Leonard: Political Prisoner

10/06/2024

Leonard’s first parole hearing in 10 years is today, June 10th, 2024. The private hearing is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. Monday at a high security lockup that is part of the Federal Correctional Complex Coleman.

Kevin Sharp, Peltier's attorney, said the hearing will have witnesses for and against parole, including family members of the two FBI agents who were killed.

Sharp expects the hearing to last the day. The decision is required to come within 21 days. If parole is granted, the process for release shouldn't take long. If denied, Peltier can look at his options for filing an appeal to a federal district court.

The Indigenous activist has been in prison nearly 50 years for the 1975 killing of two FBI agents. In ailing health, supporters say this might be his last bid for freedom.

06/06/2024

Native American elder and activist Leonard Peltier has a parole hearing on June 10th. This may be his last parole hearing and last chance at release. His lawyer is encouraging all of us to write, email, and call the U.S. Parole Commission in support of parole for Leonard.

“Given the ongoing, unresolved concerns about the fairness of Leonard Peltier’s incarceration, that he has spent nearly 50 years in prison, his age, and ongoing and chronic health issues, granting parole on humanitarian grounds in this case is not only timely but a necessary measure in the interests of both justice and mercy."

Amnesty International is urging parole for NA activist Leonard Peltier. We stand in solidarity with all supporters of Leonard for the upcoming parole hearing on June 10th.

If you can, please send your URGENT action letters to the US Parole Commission via snail mail or email TODAY!

Email generator: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/to-the-us-parole-commission-free-leonard-peltier?source=direct_link&referrer=group-ndn

Call: (202) 346-7000

17/04/2024

In light of the severe health conditions and medical needs of Leonard Peltier, join and in asking Attorney General Merrick Garland to free America’s longest serving Indigenous political prisoner. 

Call the US Justice Department’s comment line today and ask for Peltier’s compassionate release at 202-353-1555.

17/11/2023

“White people are only a couple of generations at that time away from the Indian wars. They're still scared.”

“You know, they have this conception that Indians could rise up somehow. And the fear is in this jury.”

“It's hard for people outside of the west or Midwest to understand that that fear also has a flip side of hatred.”

“So people often don't understand the hatreds in Northern Minnesota, and in many parts of North Dakota. And the resentment. I think that's a big part of it, too.”

Pulitzer Prize winner Louise Erdrich offers her perspective on what went wrong in Fargo for Leonard.

For the full story, listen to S2 E14 “Louise,” which is now available on all podcasting platforms.

For exclusive ad-free access to Seasons One and Two of LEONARD, find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

16/11/2023

During Leonard’s trial, the American Indian Movement organized a grassroots campaign to educate the wider community in Fargo, ND.

AIM chairman John Trudell led the effort until he was locked up on a bogus contempt charge after a U.S. Marshal wrongly barred him from re-entering the courtroom.

“I remember John Trudell walked in. And the door swung. And this big old U.S. Marshal goes, “We have rules. They're written right there. And one of them is not to swing that door.”

“And then John – he had to look up at him because he's so tall. You know, John's not that tall – and he goes, “Well, if you think you're so damn smart, why don't you come read them to me?”

Oglala shootout survivor Jean Roach recalled the fiasco when we interviewed her in Rapid City in 2021.

For the full story, listen to S2 E13 “Snow Job,” which is now available on all podcasting platforms.

For exclusive ad-free access to Seasons One and Two of LEONARD, find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

15/11/2023

“Frank Blackhorse gets arrested with Leonard, but yet is never extradited back to the States. He's never tried even though it's undisputed he shot Special Agent Curtis Fitzgerald at Wounded Knee.”

“I have no doubt this guy was an FBI informant. There's no way he would've gotten away with that if he was for real.”

Attorney Mike Kuzma on Frank Blackhorse, the man who led authorities to Peltier at Smallboy’s camp in Alberta, Canada.

For the full story, listen to S2 E12 “O Canada,” which is now available on all podcasting platforms.

For exclusive ad-free access to Seasons One and Two of LEONARD, find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

14/11/2023

“I would have thought that after the Cedar Rapids trial they would have dismissed charges against Leonard Peltier and saved the taxpayers some money. To me that would be the logical thing to do. I know our federal government is not always logical, but I believe if Peltier had been tried in Cedar Rapids by the same jury he would have been found not guilty given the same evidence… How could he be anything else?”

Foreman Robert Bolin explains to director Michael Apted that if Leonard had been trialed with his co-defendants Dino Butler and Bob Robideau by his jury in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Mr. Peltier would be a free man today.

For the full story, listen to S2 E11 “Not Guilty,” which is now available on all podcasting platforms.

For exclusive ad-free access to Seasons One and Two of LEONARD, find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

11/11/2023

Native American author Louise Erdrich, who attended Peltier’s trial in 1977, struck up a friendship with Leonard after the publication of his book PRISON WRITINGS.

In the early 2000s the two began corresponding and learned that they shared a mutual relative back on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota.

To support his defense fund, Louise bought Leonard’s painting of their Chippewa relative, Chief Kaishpa Gourneau, who was photographed here in Washington, DC, as part of his tribal duties.

For the full story, listen to S2 E14 “Louise,” which is now available on all podcasting platforms.

For exclusive ad-free access to Seasons One and Two of LEONARD, find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

10/11/2023

To bolster their case against Peltier in Fargo, the Feds desperately needed new physical evidence to link Leonard to the murders.

So a new shell casing appeared. One that was not in any of the thousands of FBI reports that were given as part of
discovery in Cedar Rapids.

The shell casing was a crucial piece of evidence because it supported the government’s notion that Leonard had executed the agents at close range.

The Bureau claimed the cartridge was uncovered in the open trunk of Jack Coler’s car on June 29, but the shell that became the linchpin of the prosecution’s case against Leonard appeared to have materialized out of thin air.

For the full story, listen to S2 E13 “Snow Job,” which is now available on all podcasting platforms.

For exclusive ad-free access to Seasons One and Two of LEONARD, find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

09/11/2023

While Leonard was hiding out in Canada, the unthinkable happened back on Pine Ridge.

On January 27, 1976, Tribal President Dick Wilson was voted out of office.

After Wilson lost to Al Trimble, the hope of many on Pine Ridge was that El Presidente would surrender power peacefully and go gently in the night.

Those hopes were dashed three days later when Wilson ordered the invasion of Wanblee, Trimble’s hometown and a bastion of traditional support.

On January 30, 1976, a posse of Goons, strapped with AR-15’s and sporting military issue bullet proof vests, descended on the quiet hamlet to make mayhem.

After multiple properties were shot up and firebombed, the BIA and FBI sent agents to respond to the scene, but they were too frightened to break up the blood-thirsty mob.

Hours later, attorney Byron DeSersa, who had done work for WKLDOC, the Wounded Knee Legal Defense Offense Committee, was gunned down on the road by Goons.

The next afternoon the war party finally left town honking their horns and firing their guns in the air as they made the 90 mile drive back to their base in Pine Ridge Village with an official es**rt from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

For the full story, listen to S2 E12 “O Canada,” which is now available on all podcasting platforms.

For exclusive ad-free access to Seasons One and Two of LEONARD, find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

📷 by Kevin McKiernan

08/11/2023

In Cedar Rapids, Leonard’s co-defendant, Dino Butler, was represented pro bono by William Kunstler, a radical New Yorker who became a celebrated pop culture icon in his own right for his rebellious brand of lawyering.

To undermine the hyperbolic horror stories put forth by the law enforcement community during the trial about the American Indian Movement, Mr. Kunstler leaned on his network of celebrity friends to influence the jury.

Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Bonnie Raitt, Marlon Brando, Dick Gregory, Floyd Westerman, and Muhammad Ali all appeared in support of Dino Butler and Bob Robideau in the summer of 1976 in Iowa.

For the full story, listen to S2 E11 “Not Guilty,” which is now available on all podcasting platforms.

For exclusive ad-free access to Seasons One and Two of LEONARD, find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

20/10/2023

“Leonard's not a criminal. I mean, he's not a criminal. Is he going to hurt anybody? No. So why is he in? So he can be a symbol of military vengeance. Do we want that?

I know people in the military. And I know that a lot of the reasons people go into the military is not because they want to kill people. It's because they think somehow the military has many missions and some of those missions are to help people. And that's also why a lot of people go into law enforcement.

People don't like to hear this, but I know that there are people who are cruel in law enforcement, but I also know there are really good people who want to help people.

Let's make that the face of the military and of law enforcement. Peacekeepers. That's the face we want. And Leonard's a symbol of that. But he's also a real person and he deserves to get out. He deserves to be with his family. He deserves to be hugged by his people. He deserves to touch his people, to hear their songs, to walk this earth.

He deserves to be part, he deserves to be -- the most important thing for Indian people is to be with each other in a powwow in a setting out in the woods around a fire. The most important thing in the world is to be embraced and to be part of a group of Indians. And I felt how important that was. I felt it so many times. And sometimes when I've felt it I've been looking around and saying, yeah, I'm free to be among people and then to go away and to come back. And he isn't, but he should be free to be among people to go away to come back to make a mistake, to do whatever he wants. He should be free.

In Season 2, Episode 14, “Louise,” Native American author, and 2021 Pulitzer Prize Winner, Louise Erdrich talks about what Leonard’s freedom would mean to Indigenous people at home and abroad.

For exclusive ad-free access on , find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

19/10/2023

“You know, the court had an obligation too. Your job is not just to get a conviction. You work for the Department of Justice. Seems like there ought to be some thought about justice somewhere. And instead this Klocke just ditty bops on back to the jury room. Let's go.

It was unbelievable. You only have one job up there and that's to make sure that the defendant gets a fair trial. And the most basic piece of fairness is that you've got jurors who are not prejudiced against the ethnicity of the guy who's on trial.”

In Season 2, Episode 13, “Snow Job,” former federal judge Kevin H. Sharp criticizes the court in Fargo for allowing a trailblazing Karen, Shirley Klocke, to serve on Peltier’s jury.

For exclusive ad-free access to all 22 episodes of LEONARD on , find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

18/10/2023

“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!

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.

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.”

In Season 2, Episode 13, “Snow Job,” Emmy Winner Peter Coyote recreates Leonard Peltier’s statement to Judge Paul Benson prior to his sentencing in Fargo, North Dakota, on June 1, 1977.
For exclusive ad-free access to all 22 episodes of LEONARD on , find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

17/10/2023

After his capture in Canada on February 6th, 1976, Leonard Peltier was adopted by Ethel Pearson, an honored member and leader of the Kwagiulth Nation on Vancouver Island.

Upon the chiefs’ approval, a ceremonial potlatch was held where Leonard was given his Kwagiulth name: Gwarth-ee-lass, meaning "He who draws the people to him.”

But Leonard’s adoption was more than an act of charity. It was a deft piece of diplomacy that nearly short-circuited Canada’s plan to extradite Peltier to the United States.

For exclusive ad-free access to all 22 episodes of LEONARD on , find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

16/10/2023

On June 26, 1976, Muhammad Ali fought Japan’s Antonio Inoki in an exhibition fight that was watched on television by more than 1.4 billion people.

After enduring over 100 kicks to his legs over 15 rounds, the People’s Champion was hospitalized in Santa Monica, California, where he was treated for two blood clots and a nasty leg infection that had doctors considering amputation.

Days later, Ali made the trip to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to attend the murder trial of Leonard’s co-defendants Bob Robideau and Dino Butler despite serious risks to his health in order to "bring attention to what they're doing to the Indians there.”

The surprise court appearance by Sports Illustrated’s Athlete of the Century was an uppercut that left the government dazed and clinging to the ropes.

For exclusive ad-free access to all 22 episodes of LEONARD on , find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

15/10/2023

In Season 2, Episode 14, “Louise,” we interview Native American author Louise Erdrich, who attended Leonard’s murder trial in her hometown of Fargo, North Dakota, in 1977.

The 2021 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction analyzes where it all went wrong for Peltier, while sharing how the experience affected her concept of justice, a theme which became a hallmark of her literary career.

Along the way, Louise reads from her correspondence with Leonard, revealing new details about their friendship, before laying out what his freedom would mean to the Indigenous community in North America and around the world.

For exclusive ad-free access to all 22 episodes of LEONARD on , find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

14/10/2023

Members of Congress continue to demand clemency from President Biden for Leonard!

Nearly three dozen members of Congress are asking President Joe Biden to grant indigenous activist Leonard Peltier clemency after 46 years of imprisonment.

14/10/2023

In Season 2, Episode 13, “Snow Job,” we document how Leonard was denied his Constitutional right to a fair trial by a racist judge and jury in Fargo, North Dakota, in this shocking indictment of the American justice system.

For exclusive ad-free access to all 22 episodes of LEONARD on , find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

13/10/2023

In Season 2, Episode 12, “O Canada,” we detail Leonard’s capture in Canada, his adoption by Kwagiulth Nation, and his controversial extradition hearing in Vancouver, British Columbia.

For exclusive ad-free access to all 22 episodes of LEONARD on , find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

12/10/2023

In Season 2, Episode 11, “Not Guilty,” we document the historic verdict reached by an all-white jury of twelve in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the murder trial of Bob Robideau and Dino Butler, Leonard’s friends and comrades from the Jumping Bull camp.

For exclusive ad-free access to all 22 episodes of LEONARD on , find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

11/10/2023

Today we are excited to announce that all 22 episodes of LEONARD, including the final four unreleased episodes of Season Two, are now available on , the premium podcast studio known for stories like “Dr. Death” and “My Favorite Murder.”

Forty of Wondery’s shows have hit #1 on Apple Podcasts, so we’re hopeful that this partnership will bring greater awareness of Leonard’s story to the wider public.

For exclusive ad-free access to Seasons One and Two of LEONARD, find Wondery Plus on the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

13/09/2023

Tell the world the story of Leonard Peltier by sharing this film and join the global prayer for his freedom by calling for his immediate release. President Joe Biden please grant him clemency now.

12/09/2023

RELEASE LEONARD!



👉🏽 Call The White House at (202) 456-1111

👉🏽 Email The White House at: whitehouse.gov/contact

👉🏽 Write to your Reps & Senator - them to urge to release Leonard Peltier.

14/03/2023

On September 5, 1975, Lakota holy man Frank Fools Crow was invited to deliver the opening prayer on the floor of the U.S. Senate in Washington, DC.

While the Chief prayed, the FBI raided the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, deploying more than 185 agents in an air-land-and-river operation on Crow Dog’s Paradise in their search for Leonard Peltier, Dino Butler, Bob Robideau and the other campers who survived the tragic firefight on the neighboring Pine Ridge Reservation in late June.

S2 E10 “Dragnet” is out now on all your favorite podcast platforms.

03/03/2023

On March 8, 2023, Duke University will be hosting a virtual discussion with Rory Owen Delaney & Andrew Fuller, hosts and producers of the podcast, Leonard: Political Prisoner, in recognition of our winning the 2021 Human Rights Audio Documentary Award.

The program will be led by Duke’s Courtney Lewis, Associate Professor in Cultural Anthropology, and enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation. It will also feature special guest, Chase Iron Eyes, who is an attorney, activist, and member of the Oglala Lakota and Standing Rock Sioux Tribes.

This live event is sponsored by the Human Rights Archive and the Archive of Documentary Arts at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, along with Duke’s Forum for Scholars and Publics.

Please register now and join us for this multilayered discussion as we explore the intersection of recording technologies, activism, and human rights.

Join us for this multilayered discussion with the 2021 winners of the Human Rights Audio Documentary Award. Rory Owen Delaney and Andrew Fuller, hosts and producers of the podcast, will be joined by special guest Chase Iron Eyes, attorney, activist, and member of the Oglala Lakota and Standing Rock....

24/02/2023

In 1973 when Marlon Brando won the Academy Award for his role as Vito Corleone in the Godfather, the A-lister and avid supporter of the American Indian Movement, asked Sacheen Littlefeather to refuse the Oscar on his behalf in protest of the treatment of Native Americans at the Wounded Knee standoff, the 50th anniversary of which is happening this February 27th.

Two and a half years after one of the most infamous moments at the Academy Awards, the Portland, Oregon office of the FBI receives information that Leonard Peltier and Dennis Banks are traveling eastward in a motorhome owned by Marlon Brando.

Listen to S2 E10 “Dragnet” out now!

‎Show LEONARD: Political Prisoner, Ep Dragnet - Feb 16, 2023

16/02/2023

Under increasing scrutiny to avenge their fallen brothers, the FBI fans out across the country and tracks down the Jumping Bull fugitives one by one. Through a combination of illegal searches, physical violence and coerced confessions, the Bureau builds a circumstantial case against Dino Butler, Bob Robideau and Leonard Peltier, who are indicted on charges of first-degree murder around Thanksgiving in 1975. Only one of those men is not in custody at the time, and he is caravaning up the West Coast in an RV owned by actor Marlon Brando.

S2 E10 “Dragnet” is out now wherever you listen to your podcasts!

07/02/2023

On this day 48 years ago the Royal Canadian Mounted Police apprehended Leonard Peltier in a remote Cree camp in Alberta, Canada, without incident. Peltier was then transported to the notorious Oakalla Prison outside of Vancouver where he was kept in solitary confinement and permitted less than half an hour of outdoor exercise per day.

Years later, a Canadian inquiry into the Peltier case concluded that the Native American activist’s extradition to the United States was the result of falsified evidence. "I am satisfied that if this had been known when the extradition hearings took place, the request to extradite Peltier would likely have been refused," wrote Mr. Kaufman, a judge of the Quebec Court of Appeal.

Leonard Peltier should have never been extradited from Canada. And he would never be convicted in an American court today given the same evidence. So please help right an embarrassing wrong and let Leonard Peltier live out his remaining days at home with loved ones .

03/02/2023

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the 71-day siege at Wounded Knee, reportedly the longest civil disturbance in U.S. history. 

To commemorate the occasion, the documentary "From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock" will be screened at several commercial theaters, including in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Roxy in Muskogee and the Nunpa Theater on the Pine Ridge Reservation. There are also tentative plans to show the film in Chicago and Boulder, CO, dates TBD. 

On February 27th, when hundreds of Native Americans, including veterans of the 1973 uprising, will gather for ceremonies in Wounded Knee, the site of the tragic 1890 massacre, South Dakota Public Television will broadcast the film.  

For more information go to KevinMckiernan.com.