Clinton Pardon Last Hope for Leonard Peltier

by Mark Bourrie

Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) and 21 other House members also on Dec. 15 signed an anti-Peltier letter to Clinton]

(IPS) OTTAWA -- A group of Canada's top lawyers and Native leaders are pressing President Clinton to grant clemency to Native American activist Leonard Peltier before Clinton leaves office in January.

Peltier, 54, was extradited from Canada in 1976 and has been in jail since for the killings of two FBI agents near Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

The Innocence Project, a group that tries to expose wrongful convictions, organized a one-day inquiry into the Peltier case in Toronto in October.

There, key extradition witness Myrtle Poor Bear recanted her testimony of two decades ago, admitting she lied when she told police she saw Peltier kill the FBI agents.

The commissioner of an inquiry into the Peltier case has concluded that the Indian activist was extradited from Canada under false pretenses after Poor Bear falsified evidence.

Judge Fred Kaufman, a former member of one of Canada's highest courts, led the inquiry. He has written to President Clinton, urging him to grant clemency to Peltier. Kaufman included a transcript of last October's inquiry.

On June 26, 1975, the two FBI agents were among 40 officers called to the Jumping Bull Compound on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reserve over a minor criminal complaint about the theft of a pair of cowboy boots.

A gun battle between the FBI agents and dozens of American Indians broke out and lasted for six hours. Two federal officers and one Native man were killed.

Peltier, an American Ojibway, fled because he knew he was one of the suspects in the officers' murders. He was arrested in Hinton, Alberta in 1976.

Peltier was extradited based mainly on evidence by Myrtle Poor Bear, who claimed she was his girlfriend and she saw him shoot the FBI officers.

In a letter urging President Clinton to consider granting executive clemency, commissioner Kaufman said Peltier's 1976 extradition and subsequent conviction for murder were highly questionable. He is serving a life sentence.

"As you can see from her evidence, she (Poor Bear) acted under duress at the time, and much of what she said was false," wrote Kaufman, who was a judge of the Quebec Court of Appeal for 16 years.

"I am satisfied that if this had been known when the extradition hearings took place, the request to extradite Peltier would likely have been refused." The letter was sent to the White House recently, along with a transcript of the inquiry.

Frank Dreaver, head of the Canadian branch of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, said his group has also met with senior officials of the U.S. embassy here.

"President Clinton has made it clear recently that he wants to look at the Leonard Peltier case fairly and take a position on it. That's why it was so important to put together as much information about the Canadian angle as we could," Dreaver said in an interview.

Clinton has said he is considering granting Peltier clemency before his term ends Jan. 20. At the heart of the Vancouver extradition hearing was a series of affidavits in which Poor Bear said she was Peltier's girlfriend.

Poor Bear, now 47, testified at the time that not only had she witnessed the shooting, but that Peltier had confessed to her. However, she did not testify at Peltier's 1977 trial in Fargo, North Dakota. A district attorney told the court only that she was no longer considered "competent."

At the October hearing, five witnesses, including Poor Bear and her sister, were examined under oath by two prominent Canadian lawyers. Poor Bear admitted she had lied in 1976 under pressure from FBI agents bent on avenging their dead comrades.

Poor Bear said the FBI kept her apart from her family for long periods and threatened her life to coerce her into giving false testimony.

"I say without hesitation that each of the witnesses appeared honest and credible," Kaufman said in his letter to Clinton. He said this was particularly true of Poor Bear, who was obviously distraught as she told of her terror and subsequent shame at having helped perpetrate a miscarriage of justice.

In a supporting letter to the White House, Peter Hogg, dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, says he was shocked to learn of Poor Bear's recantation.

Hogg, widely regarded as Canada's leading constitutional scholar, said it appears very likely that a miscarriage of justice has occurred in the Peltier case.

"I add my voice to those who urge that executive clemency be granted," he said. "He has served 25 years in prison, which is a terrible burden for someone who is probably innocent."

Law professor Dianne Martin, a co-director of the Innocence Project, said that getting a pardon from President-elect George W. Bush was more than a long shot.

"Bush is not likely to have any interest at all in the Peltier case," Martin said in a press conference at the Canadian Parliament building. "If President Clinton has anywhere near the conscience we believe he has, he will know it is on his watch that this has to happen."

A brief prepared for Clinton by Martin and fellow Innocence Project director Paul Burstein argues that the President is faced with a historic opportunity.

It says that granting clemency would also serve to close a chapter that has epitomized for many Native their long history of oppression and injustice.

"The deaths on Pine Ridge will not be forgotten if clemency is granted to Leonard Peltier, the man wrongly held to blame for them," the brief said.

"But acknowledging that many suffered from the events on Pine Ridge and that many wrongs -- not just two -- were committed, will begin healing the deep, historical wounds that Native Americans still endure."

"We have really conclusive evidence that Leonard did not receive a fair hearing in Canada," said Martin.

"With recent indications from the White House suggesting that Clinton is seriously considering granting clemency, we hope that our submission can have a real impact."

Warren Allmand, Canada's solicitor-general (minister in charge of police) at the time of the extradition, said he has also written to Clinton asking for clemency.

"Without this affidavit (Poor Bear's), there was no other evidence to support the extradition of Leonard Peltier," Allmand said.

Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come of the (Canadian) Assembly of First Nations said he will ask his counterpart at the National Congress of American Indians to issue a joint letter to Clinton seeking clemency. "There's no reason for him to be in jail any more, in light of the evidence," he said.