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Last modified: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 3:58 PM CDT
Leonard Peltier seeks parole
FARGO, N.D.— United States Attorney Drew Wrigley announced today that convicted double-murderer Leonard Peltier had a parole hearing before the U.S. Parole Commission at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
Peltier is serving two consecutive life sentences for the June 26, 1975, first-degree
murders of Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agents Jack Coler and Ronald
Williams. Peltier murdered the agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. His trial was held in Fargo, North Dakota, after his attorneys convinced a federal judge to move the trial out of South Dakota.
Although parole was abolished for federal convicts in 1987, Peltier remains
eligible because he was convicted before that time. The U.S. Parole Commission denied Peltier’s 1993 parole request and set a 15-year reconsideration date before he could again be considered for parole.
The United States Attorney’s Office for North Dakota, the FBI, members of the
Coler and Williams families, and the Retired FBI Agents Association have opposed each of Peltier’s parole requests for the senseless, cold-blooded murders of the FBI agents.
Peltier has neither accepted responsibility for the murders nor shown any remorse for his brutal and heartless acts of violence.
U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley submitted a 17-page letter opposing parole available at: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nd.
In the letter, Wrigley argued that Peltier does not meet the prerequisites for parole
under the parole statute because his release would depreciate the seriousness of the grave crimes he committed and promote disrespect for the law. Furthermore, it would jeopardize the public welfare to release a dangerous, unrepentant, violent criminal into society. (See Wrigley letter for details of factors supporting denial of Peltier parole.)
The U.S. Parole Commission hearing examiner is expected to make a recommendation on Peltier’s parole request to the full Parole Commission within a few days. The Commission will make a final decision on Peltier’s application for parole within 21 days of receiving the recommendation.
In the 1970s Peltier engaged in a string of armed violence across North America.
Peltier had been charged with attempted murder in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1972, was released on bond, and failed to appear for trial in 1974, which resulted in a warrant for his arrest. He then murdered the two FBI agents in South Dakota in 1975 while a fugitive from justice.
In November 1975, when Peltier was a fugitive for the FBI agents’ murders, he
fired a shot at an Oregon Highway Patrol officer following a traffic stop. Peltier then
burglarized a ranch in Oregon, where he stole a rifle and a pickup truck. He later fled to Canada. He was heavily armed when arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in February 1976, and said he would have blown the Mounties out of their shoes had he known they were coming to arrest him.
In 1977 Peltier was convicted for murdering FBI agents Coler and Williams. He
later escaped from a federal prison in California. Peltier fired shots at pursuing Bureau of Prison employees, committed an armed robbery, and was in possession of a semi- automatic rife and hiding in a tree when he was re-arrested by the FBI.
“Leonard Peltier’s guilt is certain,” said U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley. “The
evidence is overwhelming. And the loss suffered by the Coler and Williams families is equally overwhelming. He killed two men, endangered many others, and has never shown a hint of remorse. Peltier should be required to serve his life sentences.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott J. Schneider represented the U.S. Attorney’s Office
at the parole hearing in Pennsylvania.
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