87 Comments

I have worked nonstop to free Leonard Peltier since 1995! I met him in Leavenworth in 2000 and have communicated, mostly by letter, ever since. I have sent dozens of emails to the WH during each administration starting with Clinton when there seemed to be a chance. Bottom line -the FBI has every president scared stiff to let him go! The FBI and DOJ railroaded him b/c the real trigger man, the late Bob Robideau, Leonard's cousin admitted under oath to doing the deed after he was acquitted by reason of self-defense. For reasons of double jeopardy they knew they could not touch him. But someone had to pay. The prosecution and appeal judge even admitted to the sound reasons for retrying his case but still refused to do the right thing stating that "someone had to pay" even if that someone was innocent. Is that justice? Still the DOJ would not budge as year after year an army of researchers went through FBI documentation and found tons of evidence of their lying duplicity in the case.

There is a horrid regulation that currently provides the excuse for disallowing compassionate release for Leonard. It also justifies keeping a federal parole board around despite it being disbanded by Act in Congress in 1984. He is an "Old Law" inmate, meaning his conviction predates 1987. "New Law" prisoners convictions post 1987 are eligible for compassionate and mandatory release while "Old Law" prisoners are not and are at the mercy of a parole board controlled by the FBI. This reg. in essence assigns a de facto DEATH PENALTY from COVID 19 to a vast number of minority elderly inmates. Leonard jokingly opines that this regulation was made specifically to keep him in jail forever.

There is currently a bipartisan Senate Bill sponsored by Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley to strike this unconstitutional regulation down. But it will come too late for Leonard. Biden MUST enact an executive order, effective IMMEDIATELY if Leonard is to survive this latest DOJ attempt to execute him. Scream like hell for Leonard, an innocent man and for every elderly inmate stuck in these hell hole death traps!

Expand full comment

Hi Michael. Thanks for your message about Leonard Peltier. There will be an event honoring Leonard on February 24 at Brava Theater in San Francisco (Flor y Canto Indigenista): Please pass the word: https://www.brava.org/all-events/flor-y-canto-indigenista.

Expand full comment

Mr Moore I am a citizen of the United Kingdom and i was distraught to discover this story and ashamed we had not heard of this. I've emailed your president on the link you shared and have also emailed our prime minister to push for this man's release. Also slightly off topic as a unionist my self I stand in solidarity with the Starbucks employees fighting for better rights.

Expand full comment

Thank you as always for holding up the mirror❣️

Expand full comment

OK this one moved me, finally, to actually subscribe instead of continuing to read for free. While I've continued to enjoy past entries, this one is heart-breaking. I've put on f/b and also forwarded to an activist I know (and am related to, actually) -- minimal I know....but omg. Kudos, sir, on your effort to continue the effort.

Expand full comment

I still have a copy of Peter Matthiessen's book "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" (1980) which helped to bring attention to Leonard's case. It provides a lot of detail about the FBI's targeting of Peltier and is still well worth reading.

Expand full comment

Not a day has passed since the day Wounded Knee happened that I have not thought about Mr. Peltier and the history my Lakota Grandfather passed on to me and the other kids at Elsworth Air Force base. I have never forgotten the efforts AIM made to get their rights. The FBI went after so many groups that only wanted their rights and what was owed to them.

I see another great Michael Moore movie coming together.

Expand full comment

Thank you for this. My heart breaks with yours.

I sent emails to all three. Praying that he's freed

before it's too late.

Expand full comment

Whether its Peltier or Steven Donziger or Edward Snowden or Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, etc., we harass and punish the innocent and the whistleblowers and let hordes of guilty, destructive criminals roam free, write books, make lucrative media appearances and poison our lives until they, invariably, die at a very advanced age, wealthy in their dotage and birthing even worse spawn.

Expand full comment

Thanks so much Michael. I love when you give me ideas on how to do actions. I put this message on FB. I sent messages to Pres. Biden, Secy. Hagland, and the Attorney General.

Expand full comment

God Bless You, Michael. It's very important we call President Biden immediately.

I'm ashamed I'd forgotten Leonard Peltier, even in my prayers.

I will be asking Mr. Biden to order immediate reparations.

Not just to Mr. Peltier, but the Lakota Sioux nation.

They are living in an open-air prison reservation.

A friend confirmed people are living in crates.

May Great Spirit help us amend the atrocity.

You certainly are, Michael.

God Bless You

Expand full comment

I cannot believe that Joe Biden won't do this as I believed till the end that Obama would intervene and block the pipeline before leaving office. There has got to be an understandable reason for this delay. Heartbreaking!

Expand full comment

Being an active member of the Native American Support Group here, we have been writing letters pasting on Bumper Stickers writing more letters to free Leonard Peltier since the 1980's but I would be glad to write again to free him.

Expand full comment

In the name of humanity and democracy that we may soon lose forever, please cut all red tape, free this man immediately, and provide him with adequate resources for what is left of his life, as a mere attempt to compensate for this horrific and unforgivable act of injustice our country has inflicted on him!

Expand full comment

At the age of 72 I am still appalled by how we treat any of our fellow citizens who don't fit into the racial or ethnic reality of whiteness. During my career as an archivist and local history museum curator I never ceased to be amazed at the local racial and ethnic injustices that constantly mirrored our national injustices. Mr. Peltier is, tragically, just one more victim in that ongoing American reality. His release would be one very small step on the road to the reality of actually practicing what we preach, but it would only be one small step. It is our job, no matter how impossible it might sometimes seem, to keep taking those small steps. If enough of us continue to fight over a long enough time perhaps our progeny will eventually find themselves living in a country that truly practices the ideals it daily pretends to uphold.

Expand full comment

There will be a press conference tomorrow in Tampa, Fl at 1:00pm EST conducted by the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee on the situation and what they are asking for as a call to action. If interested, here is the link to it: https://www.facebook.com/1525759891020315/posts/3055748038021485/

Expand full comment