Tom: Hey Leonard?
Leonard: Yes.
T: Hey, how are you doing?
L: Alright Tom, how are you doing?
T: Excellent. Welcome to Radio Free Los Angeles.
L: Alright, thank you.
T: O.K. Lets just get down to business. Theres overwhelming evidence of
your innocence and overwhelming evidence of misconduct by the prosecution
in the case and a huge international support for your release, so why is it
that the U.S. government is still keeping you in jail?
L: Well thats a tough question to answer. We really dont have an answer
for it, its all speculation and the only thing we can come up with is that
the government wants someone to pay for the shooting of their agents and
its unfortunate that I am that individual. Its surprising to many of us,
that the FBI would have such control over the justice system to where as I
cant get any justice in the courts. Weve been able to prove that the
murder weapon, the so called strongest evidence against me, was
manufactured.
T: Right, there was a long list.
L: Theres a long list. This is just one of many issues.
T: How long have you been in prison?
L: Ive been in twenty plus years.
T: Could you just briefly go over what happened on the Pine Ridge
Reservation on that day.
L: Well, at the time of June 26 there was a corrupt
chairman that the Lakota people were trying to get removed legally, Dick
Wilson. He had created a private police force. We now know that the
Jumping Bull Ranch and another ranch in Lakial, South Dakota also an Indian
reservation, were singled out and there were plans of attacking the ranches
because they knew there was a lot of the strong hold of the American Indian
Movement. This came from Dwayne Brewer, who is one of the leaders of the
Goon Squad. He stated in a documentary that was shown nationally and
around the world that they were given intelligence, they were given
financial assistance, armored piercing ammunition and sophisticated
weaponry.
T: Why do you think the FBI found the American Indian Movement such a
threat to national security?
L: For many reasons: The termination policy was in effect. They wanted
to terminate all the Indian reservations in the United States which is
something I had been working on since the fifties, to opposing it.
Involved in it was large masses of land, mineral rights, the exposure of
the discrimination against the native people, the injustices in the court
rooms(theres millions of millions of dollars involved in this whole thing -
billions of dollars involved. The government - and the Indians were going
to lose out on it - those who were pushing the termination policy. There
was a big move to squash the American Indian Movement.
T: The biggest hole in the prosecutions case is that they even admitted
now they dont know who shot the FBI agents.
L: Right. At the trial during the closing arguments, which is not
supposed to be considered evidence, but it was at my trial because there
was no evidence over a first degree murder which was what I was suppose to
be prosecuted on. The agreement between the United States and Canada, if
Canada signed the extradition treaty, I would be prosecuted on first degree
murder and first degree murder only. This is a treaty between two
sovereign nations. I was prosecuted on first degree murder on
circumstantial evidence. But people have to remember the circumstances of
it. We had an all white jury, the trial was moved into an area where
Yankee sentiment is very strong, it is still to this day, they had admitted
racists on the jury. The closing argument that Len Crooks, the prosecutor,
was that the strongest evidence against me was the murder weapon. We found
that the murder weapon was a manufactured piece---.(THE PHONE
DISCONNECTED.)
T: Hi, Leonard, sorry about that, one of the perils of recording calls
from Leavenworth.
L: Springfield
T: Oh, Springfield now.
L: Yeah, Im expecting to be moved back to Leavenworth for rehabilitation on
my jaw and health. Anyway the government claimed that the strongest
evidence against me at the trial was the murder weapon, and we found that
through the Freedom Of Information lawsuit, that this strongest evidence
against me, the murder weapon, was manufactured. They claim they couldnt
do a firing pin test on it and we found documentation that they had and it
came out negative. So at that 8(superscript: th) Circuit Court of Appeals
hearing, Oral Arguments, its called, the judges asked the Prosecutor, Just
what was Mr. Pelletier charged with? As we cannot find any evidence of
first degree murder in the record. Thats when Crooks made the first
statement, We dont know who killed the agents nor do we know what
participation Leonard Pelletier may have played in it. So Ive been in
prison since 1985, where the government has admitted that they dont know
what Im in prison for.
T: Its pretty shameful. People assume that its only other countries that
have political prisoners and it seems pretty clear that youre in prison now
more for your beliefs. (PHONE DISCONNECTED)