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Leonard Peltier's Pre-sentence Statement
by Leonard Peltier / June'77 |
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LEONARD PELTIER'S PRE-SENTENCING STATEMENT
June 1, 1977 - Fargo, North Dakota
There is no doubt in my mind or my people's minds you are going
to sentence me to two consecutive life terms. You are and have always
been prejudiced against me and any Native Americans who have stood
before you; you have openly favored the government all through this
trial and you are happy to do whatever the FBI would want you to do in
this case.
I did not always believe this to be so! When I first saw you in
the courtroom in Sioux Falls, your dignified appearance misled me into
thinking that you were a fair-minded person who knew something of the
law and who would act in accordance with the law! Which meant that you
would be impartial and not favor one side or the other in this law
suit. That has not been the case and I now firmly believe that you
will impose consecutive life terms solely because that way you think
will avoid the displeasures of the FBI. Neither my people nor myself
know why you would be so concerned about an organization that has
brought so much shame to the American people. But you are! Your
conduct during this trial leaves no doubt that you will do the bidding
of the FBI without any hesitation!
You are about to perform an act which will close one more chapter
in the history of the failure of the United States courts and the
failure of the people of the United States to do justice in the case
of a Native American. After centuries of murder... could I have been
wise in thinking that you would break that tradition and commit an act
of justice? Obviously not! Because I should have realized that what
I detected was only a very thin layer of dignity and surely not of
fine character.
If you think my accusations have been harsh and unfounded, I will
explain why I have reached these conclusions and why I think my
criticism has not been harsh enough. First, each time my defense team
tried to expose FBI misconduct...and tried to present evidence of
this, you claimed it was irrelevant to this trial. But the
prosecution was allowed to present their case with evidence that was
in no way relevant -- for example, an automobile blowing up on a
freeway in Wichita, Kansas; an attempted murder in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, for which I have not been found innocent or guilty; a van
loaded with legally purchased firearms and a policeman who claims
someone fired at him in Oregon state. The Supreme Court of the United
States tried to prevent convictions of this sort by passing into law
that only past convictions may be presented as evidence....This court
knows very well I have no prior convictions, nor am I even charged
with some of these alleged crimes; therefore, they cannot be used as
evidence in order to receive a conviction in this farce called a
trial. This is why I strongly believe you will impose two life terms,
running consecutively, on me.
Second, you could not make a reasonable decision about my
sentence because you suffer from at least one of three defects that
prevent a rational conclusion: you plainly demonstrated this in your
decision about the Jimmy Eagle and Myrtle Poor Bear aspects of this
case. In Jimmy's case, only a judge who consciously and openly
ignores the law would call it irrelevant to my trial; in the mental
torture of Myrtle Poor Bear you said her testimony would shock the
conscience of the American people if believed! But YOU decided what
was to be believed -- not the jury! Your conduct shocks the
conscience of what the American legal system stands for! -- the search
for the truth by a jury of citizens. What was it that made you so
afraid to let that testimony in? Your own guilt of being part of a
corrupted pre-planned trial to get a conviction no matter how your
reputation would be tarnished? For these reasons, I strongly believe
you will do the bidding of the FBI and give me two consecutive life
terms.
Third, in my opinion, anyone who failed to see the relationship
between the undisputed facts of these events surrounding the
investigation used by the FBI in their interrogation of the Navajo
youths -- Wilford Draper, who was tied to a chair for three hours and
denied access to his attorney; the outright threats to Norman Brown's
life; the bodily harm threatened to Mike Anderson; and, finally, the
murder of Anna Mae Aquash -- must be blind, stupid, or without human
feelings so there is no doubt and little chance that you have the
ability to avoid doing today what the FBI wants you to do, which is to
sentence me to two life terms running consecutively.
Fourth, you do not have the ability to see that the conviction of
an A.I.M. activist helps to cover up what the government's own
evidence showed: that large numbers of Indian people engaged in that
fire fight on June 26, 1975. You do not have the ability to see that
the government must suppress that fact that there is a growing anger
amongst Indian people and that Native Americans will resist any
further encroachments by the military forces of the capitalistic
Americans, which is evidenced by the large number of Pine Ridge
residents who took up arms on June 26, 1975, to defend themselves.
Therefore, you do not have the ability to carry out your
responsibility towards me in an impartial way and will run my two life
terms consecutively.
Fifth, I stand before you as a proud man; I feel no guilt! I
have done nothing to feel guilty about! I have no regrets of being a
Native American activist -- thousands of people in the United States,
Canada, and around the world have and will continue to support me to
expose the injustices which have occurred in this courtroom. I do
feel pity for your people that they must live under such an ugly
system. Under your system, you are taught greed, racism, and
corruption -- and most serious of all, the destruction of Mother
Earth. Under the Native American system, we are taught all people are
Brothers and Sisters; to share the wealth with the poor and needy.
But the most important of all is to respect and preserve the Earth,
who we consider to be our Mother. We feed from her breast; our
Mother gives us life from birth and when it's time to leave this
world, who again takes us back into her womb. But the main thing we
are taught is to preserve her for our children and our grandchildren,
because they are the next who will live upon her.
No, I'm not the guilty one here; I'm not the one who should be
called a criminal -- white racist America is the criminal for the
destruction of our lands and my people; to hide your guilt from the
decent human beings in America and around the world, you will sentence
me to two consecutive life terms without any hesitation....
If you were impartial, you would have had an open mind on all the
factual disputes in this case. But you were unwilling to allow even
the slightest possibility that a law enforcement officer would lie on
the stand. Then how could you possibly be impartial enough to let my
lawyers prove how important it is to the FBI to convict a Native
American activist in this case? You do not have the ability to see
that such conviction is an important part of the efforts to discredit
those who are trying to alert their Brothers and Sisters to the new
threat from the white man, and the attempt to destroy what little
Indian land remains in the process of extracting our uranium, oil, and
other minerals. Again, to cover up your part in this, you will call
me a heartless, cold-blooded murderer who deserves two life sentences
consecutively....
Finally, I honestly believe that you made up your mind long ago
that I was guilty and that you were going to sentence me to the
maximum sentence permitted under the law. But this does not surprise
me, because you are a high-ranking member of the white racist American
establishment which has consistently said, "In God We Trust," while
they went about the business of murdering my people and attempting to
destroy our culture.
Leonard Peltier was then sentenced to two life terms to run
consecutively by Judge Paul Benson.
Leonard Peltier Leonard Peltier Support Committee
#89637-132 P.O. Box 583
USP Leavenworth Lawrence, KS 66044
P.O. Box 1000
Leavenworth, KS 66048
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