Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/17/native-american-activist-believed-wrongfully-accused-of-murder-gets-first-parole-hearing-in-15-years.html
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Good luck, Leonard. I am extremely skeptical that he did the crime he was accused of, but even if he did, I think he has served his time.
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Contributed by Natalie Dressed
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It really sucks that a Parole Board hearing is really not the right forum to establish innocence. As a result, a factually innocent person who maintains their innocence is typically much less likely to receive parole than a person who, innocent or not, says that they accept responsibility for the crime and have repented. There are definitely cases out there where people who were later proven innocent beyond any doubt served a lot more time than they would have if they had lied and said that they did the crime and were sorry about it.
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I have no way of factually deciding whether Peltier did what he is convicted for or not. What I do know, is that it was a politically volatile time and there was a huge political incentive to silence the radical wing of the American Indian population. The FBI was, and is still, very willing to use their power to punish those who oppose official policy and pose a political threat.
Either way, Peltier has served his time, as Mister44 has noted, and should be paroled.
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Plus, the whole situation spits in the face of indigenous people. The FBI was only there in the first place under a false premise. The only reason agents were there is to push people around and show total disregard for tribal sovereignty, because they could.
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For a while, the headline would have been “Leonard Peltier. dubiously…”
I assumed it was someone else, since he wasn’t named, but I guess it has been long enough ago now that a lot of people don’t know of him. All the more indication that it is time for him to be set free, by parole or by pardon.
(I’m still unhappy with Clinton for not pardoning him 24 years ago.)
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