On June 26, 1975 two FBI Special Agents, Ronald A. Williams, 27, and Jack R. Coler, 28, were killed on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Southwestern South Dakota. Leonard Peltier fled to Canada after his friends went on trial for the murder of the two agents. He was captured and extradited to the United States to face trial. During his trial in US District Court in Fargo, ND, in April 1977, a jury convicted Peltier of the murders of Coler and Williams. A judge sentenced him to two consecutive life sentences.
There has been debate over his guilt and the fairness of his trial. Supporters are asking that he be pardoned or paroled.
He's considered a [political prisoner]? by some people including Nelson Mandela, Rigoberta Menchu, [Amnesty International]?, the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights, the Dalai Lama, the European Parliament, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, and Rev. Jesse Jackson. To many Indigenous Peoples, Leonard Peltier is a symbol of the long history of abuse and repression they have endured.
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