Dear Supporters:
What follows is a sample
letter to the U.S. Department of Justice Pardon Attorney. This is the second
step in the process to review Peltier’s recently resubmitted clemency
application.[i]
Please feel free to add
any additional or personal comments supporting the facts and stating that under
President Obama’s plan to grant a number of clemencies, commutations and
pardons for long-serving nonviolent drug offenses, that Leonard Peltier, a
remorseless double-murderer, is the last person who should be considered.
Factual material is available
from the NPPA through a search feature on the bottom of the home page in
addition to 156 blogs (posted since 11/29/09) with footnotes and supporting
references and documentation.
“In the Spirit of Coler
and Williams”
Ed
* * *
Edward Woods
8190 Beechmont Ave. #101
Cincinnati, Ohio 45255-6117
August 10, 2016
Honorable Robert A. Zauzmer
Acting Pardon Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.
20530 -0001
Re:
Leonard Peltier – Clemency Petition
Dear Mr. Zauzmer:
This letter expresses my profound opposition to Leonard
Peltier’s plea for clemency.
(Please reference my many previous
letters to the Pardon Attorney and President Obama dating back to 2009. These
letters contained detailed and factual material and references to the actual
record of Peltier’s conviction and subsequent appeals. I have received several
replies, one from the President and one in particular from former Pardon
Attorney Rodgers dated January 13, 2012 where it stated “Your letter will be retained and
added to any case file created in the event that Mr. Peltier re-applies for
executive clemency in the future.” [Peltier had not reapplied at that
time.] These prior communications are crucial to understand the validity of
Peltier’s conviction and numerous appeals, that his conviction has been
sustained, and that his false alibis and claims of a wrongful conviction are
simply without merit.)
I am aware that Leonard Peltier has renewed his application
for clemency and that a support group continues to actively encourage his
release. I served as a Special Agent with the FBI for thirty years and strongly
believe that his petition for Clemency should be denied for many valid reasons.
On June 26, 1975, Peltier was involved in an unprovoked
attack on FBI Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams while they were searching for a fugitive on the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in South Dakota. Both Agents were caught in an open field in a
deadly crossfire by members of the American Indian Movement, critically wounded,
and then summarily executed at point blank range by Leonard Peltier. Peltier
was convicted of their murders receiving consecutive life sentences. During
well over a dozen appeals Peltier’s conviction and sentencing has never been
altered. Over the years Peltier has made many outrageous and self-incriminating
public statements that only serve to reinforce his unrepentant and remorseless
guilt, even most recently; “And really, if necessary, I’d do it all over again
because it was the right thing to do” (2010), and, “I don’t regret any of this
for a minute” (2014).
Peltier has not been a model prisoner. In addition to numerous disciplinary
actions, in 1978 he was involved in
an armed escape from Lompoc Penitentiary during which shots were fired at
prison guards. For this post-conviction criminal act Peltier received an
additional seven-year consecutive sentence.
The families, friends and professional associates of Jack
and Ron continue to suffer from the loss of two fine young men who were
brutally murdered in-the-line-of-duty.
Clemency should be reserved for non-violent offenders who
have proven they have been rehabilitated. Peltier has not fulfilled his consecutive
life sentences, plus seven years. His
crimes were extremely violent and he remains unrepentant and repeatedly boasts about
his murderous acts on that horribly infamous day. Leonard Peltier is now
seeking consideration and mercy, but he should be shown the same degree of
mercy he gave to Jack Coler and Ron Williams, and that would be none.
I respectfully urge you to reject Peltier’s petition and
recommend to the President that his application be denied. Thank you for your
attention in this very crucial matter.
Sincerely,
Edw. Woods
Edward Woods
[i] NPPA blogs
available from the home page www.noparolepeltier.com
particularly relevant here to blogs dated, May 17, 21, 25 and June 7, 16, &
26 for reference and how inept Peltier’s attorney’s were to make the clemency
petition public.
