Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Commission is suggesting that the Berkeley City Council send a letter to President Barack Obama asking him to grant clemency to Native American activist Leonard Peltier — who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment over 30 years ago for first-degree murder.The commission is urging Obama to free Peltier from solitary confinement and grant executive clemency. The council will consider the commission’s recommendation at its Tuesday meeting.
Peltier participated in the American Indian Movement in the late 1960s and 1970s and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times, according to the Leonard Peltier Defence Committee website.
In 1975, Peltier was convicted of slaying two FBI agents and is serving two consecutive life terms with around 29 years left on his sentence.
Commission Chair George Lippman said the timing of the recommendation letter sparked from Peltier’s 67th birthday Sept. 12.
According to the recommendation, Peltier served a sentence to solitary confinement beginning June 27 of this year for 60 days.
“This is a call to end Peltier’s solitary confinement,” Lippman said. “It’s really a violation of human rights.”
Furthermore, the commission is asking Obama to grant Peltier executive clemency so that he may live out the rest of his years with his family.
Councilmember Kriss Worthington said in an email that at Tuesday’s meeting, the council will likely update the commission’s letter to include new information that Peltier has been freed from solitary confinement.
Worthington said in the email that the recommendation is a step in the right direction to achieve true justice.
“Berkeley alone is a small impact, but supporting a movement and building momentum for a cause can help inch toward victory,” Worthington said.
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When Obama came into office he stated something to the effect “Those who stand up for justice are always in the right.”
What reason was given for the solitary confinement?
Two bogus charges. One infraction was that he tampered with a light socket in his cell. There were wires hanging from it and the guard searching his cell with Leonard nowhere near the cell, decided to touch the dangling wires and received a small shock. The guard said it was a deliberate attempt by Peltier to harm him. Actually, Leonard had a cellmate who had been released a couple weeks prior. His cellmate had the top bunk facing the light socket, which he used to mess with. The other infraction was that Leonard had currency with him, which is not allowed at Leavenworth. The currency was a silver coin sent from a supporter of Leonard’s in England, I believe. The two infractions were the reason Leonard was in solitary confinement for most of the summer. That length of time in solitary should be enough to be considered inhumane, not to mention the fact that during the summer, the ‘Hole’ in Leavenworth prison can reach up to temperatures of over 120 degrees. This is all being done to a 67 year old man with ailing health issues, including diabetes.
American Indian Leonard Peltier, 66, serving two life sentences for the 1975 killing of two FBI agents at a South Dakota reservation, was caught June 27 with currency not authorized by the penitentiary.
Peltier claims he received a 20-pound note from a woman in Scotland.
Peltier, who had been housed in the small section of the general population at the prison, was transferred for 100 days to the Special Management Unit, where he was to spend 23 hours a day, Monday through Friday, in his cell. On Saturdays and Sundays, 24 hours.
The parole-eligible inmate lost commissary and visiting privileges for six months and forfeited 100 days of good behavior time.
Actually, I was confused in my comment below. He used to be in Leavenworth, Kansas. He was doing his time most recently at Lewisburg, PA. That was where he was in solitary confinement. As LPDOC said, he was recently transferred to Florida. Bottom line, there’s not a shred of evidence keeping him in prison. The only thing keeping him there is corrupt prosecutors and government officials. The man needs to be released! But, I guess while the world is being run by sadists, these injustices will continue. Plead to the president, he is the one man that can grant immediate clemency.
The LPDOC Web site address is http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info. Leonard Peltier is no longer in solitary confinement. He has been moved to USP Coleman in Florida and is in the general population.