I call on President Biden to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier.

I call on President Biden to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier.

Started
January 29, 2022
Signatures: 14,833Next Goal: 15,000
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Why this petition matters

On Friday, January 28, Leonard Peltier tested positive for COVID-19 at Coleman I U.S. Federal Penitentiary. He has since recovered, but being 77 years old with several comorbidities, he is at major risk of long-haul COVID.

In recent weeks, Leonard’s case has received major media coverage in the New York Times, NBC and more, highlighting his clemency appeal. Important political figures have publicly called on President Joe Biden to grant Leonard Peltier clemency immediately. Those include U.S. Senators Brian Schatz and Patrick Leahy, and many state senators. Well-known cultural artists from Ringo Starr to Danny DeVito to Susan Sarandon to Carlos Santana are demanding freedom for Leonard Peltier.

JOIN US TO SUPPORT CLEMENCY FOR LEONARD PELTIER – PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION:

  1. President Joe Biden, Listen to the people, grant Leonard Peltier clemency today!

DONATE TO THE CAMPAIGN HERE: https://fundrazr.com/f1wE26?ref=ab_5AzcDd

Leonard is 77 years old. He has serious health problems that gravely complicate someone his age with COVID: diabetes, an abdominal aortic aneurysm, kidney disease, high blood pressure, and he has had open heart surgery.

Organizations and prominent individuals in the U.S. and around the world, are urgently calling for his freedom. 46 years in prison is not justice, it is an outrageous punishment for a man who is innocent. Even his trial prosecutor James H. Reynolds, now says, “I have realized that the prosecution and continued incarceration of Mr. Peltier was and is unjust.” Read the full text of the letter here.

Leonard Peltier is a renowned political prisoner, wrongly imprisoned for 46 years. He is Anishnaabe and Lakota, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota. From an early age, Leonard actively advocated for his people against brutal racism and poverty.

Leonard Peltier’s case is one of the most egregious and wrongful convictions in modern U.S. history. The U.S. railroading of Leonard into prison for 46 years is another example of the government's continued genocidal policies towards the Native Nations and denial of their sovereignty. As a member of the American Indian Movement, he was one of the young men who came to help protect the embattled community of Elders and Youth on Pine Ridge Reservation in June of 1975, where over 60 members of the Oglala Lakota Nation had been murdered over a period of three years. As traditional people they were singled out and brutalized for opposing an extremely corrupt tribal leader, Dick Wilson.

During the terrible violence against innocent residents on Pine Ridge, in an incident completely provoked by the FBI, two plainclothes agents raided the encampment over a supposed warrant. In the shoot-out that followed, the two agents and one Native man were killed.

Three men were indicted on charges of murder of the FBI agents. Two of the defendants, Bob Robideau and Dino Butler, were exonerated by an all-white jury on the grounds of self defense. But the third person accused, Leonard Peltier, had sought refuge in Canada and wasn’t tried at the same time. The FBI then decided he would pay the price for all three men, despite his innocence.

People around the world have demanded Leonard Peltier’s freedom for decades, including Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 96 members of U.S. Congress, the National Congress of American Indians, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.

And in an important new development, on January 26, Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) Chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, urged President Joe Biden, “I write to urge you to grant a commutation of Leonard Peltier’s sentence.”

To learn more about Leonard Peltier and his case, visit www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/home/about-us/

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Signatures: 14,833Next Goal: 15,000
Support now
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