Leonard Peltier is a Lakota political activist and member of the American Indian Movement. Peltier is currently serving two consecutive life sentences for the murders of the two FBI agents, however, this is not where his story ends, and his imprisonment is surrounded by controversy and mystery. On one side, the FBI states that he is a killer with a closed case and plenty of evidence against him. On the other side, political activists believe that he is a political prisoner, innocent of the crimes lodged against him. In this analysis of Leonard Peltier and his life, both sides will be explored in depth, as well as the events leading up to and after the incident with the FBI agents, and the opinion of the author of this analysis. Leonard Peltier …show more content…
Because of the violence occurring in the reservation, as well the FBI agents being unidentifiable as government officials, allowed the two to be released on account of self defense. When Peltier was finally arrested though, it was a different story. After the FBI Laboratory teams reviewed the evidence, they came to the conclusion that Peltier was in fact the one who fired the AR-15 that killed the two agents. However, there were relatively major discrepancies between the two trials. In Peltier’s trial, they did not use the same tactics as with Robideau and Butler, leading him to be sentenced with two consecutive life sentences. In fact, certain pieces of evidence were not allowed at Peltier’s trial, as realized in 1986 during an appeal, which could have potentially helped his case, but the court still ruled in favor of the jury’s ruling (Quick Facts…). There was also a restriction put in place for the defense on what evidence they could and couldn’t use, barring them from stating that the FBI has a history of tampering with evidence in order to enforce their
During the trial Daniel Lewis Allan was charged with several criminal acts, such as possession of a stolen vehicle worth over $5,000, breaking and entering a dwelling house with intent to commit assault therein, kidnapping, unlawful confinement, aggravated assault and robbery, and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, or for committing an offence. The accused assaulted the complainant, Allan Sutton, on August 29th 2003, dragged him out of the house, had placed the victim’s body in the trunk of the stolen car, seriously injured him in order to obtain the PIN number of the complainant’s debit card, and dumped the body at the side of McMillan road. On the morning of the event, the victim was in the bathroom of his house in Surrey getting
Captain Henry Wirz, was a Swiss citizen and Confederate officer during the American Civil War. After a European tour with the Confederate President, he returned to Georgia in 1864 and was appointed commandant the new military prison at Camp Sumter, which became formally known as Andersonville. Captain Wirz was obscenely harsh in with the prisoners of war and it had continued until prison was closed April 10, 1865. Shortly thereafter, he was arrested for the bloodhounds that killed over fifty escaped prisoners, and of killing thirteen men by his own hand. (Levitt)
Before watching the documentary of the Incident in Oglala with the killings of two FBI Agents that bombarded their way onto the Pine Ridge Reservation and started shooting at some unknown mystery man. I had no recollection of any of this happening, well of course when the shooting happened in 1973 and I wasn’t born until 1994, this gap of time the government sure did a great job sweeping this incident and trial under the rug. One small fact, is that one man Leonard Peltier is sitting in prison for protection his brothers and sisters of his tribe from an attack that no one saw coming. As the documentary sets up is that Dick Wilson was hired by what I believe is the government to keep a watchful eye on the Pine Ridge Reservation after the
Louis Riel once said, "We must cherish our inheritance. We must preserve our nationality for the youth of our future. The story should be written down to pass on". Louis was born on October 22, 1844 in the Red River settlement,Manitoba. His father,Sr. Louis Riel, a businessman and political leader in the Métis community, organized a large Métis resistance to the Hudson’s Bay Company fur-trading monopoly at the trial of Pierre-Guillaume Sayer in 1849.
On April 18, 1977, Leonard Peltier was found guilty of two accounts of first degree murder. He was sentenced to serve two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for the murders of two FBI agents. Despite the jury’s unanimous verdict, many individuals believe that Peltier is a victim of social injustice. The evidence used against Peltier is in many cases circumstantial and does not provide solid evidence to convict him. Whether or not he was responsible for the deaths of the two FBI agents, his case deserves to be viewed from other perspectives in addition to personal bias.
Horn’s lawsuit also alleges the “General Rifling Characteristics” reports done at the time to determine what type of gun was used were altered to align with witness testimony for a stronger case against Horn. Stephenson conducted the reports but never disclosed them to Horn’s lawyer or provided them to the State’s Attorney’s Office, the suit alleges. The prosecutor realized about a year later as he was preparing for trial in early 2000 that he had a problem: "His star witness said the murder weapon was a Beretta. But his forensic examiner's report did not list a Beretta as even a possible murder weapon". So the prosecutor called Stephenson "shortly before the start of jury selection," and he asked, "whether it was possible the murder weapon could have been a Beretta.
Looking at the Dakota prisoner of war letters we can see society through a lens that is often hidden in historical records, that being the perspective of Native Indians. The Natives, who occupied the land now known as the Midwestern United States, were treated like animals and savages by the European settlers who were continually moving west. The Dakota POW letters show that much like the European settlers, the Natives were a society with families and values that shouldn’t be treated different because of their heritage. David Faribault Jr. (also known as Four Lighting) argues that the Dakota people deserve to be treated as equals and human, and shouldn’t be prosecuted for “bad deeds” committed by other tribal members. The Dakota POW letters
The evidence presented should be enough to get a retrial, but the court repeatedly denies peltier a chance to redeem himself. " The Eighth Circuit also rejected Peltier's laundry list of objections to the Fargo trial and upheld the conviction. In February 1979, the Supreme Court refused to review Peltier's case." (Petier Trail, The Leonard Peltier Trial:
I have no guilt In 1970, the FBI were targeting the leaders of Native Americans Movement to weaken the power they established as the FBI were scared of the unity and togetherness of the Native Americans. Racesim and discrimination at this time were still an issue for the non-white people including Native Americans. On june 1, 1977, one of the great member of the American Indian movement, Leonard Peltier was convicted and sentenced to two consecetive term of life imprisonment for first-degree murder in the shooting of two Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) agents during conflict on the pine Ridge Indian Reservation Pine on 1975. Mr. Peltier was born on September 12, 1944 in Dakota.
had to be pinned on Peltier. Additionally, in Butler and Robideau’s trial, the jury was able to see how the FBI evidence was fabricated but when it came to Peltier’s trial it was not seen and evidence was withheld as well as there being phony ballistics tests. Also, in Peltier’s trial, there is a masked man while in Butler and Robideau’s trial there is no masked man. This masked man shifts the blame on someone else but at the same time, Peltier is not going to tell who the murderer is so it is false and he is really the killer. The officers got their justice and did what they did to get the trial to go their way so killing someone was worth it and justified why they were on the Indian reservation in the first place.
He never has to wait long. He killed the Indian man named Walker after his life insurance policy and proved his death by drink poising (125). • Government has not shown any interest to help Indian people from murders. Letters sent to Washington, D.C. begging for help went unanswered (126). • Agents are quick to move in and declare local Indian landowner’s incompetent in order to provide them with white guardians who have the authority to lease their land to oil companies.
The Alger Hiss trial is recognizable throughout the entire United States as a trial that went down in history as the greatest. The trial involved Alger Hiss, a former State Department official who was convicted of perjury. Hiss was convicted of having decepted the jury under oath with his testimony about not being involved with the Soviet Union and the spying that was occurring within the United States government during World War 2. Hiss was caught in his own lies and was approximately in jail four years, yet he protested and fought for innocence in jail and after incarceration. The case against Hiss began in 1948, when Whittaker Chambers testified in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, and to judge Samuel Kaufman,
It is the winter of 1944, and 84 Americans lie dead in s field by the town of Malmedy. These were the men of Battery B, who were slaughtered by the tank formation of Kampfgruppe Peiper. A man by the name of Joachim Peiper would later be tried for the death of these men and found guilty. He would later be lease on the premise that the trial was unfair. Though Joachim Peiper was released from his sentence, it is commonly known that Peiper was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent people and should have been punished.
Documentary analysis: Incident at Oglala Incident at Oglala (1992), a documentary by Michael Apted, which is about Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist, who was convicted of murdering two FBI agents during a 1975 conflict on the Pine Ridge indian Reservation. In this documentary, Apted provided an argument, which is Peltier's conviction sparked great controversy by introduced interviewed different backgrounds key players in the incident. This argument is a compelling, because is filled with amount evidences of Peltier' case arrest were under an anxiety, fear historical background between Native Americans on the reservation and the government, also included the reasonable doubts about the legal proceedings fairness. At the beginning of the documentary, Apted described the incident by interviewing some Native Americans, who are the witness in the incident. Also a former assistant FBI regional head of South Dakota, Norman Zigross.
The man gave up, Edmund Kemper was fed up with all of the secrets, the lies, and the hiding that he’s done (BE 1). No one can understand why he’s killed them, why he’s cut them up, and why he’s forced himself on their lifeless bodies. Nothing Edmund Kemper has done can be understood even knowing what he’s gone through (Bonn). Kemper was taken custody on April 23, 1973, after calling the Santa Cruz Police and confessing to his crimes. After killing his mother, Clarnell, and her best friend, Sally Hallet, Kemper drove to Colorado; he thought he’d be charged with the two murders since they took place in Clarnells home (“Edmund Emil Kemper III”).