From: "LPDC" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 15:29:25 -0600 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Peltier letter to editor Friends, Here is the sample letter to the editor promised in yesterday's update. You can use this one, personalize this one, or write your own and send it to your local papers. Thank you! In Solidarity, LPDC SAMPLE: LETTER TO THE EDITOR (Include your name, phone number, and LPDC web site: www.freepeltier.org) CLINTON'S ABUSE OF CLEMENCY PROCESS BETRAYED NATIVE PEOPLES Criticism of Bill Clinton's handling of pardons should also include questioning about why he did not grant clemency to those who truly deserved it. Why, for example, didn't Clinton commute the sentence of Leonard Peltier, whose case more than any other would have demonstrated the proper use of the clemency power? Peltier has been wrongfully imprisoned for 25 years. Amnesty International considers him a "political prisoner" who should be "immediately released." He was convicted after a shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Reservation took the lives of two FBI agents and one Native man whose death was never investigated. Peltier, who had long been surveillanced by the FBI for his American Indian Movement leadership, was found guilty in a trial where witnesses were coerced, false testimony was utilized, and a ballistic test reflecting his innocence was withheld from the defense. Today the U.S. prosecutor admits, "we can't prove who shot those agents." The appellate court found that Peltier might have been acquitted absent the FBI abuses, but denied a new trial on a legal technicality. This appellate judge expressed firm support for Peltier's release through executive clemency. Indeed, executive clemency for Peltier would have exemplified not only a proper use of the power, but an honorable decision to correct a terrible injustice and take a historical step toward healing relations between the U.S. government and Native Peoples. Instead, January 20, 2001 marked another betrayal of the first peoples of this land by a government who has yet to grant reparations for the many atrocities committed against them. Clinton's legacy will forever be tainted by his abuse of the clemency process, both in the pardons he granted, and the ones he did not. And sadly, Leonard Peltier will continue to be a glaring reminder that America's shameful treatment of Native Peoples is far from ancient history. Leonard Peltier Defense Committee PO Box 583 Lawrence, KS 66044 785-842-5774 www.freepeltier.org To subscribe, send a blank message to < [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe, send a blank message to < [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To change your email address, send a message to < [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with your old address in the Subject line ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your email address, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with your old address in the Subject: line This message was launched into cyberspace to [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
