Framing Leonard Peltier

On the show, Chris Hedges discusses the Leonard Peltier case with Kevin Sharp, a former federal judge, and one of Peltier’s lawyers. Leonard Peltier, a leader in the American Indian Movement, now 78 years old, is America’s longest serving political prisoner. He has been in prison for 44 years charged with the murder of two FBI agents during a gun battle in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Peltier in his memoir Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance said he participated in the shootout with the FBI agents but insists he did not kill them. His two co-defendants were acquitted based on self-defense. The FBI at the time of his trial was determined that Peltier would be found guilty. Peltier’s trial was riddled with inconsistencies and the withholding of exculpatory evidence. The FBI, it was later learned, threatened, and coerced witnesses to lie and used these false statements to convict Peltier. Most jurists who have examined the case consider the trial deeply flawed. Over the years numerous world leaders