ipolitics.ca :: Trudeau government refuses to back clemency appeal for Leonard Peltier

25.12.16

Trudeau government refuses to back clemency appeal for Leonard Peltier: [ipolitics.ca] In a November letter, Wilson-Raybould told the CBA the extradition was lawful.

Peltier was sentenced in 1977 for the murder of two FBI officers during a clash with indigenous activists on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1975. Peltier, a U.S. citizen, fled to Canada after the murders and was apprehended in Hinton, Alberta.

Human rights groups and advocates such as the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu have long called for the release of Peltier, who has been in maximum security prisons for 40 years. An official clemency appeal was sent to U.S. President Barack Obama by Peltier’s lawyers in February.

According to the CBA, a witness in the South Dakota trial provided evidence that the U.S. Department of Justice later said was fabricated. Material affidavit evidence was not disclosed during the trial as well. Both pieces of evidence were used in the extradition hearing.