Copyright © 1999 NLThomas
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For the first time in any court, a habeas corpus petition challenging the denial by the U.S. Parole Commission of Leonard Peltier’s substantive and procedural parole rights has been filed in federal district court in Topeka, Kansas. This is the first attempt to enter Peltier’s case into the courts since he last appealed his conviction in 1993. Peltier, who is considered to be a political prisoner by Amnesty International who insists he be immediately and unconditionally released, has become a notorious symbol of injustice against Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. Peltier was originally convicted in 1977 for the first degree murders of FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams.

The petition was filed by former Attorney General and lawyer, Ramsey Clark with attorneys Carl Nadler and Lawrence Schilling. It was filed on June 4, 1999 and challenges as illegal, clearly erroneous, arbitrary, capricious, and unconstitutional, the Commission’s denial of parole to Peltier and its decision to schedule Peltier’s next parole release hearing in December 2008 -- 15 years in the future, 17 years in excess of the Commission’s applicable guidelines and 6 years after the date set by Congress for the total abolition of the Parole Commission itself.

Peltier’s petition also charges that as a result of changes in federal parole laws, practices and procedures since 1975, Peltier has been imprisoned longer than the law then authorized in violation of the Constitution’s ex post facto clause, as well as Peltier’s right to due process and equal protection of the laws. The Parole Commission is required to substantiate its reasons for denying a prisoner parole beyond the guidelines. Peltier claims the Commission’s stated reasons have been based on discriminatory and erroneous reasoning..

Additionally, the petition points to the dismantling process of the federal parole commission since the Comprehensive Crime Control Act was passed in 1984 and ties this process to the denial of parole to prisoners like Peltier for reasons of self interest. Also challenged is the Commission’s refusal to acknowledge Peltier’s current health condition as a substantial reason to consider his release. Peltier is currently suffering from a condition that, according to prison officials, causes his jaw to be frozen open 13 millimeters.

Although government prosecutors have openly stated that there was not enough evidence to prove that Peltier was responsible for the deaths of the two agents killed during the 1975 shoot out on the Lakota Reservation, the Commission has ignored this and repeatedly refused to reconsider parole, stating that Peltier has not yet taken criminal responsibility for the deaths.

After a December 1995 Interim Parole Hearing Review, the Commission stated in its subsequent decision, “The Commission recognizes that the prosecution has conceded the lack of any direct evidence that you personally participated in the executions of the two FBI agents. . . . Later in the decision they stated that they would not reconsider parole for Peltier because of his, “evident decision not to accept criminal responsibility.” Peltier, who has always maintained his innocence, is now spending his twenty-fouth year in prison.