WEBVTT - #529 The Wrongful Conviction of Leonard Peltier - Part 3 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:06.000 Previously on our coverage of the wrongful conviction of Leonard Peltier, 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:10.800 Federal prosecutors used false evidence to extradite Leonard Peltier from 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:14.680 Canada to the United States, where his code efendants had 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.720 just been acquitted on the grounds of self defense for 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:21.560 the June nineteen seventy five fatal shooting deaths of two 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:27.040 FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation. So in preparation 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:31.960 for Leonard's trial, they traded a premeditated ambush narrative for 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.840 one claiming that after the agents pursued Leonard onto Jumping 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:39.040 Bull Ranch to serve a warrant, a firefight had ensued, 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:42.720 and when the agents were wounded, the beds claimed that 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:46.400 Leonard approached them with an AR fifteen, which ejected a 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:50.519 shell casing into the agent's trunk as he executed them 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:56.520 in cold blood, but hidden evidence said otherwise, this is 0:00:56.560 --> 0:01:04.600 wrongful conviction. You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.080 to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts one 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:10.319 week early and ad free by subscribing to Lava for 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:22.080 Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:26.399 for the final episode in our coverage of Leonard Peltier, 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:30.120 where once again I'm joined by you know him and 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:32.959 you love him, Ben Bolin from the podcast Stuff They 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:33.760 Don't Want You to Know. 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:36.559 Thank you, Jason. We'll pick up on this story where 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:39.959 we left off when the federal prosecutors have been granted 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:43.560 a change of venue from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Fargo, 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:48.600 North Dakota, where Judge Paul Benson cited mental incompetence when 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:52.800 Barry Myrtle Poor Bear from testifying about how FBI agents 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:57.680 coerced her into swearing falsely in three affidavits to obtain 0:01:57.880 --> 0:01:59.800 Leonard's extradition from Canada. 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:03.600 It certainly looks like she was just of no use 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:06.440 to them anymore for the purposes of Leonard's trial in 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:09.520 March nineteen seventy seven, where the Beds once again were 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:13.160 up to their same dirty tricks trying to influence the jury. 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.880 Because the jurors were sequestered during Lennon's trial for their 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:21.160 own safety, they were under twenty four hour US Marshall protection. 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:23.920 And what we didn't know was that they were transported 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:26.520 to the courtroom from their hotel, back to their hotel 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:28.560 for lunch, et cetera, back and forth the end of 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.160 the day, and the windows of this bus were taped 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:33.760 up because they were told that this would prevent them 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:34.679 from being. 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:37.640 Shot at by snipers. Wow, and there were sniper teams 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:39.240 very visible on the roof. 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:44.440 Those snipers were FBI agents, but the alleged threat was 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:46.359 from AIM and their supporters. 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:49.120 The way the jurors came out of the building, the 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.680 bus was parked about fifteen feet from the entrance. The 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:56.120 door bursts open, a team of marshalls come and fan out, 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:58.880 and then they ushered these jurors in fast as they 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:01.000 can so they don't get shot between the building and 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:04.120 the bus. You do this four times a day for 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:06.760 six weeks, even have an impression. 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:08.440 That's like psychological warfare. 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:12.200 It was all about creating a climate of fear and terror. 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:15.240 They did it in the courtroom. We had twenty five 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:17.799 marshalls in the courtroom at all times. He had agents 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:20.399 sitting behind us with submachine guns and cases. 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:24.040 In addition to the terror tactics, the prosecution team of 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:27.720 Lynn Crooks, Evan Holtman and Robert Sikma were able to 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.160 take the self defense claim off the table with the 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:34.120 execution narrative, which in turn barred witness testimony about the 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:37.920 Goon Squad's betterally funded terror campaign that made self defense 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:41.480 in gun battle the norm on Pine Ridge. And now 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:43.800 but Jimmy Eagle also out of the picture. They needed 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:48.200 witnesses to place Leonard in the car allegedly being chased 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:49.080 by the agents. 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:52.680 And suddenly a young man, Michael Anderson, who is fifteen 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:55.480 years old at the time, in every statement he had 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:58.080 given previously said he was in the camp when the 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:02.200 firefight started, suddenly was quarter mile away and on the 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:05.280 roof of one of the houses and watched a vehicle 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:08.280 drive in, chased by the two agents. And it wasn't 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:11.560 a red pickup like the agents described, but it was 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:14.600 a red and white van like they found up in 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:16.960 the camp and had been seen up by the houses 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:20.159 at one point. So Mike's telling the story and he 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:23.720 describes it as the agents following an orange pickup. And 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:26.600 the prosecutor says, now, when you say orange pickup, do 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:27.839 you mean a red and white van? 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:31.520 And he said yes, that day the agents had clearly 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:34.960 radioed in describing a red pickup like the one that 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:39.200 Jimmy Eagle drove. But since the charges against Jimmy had 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:43.200 been dropped the narrative became Leonard in his red and 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:46.839 white van. Anderson also said that he'd come running back 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.040 to the campground to grab a rifle and saw Leonard 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:55.040 with an AR fifteen. On cross examination, Mike Anderson admitted 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:58.599 that his charges relating to the exploding car in Wichita 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:02.080 were dropped in a exchange for this testimony. In a 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:05.680 similar vein Wilford, Draper admitted that he'd been threatened with 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:09.960 indictment for the murder himself, so he agreed to testify 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.359 that the group had knowledge of the FBI agent's cars 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:16.560 on the day prior and that he had seen Leonard 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:20.080 with an AR fifteen. Norman Brown flat out refused to 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.800 repeat his testimony from the Butler Robadu trial that he'd 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.520 seen the Trio near the agent's car. He said, quote, 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:30.440 it was the agents who said that I saw them 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:33.520 end quote, and he added that he too have been 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:35.039 threatened with the indictment. 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:39.600 Yes, the witnesses testified that their family was threatened, their 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:43.000 mothers are threatened, and they were threatened of course, and 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:46.560 tried to rechat any kind of statement that they were 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:50.120 forced to make before. So it was no evidence. Nobody 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:53.480 said I was shooting at anybody or killing anybody. 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:59.320 No one witnessed anyone allegedly performing this execution on these 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.800 two agents. And the medical evidence was that the agents 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:06.720 were shot by a high velocity rifle at close range, 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:09.400 and that Agent Williams had a defensive wound on his 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:12.120 right hand, and that the gun must have been pressed 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:15.440 against it before firing through his hand and his head. 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:19.279 But strangely, there was no mention whatsoever of the burn 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:23.520 wounds that are associated with close range gunshots. I'm gonna 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.200 pause on that for a second. And both bodies, by 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:29.559 the way, were discovered face down, which does not fit 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:34.320 the scenario they described. But the theory was accepted at 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:37.000 face value. And then came the ballistics. 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:42.440 Essentially, it boiled down the two things. Number One, there 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:47.839 was one and only one AR fifteen that was present 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:52.400 at the Jumping bull compound at that time according to 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:56.880 the witness testimony, and that Peltier had been seen with 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:02.480 an AR fifteen, and therefore the wichita Ar fifteen was 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:07.040 Leonard Peltier's AR fifteen. Now, look, there a few problems 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:10.440 with that. Number One is there's no proof that the 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:13.960 wichita AR fifteen found in the car months later was 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:17.400 ever at the Jumping Bull compound. And more important, there 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:20.520 was evidence that the government was aware of that there 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:26.080 were numerous Ar fifteens present at that time that were 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:31.400 firing bullets. Because they found other shellcasings at the scene, 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:35.080 and they found other bullets at the scene, that information 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:40.160 was suppressed. The second thing that was crucial was that 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:45.160 the very firearms expert who testified for the government had 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:49.800 sent a teletype while the investigation was still going on, 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:54.120 saying that the shellcasing that was found in the agent's 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:59.920 car did not match the wichita Ar fifteen. It was 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:04.080 from a different gun. And this was based on a 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:06.000 firing pin test. 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:09.600 If you recall from Part two of our coverage, we 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.480 discussed the mechanics of a semi automatic weapon and how 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:17.480 although this type of analysis is best suited for excluding 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:21.800 weapons rather than matchmaking, a firing pin test is the 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:26.880 most reliable for identifying an individual weapon, while an extractor 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:30.840 mark can merely identify things like make or model. The 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:35.240 FBI firearm analyst Evan Hodge testified that the casing had 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:39.240 been loaded and extracted from the wichita Ar fifteen. This 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:42.120 is why it was so important for both There to 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:45.680 have been only one AR fifteen and that it be 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:50.679 placed in Leonard's possession. However, there were other AR fifteens, 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:55.959 and when they'd received the fire damaged AR fifteen from Wichita, 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.360 the bolt mechanism was removed and was placed in a 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:04.440 different AR fifteen. According to an October nineteen seventy five teletype, 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:08.320 a firing pin test of that Wichita AR fifteen was 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:12.920 negative for a match with the casing from Agent Cohler's trunk. 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:17.600 That was never given over to the defense. Had those 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:21.160 two pieces of information been given to the defense, obviously 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:24.880 the defense would have been in a position to undermine 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:29.160 the entire case against Leonard Peltier, and make no mistake 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:34.760 about it. The case was presented as Leonard Peltier being 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:39.640 the person wielding the Wichita AR fifteen who walked up 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:43.280 to both agents as they lay wounded and executed them 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:49.160 both with one shell casing being discarded into the agent's car. 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:52.840 That was the theory of the trial. That was what 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:56.680 the jury believed, and that's how the conviction arose. 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:02.040 A prosecutor, he made a stake at the closing arguments 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:06.679 that I was a cold bloody killer executioner and was effective, 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:07.320 I guess. 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:12.000 They added that the witnesses who undermined their own testimony 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:15.800 perhaps should have been tried to, calling aim a blood 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:21.160 crazed bunch, and however undermined that testimony, was it aligned 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:24.280 with what appeared to be scientific evidence related to this 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:26.920 one shell casing that may or may not have been 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:30.320 ejected into this agent's trunk. When you think about it, 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:32.960 with all of the other lies, it's hard to know 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:36.960 whether to believe this or any of this so called evidence. 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:42.079 But nonetheless, on the fateful day of April eighteenth, nineteen 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:46.640 seventy seven, Leonard Peltier was convicted on two counts a 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:47.679 first degree murder. 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:52.040 The clerk of the court told us, Judge Benson's not 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:54.440 going to give you no more than thirty years. I 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:56.920 would get out in fifteen. I take some of that, 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:00.440 but I was so fucking upset that I wrote a 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:04.599 very strong anti government statement. I condemned the court, I 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:08.520 condemned a judge and the whole system with such disregard 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:13.240 for the constitution, attempts at exterminating us. And I read 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:15.760 that just before he sentenced me, and he gave me 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:18.720 two life sentences. So if I had to keep my 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:22.400 mouth shut. I probably would have been out after fifteen years, 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:26.080 but I was just so fucking angry that I just 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:44.800 couldn't control myself. Right after I was convicted, the elders 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.680 came up to the railing there and said, we want 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:50.520 you to know that we will fight for you for 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:53.160 the rest of our lives if you're still in prison, 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:56.320 and our children will fight for you for the rest 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.200 of their lives, and if you're still in there, our 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.960 grandkids will fight for you. They sent me to marry 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:06.480 in Illinois's the harshest president I had at that time. 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:09.719 It took the place of Alcatraz. They put me in 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:11.800 a hole there and so that they can find it. 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:16.240 I went to a hearing about thirty days later, and 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:22.280 the captain there sentenced me to a century deprivation cell indefinitely. 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:28.680 It's complete darkness. They only got one blanket to sleep on, 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:31.440 and the only time you get light is when they 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:35.920 opened the food slot. People come out of their completely nuts. 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:39.520 Some people never come out of there. I was supposed 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:41.840 to die in her I said a lot of prayers 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.920 to Uncle Tunka, get your man to do that's the 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:47.400 great spirit, and I just made my mind up you 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.520 ain't going to break me. But my lawyers and other 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.120 people were fighting. They finally got a hearing in the 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:58.320 Supreme Court said you cannot re sentence people to these 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:01.800 type of cells he's been setting and beside that that 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:03.559 soll you got there is illegal. 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:06.959 At this point, Leonard's appeals had been picked up by 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:11.040 Dino and Bob's attorney, William Kuntzler, and this small victory 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:15.000 over cruel and unusual punishment came along with the denial 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:19.000 of his direct appeal, at which time Leonard was transferred 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.439 to another facility, Lompoc. 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:25.160 And when I got there, I couldn't believe it. I mean, 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:26.240 this was so. 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:28.360 Many holes, holes in the wall. 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:33.040 No, I mean to escape, like the fencing and lower security. 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.360 And some of the towers wasn't occupied, and I was 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:40.480 looking around here. I said, wow. So first opportunity I got, 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:43.480 we went out during the night, made it across the 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:46.520 fence and they were shooting at us by then, and 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:50.400 Dallas Thundershield had his arms up surrendering and they shot 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:53.040 him in the back. I was able to escape, and 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.280 I was gone five days out in the desert. 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:58.479 And made it to Santa Maria California. 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:02.800 Yes, miles from the prison. I was heading from Mexico. 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:05.760 I was going out there to Dickaraka and I was 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:08.480 sitting under this tree, and I haven't looked down to 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:12.280 the lower grounds, and I seen this garden and I thought, gee, 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:14.280 that it would be nice to sit up here and 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:17.600 eat the melon or whatever else I could do. So 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:20.320 I go down to this garden and all sudden, this 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:22.880 guy starts shooting at me. I put my arms up. 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:25.440 He got close enough to me where I snatched the 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:27.680 gun out of his hand, and then he said, I 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:30.080 suppose you're going to kill me now. And I looked 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:31.840 at him. I said, what the fuck you tried to 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:37.400 kill me, fucking asshole, excuse my language. But he got 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:40.720 all panicky now he was crying and everything, and no, 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:43.160 I wasn't just trying to chase you out of my garden. 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:46.320 And I said, you're that and I just said I 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:48.480 can't do this. And I told him, I said, well, 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:50.800 don't be running calling the cops. Let me get away 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:54.960 from here, okay, okay, but call the cops soon as 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:58.239 he could. I guess they could come all from all directions. 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:01.480 When they had me on the ground. This deputy sheriff 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:04.280 was putting on handcuffs. I mean, the FBI agent came 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:06.800 and put that barrel right here, and he said, your 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:08.760 son him a bit. You killed two of my friends. 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:12.520 I'm gonna blow your fucking brains up. And I just 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:16.960 looked at him as well, do it, fucking brave, asked 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:20.160 ole motherfucker. Now that I'm handcuffed and everything, I said, 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:23.840 do it shoot And the deputy sheriff we started shaking 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:26.120 on my back and he said, I'm not going to 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:28.400 be part of no killing. So they must have been 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:30.280 talking about it to see me kill me. 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:34.720 Leonard got seven more years for the escape and weapons possession. 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:38.760 By this time, every new class of FBI agents was 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:43.440 being indoctrinated with the image of Leonard Peltier as their boogeyman. 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:46.560 And meanwhile, in Canada, this a listener general, a guy 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:50.280 named Warren Almond, began to make noise about how the 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:55.800 FBI and prosecutors had presented Myrtle Forbear's perjured Affidavid's at 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:56.760 Leonard's extradition. 0:15:56.800 --> 0:16:00.280 Hearing the Native people in Canada forced him to do 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:03.840 an investigation on the extradition. Then they sealed it for 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.440 forty years. Warren Allman was very upset about it. He 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:10.560 took him another year to get in there and read 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:14.160 this investigation report, and he found a letter in there 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:18.680 from the Justice Department here in the United States that said, 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:22.560 if you put in this investigation and release it, we 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:26.480 would hold the fifty five million dollars that we're going 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.960 to send you to the Joint Agricultural Laboratory. 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:35.720 Well, with Warren Allman's efforts, newtered Leonardstein also exhausted the 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:37.240 Myrtle poor Bear evidence. 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:41.080 In post conviction on the Myrtle porbar thing, the judge 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:45.600 asked Evan Haltman, we don't understand how anyone could continue 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:50.280 to extract information from this witness, because it's quite obvious 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:54.600 she was not a real witness. So Haltman said, your Honor, 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:56.720 I had nothing to do with her, and when I 0:16:56.800 --> 0:16:59.320 read her AFFI David, I knew there was not once 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:03.120 entil of truth. A few years later we find a 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:07.600 document he had flew into Rapid City, and prosecutor that 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:10.800 was representing the United States and Canada flew in from 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:14.080 Canada and they wrote her third affidavit. 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:18.639 So Evan Holtman's deception was once again not discovered until 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:22.080 it was too late. And around this time is when 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:23.840 Ron Kobe got involved. 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:27.720 When I was a law student way back in nineteen 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:32.680 eighty two, I started interning for William Kunstler, and at 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:36.640 that point he was very deeply involved in trying to 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:41.119 secure a new trial for Leonard Peltier, and so I 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:45.120 started working on that case almost immediately and continued when 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:48.360 I was finally admitted to the bar in nineteen eighty four. 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:52.800 Kunstler had obtained new information that he believed was the 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:54.520 key to getting Leonard a new trial. 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:58.280 So here we had ballistics evidence I mentioned before the 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:01.520 agent gets on the stand as well. We can't definitively 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:03.480 do a firing pin test, but we can do an 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:07.320 extractor mark test, and in fact there's a match. And 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:10.360 for lawyers, if you see a word in a government 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:14.080 document that refers to another document, you got to go 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:14.639 after it. 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:17.359 I think it was a freedom of information. After request, 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:24.959 Kunstler learned of the existence of this teletype from Agent Hodge, 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:26.040 which had been suppressed. 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:29.400 We asked for two October second teletypes that we had 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:33.879 not gotten. Not only could that damaged AR fifteen from Kansas, 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:37.000 at least the one that they used to test could 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:41.399 produce a firing pin test, but those teletypes revealed that 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.360 there was no match whatsoever whatsoever. 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:48.040 In previous episodes, we've covered the FBI Crime Lab and 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:51.720 the culture of misconduct, false testimony, and manipulating evidence that 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:54.560 was exposed in the mid nineties by a whistleblower named 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:59.800 Frederick Whitehurst, who came forward at great personal and professional risk. 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:02.680 We're going to link to our coverage of Elmer Daniels, 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:05.919 who was interviewed by fellow Xandery death Row Exunery by 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:08.800 the way, John Huffington, both of whom had been victims 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:12.119 of false testimony from the FBI Prime Lab, and it 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:16.560 appears that this culture of misconduct was present during Leonard's trial, 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:20.479 as Evan Hodge testified that his test casings and the 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:25.280 casing from Kohler's trunk were loaded and unloaded from that 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:29.560 particular rifle, while this October nineteen seventy five firing pin 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:31.080 test said otherwise. 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:34.800 And based on that, I filed emotion for a new trial. 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:39.560 There was a very extensive evidentiary hearing where agent Evan 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:44.919 Hodge tried to say he didn't mean to suggest that 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:50.880 he was talking about the shellcasing found in the agent's car. 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:58.400 He was testing other shellcasings, and it's like, really the 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:01.960 most important piece of evidence in the case. And you 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:07.840 send a teletype about other shellcasings belonging to other ar fifteens, 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:12.240 which the FBI claimed weren't even at the scene. Made 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:18.080 no sense, clearly a lie. But something very interesting happened 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.800 in the course of the argument on that appeal. The 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:27.840 government was not convinced they were going to win. The 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:32.639 Eighth Circuit was skeptical, or at least made skeptical sounds, 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:36.960 and so during oral argument the government said, look, we 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:40.720 may not be able to prove that in fact, it 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:45.800 was Peltier who fired the fatal bullets at close range. 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:48.439 He said, your honor, I want you to know the 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:52.360 government doesn't know who the shooter is nor what participation 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:55.119 Leonard Peltier may have had in it. 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:59.000 The government switched from Leonard doing it to no, no, no, 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:00.159 Leonard was just a nat in. 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:05.479 A better That was an amazing concession, because for over 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:10.119 a decade the government and the FBI had been relentlessly 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:15.080 saying that Leonard Peltier walked up to two wounded agents 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:21.880 executed them at point blank range and suddenly the government saying, well, okay, 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:25.760 maybe not, but he was shooting at them. Nonetheless, the 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:29.200 judge denied the motion, and on appeal the Eighth Circuit 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:34.480 said it would possibly have helped Peltier's defense to have 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:37.719 this teletype. It would have helped impeach the agent. It 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:40.879 would have helped you establish that there were other ar 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:45.600 fifteens at the scene. But we're not convinced under the 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:51.800 Brady standard that this was sufficiently material to create a 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:56.080 reasonable possibility that a jury would have come to a 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:59.879 different conclusion had they heard this evidence. 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:06.840 In what Okay, So this Brady violation destroys the alleged 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:11.800 evidence that Leonard had executed two wounded FBI agents in 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:15.440 cold blood, leaving him, as it was now framed, as 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:17.720 an alleged aider and a better. 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:20.680 And that's where then it became an issue because wait 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:22.840 a minute, if he was just an aider and a better, 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:25.560 then how could the judge deny him the same defense 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:28.280 that Daryl Butler and Bob Robberty you had where they 0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:30.480 were able to show that they had reasons to act 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:31.920 in self defense on that day. 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:36.359 So we go back into court once again using the 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:41.000 government's concession is a basis for a new trial, and 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:46.640 again the Eighth Circuit manages to affirm the conviction, pointing 0:22:46.640 --> 0:22:50.800 out that in the indictment Peltier was named as an 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:55.399 aider and a better so in theory the conviction could 0:22:55.440 --> 0:22:59.880 be upheld, even though that was not the case the government. 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:00.679 What up. 0:23:14.720 --> 0:23:15.080 Leonard? 0:23:15.440 --> 0:23:18.600 All these years decades in prison, forty nine years and 0:23:18.640 --> 0:23:22.960 eleven days, How did you manage to find hope inside 0:23:23.000 --> 0:23:24.359 those walls all those years. 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:27.800 I didn't join the rest of inmates. I didn't go 0:23:27.920 --> 0:23:31.520 into what they usually do, drugs and drinking and things 0:23:31.600 --> 0:23:35.879 like that. I kind of went into my own little group. 0:23:36.000 --> 0:23:39.800 We played handball, worked out in the weights, and paint. 0:23:40.000 --> 0:23:42.000 I went into art room and I decided I was 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:45.119 going to develop my artwork, and I went to school 0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:48.679 for a while, helped Peter Mansson write In the Spirit 0:23:48.720 --> 0:23:52.520 of Crazy Horse, and then I eventually wrote my own book, 0:23:52.600 --> 0:23:55.800 Prison Writings, and In the Spirit of Crazy Horse went 0:23:55.840 --> 0:23:59.320 to number one best seller in the world. The FBI 0:23:59.440 --> 0:24:03.720 filed twenty million dollar lawsuit. Bill Jankel, the governor of 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:07.360 South Dakota, filed a twenty five million dollar losson They 0:24:07.400 --> 0:24:10.439 held it off. The bookshelves for eight and a half years, 0:24:10.720 --> 0:24:13.800 cost us two and a half million dollars to defend ourselves, and. 0:24:13.720 --> 0:24:15.879 I hope everyone will order recovery of that book. But 0:24:15.960 --> 0:24:19.359 you had on your side, not just Pope Francis Art 0:24:19.400 --> 0:24:24.240 Bishop too, to Mother, Teresa Nelson, Mandela Muhammad, Ali. 0:24:23.960 --> 0:24:27.840 Marlon Brando, Robert Redford, Peter Coyote. 0:24:27.280 --> 0:24:30.119 The Dali, Lama, Coreta, Scott. 0:24:29.840 --> 0:24:33.760 King, Santana, Grateful Dead, Willian. 0:24:33.440 --> 0:24:34.560 Nelson, Johnny Depp. 0:24:34.840 --> 0:24:36.880 Of course Rage Against the Machine. 0:24:37.280 --> 0:24:40.240