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LPDCUpDates and Announcements!
Sunday, November 03, 2002LPDC LEGAL UPDATE Report from Leonard Peltier's legal team November 2, 2002 LEONARD PELTIER'S LEGAL TEAM CONTINUES TO PURSUE THE VARIOUS GOVERNMENT AGENCIES TO PROCURE DOCUMENTS WITHHELD On November 1, 2002, Peltier Attorney's Michael Kuzma and Barry Bachrach filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) complaint in the United States District Court for Massachusetts against the Executive Office of United States Attorneys to require them to produce documents being withheld. A copy of that complaint is posted at http://www.freepeltier.org/foia_complaint110102.htm. Michael Kuzma, Barry Bachrach, and Carl Nadler will be filing FOIA complaints against the FBI and CIA within the next week. In addition, Barry Bachrach and Michael Kuzma have issued 35 FOIA requests to FBI field offices, which had not previously been served with FOIA requests. The legal team is firmly convinced that this effort will yield documents which the government previously withheld on a wrongful basis and which will compel Leonard's relief. HISTORY OF DOCUMENTS IN THE PELTIER CASE: At Leonard's 1976 trial, the FBI produced approximately 3,500 documents, which it indicated were all the documents that existed. After Leonard was convicted, Peltier's legal team was able to acquire, through Freedom of Information Act requests, 12,000 documents that the FBI had previously withheld. These documents demonstrated that crucial exculpatory evidence had been kept from Leonard and that the FBI presented perjured testimony to wrongfully and unfairly obtain Leonard's conviction. The FBI, who cited "national security interests", withheld 6,000 documents, stating that that was the extent of the documents in the Peltier file. SUMMER, 2002: 30 thousand more pages of FBI documents were produced through letter writing efforts of grassroots supporters and the office of Congressman Barney Frank. The legal team is combing these documents and finding further evidence of FBI misconduct. The government still is admittedly withholding approximately 100 thousand pages of documents, which are being aggressively pursued. CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Bernard Kleinman continues to pursue the Civil Rights action. The government is acting particularly egregiously in attempting to avoid service of process. In spite of the adoption of rules of federal civil procedure, which seek to make it easy for parties to be served and to avoid gamesmanship, the government refused to follow its own rules and has attempted to make it difficult for Leonard's legal team to achieve service of process. Despite the roadblocks set up by the government, service of process is underway. We hope to have all parties served within the next two weeks so that the government will be forced to address the allegations, which involve outrageous and extreme behavior by current and former FBI agents. THE APPEAL OF THE DENIAL OF LEONARD'S 1999 HABEAS PETITION CHALLENGING DENIAL OF PAROLE: Peltier attorneys Ramsey Clark, Lawrence Schilling, Carl Nadler, and Barry Bachrach are pursuing an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit of the recent denial of Leonard's 1999 Habeas Corpus. The Court took nearly three years to finally address the issues raised by Leonard. The legal team feels that the issues on appeal are strong and the appeal will be pressed vigorously. CHALLENGE UNDER THE SENTENCING REFORM ACT: Carl Nadler and Barry Bachrach are presently representing Leonard in a habeas petition pending in Washington, D.C., which challenges the parole commission's failure to provide Leonard with a parole date despite the laws enacted as part of the sentencing reform act by Congress in 1984. EIGHTH CIRCUIT APPEAL OF DISMISSAL OF MOTION FOR REDUCTION OF SENTENCE: We are still awaiting decision by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals with respect to the appeal of Leonard's Motion to seek a reduction of sentence. This appeal was argued on Oct. 8th, 2002, by Eric Seitz and Bruce Ellison, both of whom believe the argument went well and that the court was receptive to their arguments. Finally the legal team has many other avenues it is pursuing to seek Leonard's long overdue freedom. Because of the importance to keep these tactics confidential, the information presented in this update is all that can be revealed now. However, it is the legal team's firm opinion that there are still many avenues of relief, which should ultimately open the prison doors for Leonard. Until Freedom Is Won! The New Leonard Peltier Justice Campaign Leonard Peltier Defense Committee PO Box 583 Lawrence, KS 66044 785-842-5774 http://www.freepeltier.org Posted by Webmaster@AIMSupport.org 10:20 PM 
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