A Message from the Leonard Peltier Legal Team:
On June 8, 2007, we filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit an appellate brief asking the Court to review and release some 11,000 pages of documents related to the investigation and prosecution of Leonard Peltier. The FBI continues to withhold those documents, claiming that their release would violate promises of confidentiality made to informants and would, incredibly, endanger the national security of the United States. In our brief, we argue that the FBI's promises to its informants expired long ago, and were waived when those informants testified publicly. We also assert that the virtually unprecedented public interest in the case of Leonard Peltier warrants careful judicial review of the withheld documents. In addition, we demonstrate that the FBI's historic misconduct in this case, coupled with its continued misrepresentations about Peltier's case, shows sufficient bad faith to require the most searching inquiry into any claims of privilege. Leonard Peltier Legal Team Ron Kuby and David Pressman
A Message from the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee:
In the history of the American criminal justice system, there are few cases that have attracted as much attention, uncovered as much abuse of power, or raised as many questions amongst citizens of this country and abroad, as the prosecution, conviction, and imprisonment of Leonard Peltier. Leonard Peltier has been wrongfully incarcerated for over thirty years. Public concern and moral outrage over the pattern of misconduct that led to Peltier's conviction persists.
On June 8, 2007 attorneys for Leonard Peltier, Ron Kuby and David Pressman have filed the following brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. This action, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), is designed to answer fundamental questions and address widespread public concern about the Federal Bureau of Investigation's conduct in Peltier's case. |