Sunday, January 1, 2017

PELTIER: ANOTHER ADMISSION

Dear Supporters:

If Leonard Peltier is paying for legal representation from the likes of Martin Garbus, Cynthia Dunne and Carl Nadler, he should demand a refund.

Why would attorneys allow a client to make a formal petition for clemency to the U.S. Department of Justice Pardon Attorney, the Attorney General and the President of the United States that included an admission of guilt?

Why would these attorneys make that petition public so all the flaws could be exposed and scrutinized? [i]

In Part 1 of the petition, entitled Remorse, Peltier states (and his attorneys publicize):

I did not wake up on that June 26 planning to injure or shoot federal agents, and did not gain anything from participating in the incident. I was on the Jumping Bull property to protect its residents, not to cause harm. At the end of the day, three young men lost their lives, many others were injured, families were traumatized, and lives were destroyed. (Emphasis added; see below for the additional comments [ii])

We absolutely cannot ignore the timing of this admission, coming on the heels of Peltier’s only opportunity to leave USP Coleman as a free man. The petition and Peltier’s statement is dated February 17, 2016. 2016! That’s forty-one years after the brutal murders of Special Agents Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams. Forty-one years later Peltier can make yet another admission of guilt that’s endorsed and publicized by attorneys who are certainly not looking out for his best interests, nor his legal protection under the law. That is, under the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. Yet, here Peltier is penning the words, ‘planning’ and ‘participating.’


PLANNING: No, Peltier wasn’t planning that morning to “injure or shoot federal agents.” There was no grand conspiracy (although Peltier claimed there were several on the government’s side[iii]) for an AIM ambush. Peltier and other AIM cowards weren’t lying in wait for federal agents to approach the Jumping Bull property or enter their camp along White Clay Creek.

The fact remains that neither the FBI nor Jack Coler or Ron Williams knew of the existence of the AIM camp or that Peltier had returned to Pine Ridge.

Although, what Peltier did know was that he was then a fugitive for the attempted murder of a Milwaukee police officer. [iv]

Some have suggested that it was an ambush, but we disagree. It was a spontaneous, cowardly reaction when Peltier mistakenly believed that the two late model sedans that followed him from Highway 18 were the FBI coming for him. Peltier panicked and the rest of the AIM cowards, with rifles, pinned down Coler and Williams in an open field and fired the first shots. How do we know this? Ron Williams told us. On the radio he described exactly what was about to happen before the first shot was fired, at them. Those listening on the radio even heard Ron get hit.

PARTICIPATING: Exactly what part of “participating” is difficult to understand? Peltier, pathetically supported by his own attorneys, admits to taking part in the “incident.”

In 1977 Peltier was convicted of murder and aiding and abetting, the elements of which are:[v]

1. That the accused had specific intent to facilitate the commission of a crime by another: Peltier and other AIM cowards took two federal agents under rifle fire and gunned them down in an open field.

2. That the accused had the requisite intent of the underlying substantive offense: Shooting at federal agents shows intent to harm. One hundred and fourteen (114) shell casings were matched to Peltier’s “Wichita AR-15.”[vi]

3. That the accused assisted or participated in the commission of the underlying substantive offense: Over 125 bullet holes were found in Coler and Williams’ vehicles.[vii]

4. That someone committed the underlying offense: Peltier was charged, indicted tried and convicted of murder and aiding and abetting. That charge was even listed on Peltier’s 1975 FBI wanted poster.[viii] Two critically wounded agents were brutally murdered. The government argued at trial that Peltier personally shot Agents Coler and Williams, and if he did not, then he was equally guilty as an aider and abettor in their deaths. Five people know who fired the final three killing shots. Three are dead, Jack, Ron and Bob Robideau.[ix] Dino Butler has remained relatively silent.[x] Peltier has been lurking behind a falsity that in some insubstantial way he was a warrior that day. Peltier cowers behind that façade and denigrates an otherwise proud Native heritage.

Peltier has created a spectacular fiction concocted with a gullible audience in mind, as we watch it unravel like a cheap blanket.

Peltier wasn’t planning to injure or shoot federal agents that day, but he did, and with the blessing of his legal team admits to participating, and that’s enough, even now in 2016, to sustain aiding and abetting.

“In the Spirit of Coler and Williams”
Ed Woods




[ii] There is only a grain of truth in Peltier’s perpetual folklore. AIM was allegedly at Pine Ridge to “protect” its residents but in the process was escalating the tension and violence. Three young men lost their lives. Two where attacked (and there was an eyewitness), severely or mortally wounded and then brutally murdered. Joe Stuntz participated in the initial shooting, stole Jack Coler’s FBI raid jacket from the trunk of his vehicle—gave Peltier a smile—and then proceeded to shoot at responding agents and officers until his deadly force was met in turn. Many others were injured? This is a new addition to Peltier fabrications/folklore. There were no other reports of anyone else being injured that day, unless Peltier wants to provide a name or make one up. Families were traumatized? That’s arguably true since Angie Long Visitor and her family fled away from the Jumping Bull area towards Highway 18. Certainly they were fearful over an action precipitated by AIM. Lives were destroyed? Peltier’s, yes, self-induced; Stuntz, yes, because he followed Peltier to his own death: Others? Peltier will have to come up with some specifics and more fabrications for that one.
[iv] Yes, Peltier was acquitted, but there is more to that story as well; better saved for another day.
“Later examinations of the remaining  .223 bullet casings submitted in connection with {F. Supp. 1150} the RESMURS case resulted in approximately 114 positive identifications with the Wichita AR-15. Thirty-nine of these were introduced into evidence at Peltier‘s trial as part of the exhibit 34 series. One of these was the bullet casing found in the trunk of Agent Coler’s car (Q# 2628; Trial Ex. 34B).”
       "The trial witnesses unanimously testified that there was only one AR-15 in the compound prior to the murders, that this weapon was used exclusively by Peltier and carried out by Peltier after the murders."
U.S. v. Peltier, U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit, 800 F.2d 772, 21 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. (Callaghan) 1017, 1986; U.S. App. Decision, September 11, 1986: Sections: “The .223 Casing,” and “The AR-15.”
[x] http://www.noparolepeltier.com/lie.html Butler came out publicly stating that Peltier’s only alibi—that the infamous Mr. X. killed the agents and drove off in a pickup, was a lie.