two FBI agents.... two other activists admitted to killing the agents, and were acquitted on the basis of self-defense, but the evidence was not allowed in Peltier's case, and he was prosecuted even though no one believes he actually did it, not even his prosecutor. Bill Clinton's last action in office was supposed to be to issue a pardon (which acknowledges guilt so that's still a loss, but at least it would let him free), but he didn't do it basically because he feared he'd be assassinated for it by FBI agents." - from a conversation with my son.

i think your son has it mostly correct -- except for the Clinton fear of the FBI thing.

i believe a lot of young people first learned about Peltier as a result of the inclusion of his story in the Rage Against the Machine music videos and concert propaganda -- like back when they played music on Music TeleVision.

yeah, that comment about fear of the FBI thing was sorta odd.

Maybe I misunderstood what he was saying. It wasn't an exact quote.

I find it appalling that this man has been in prison for 27 years for something he didn't do and they know he didn't do it.

sadly, this is not the only one.

there are many political prisoners in the u.s. prison system. nsuch as mumia abu jamal, the radical black journalist from philly.