Subject: Leonard Peltier Legal Update- October 2007- U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Eight Circuit, Leonard Peltier Defense Committee


Leonard Peltier Legal Update- October 2007- U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Eight Circuit

On October 9, 2007, the Leonard Peltier legal team, Ron Kuby and David
Pressman filed a reply brief with the United States Courts of Appeals for
the Eight Circuit.

Defendant-Appellee (" the Government") continues to categorically insist
that there is no degree of governmental misconduct toward a FOIA litigant
that could cause a court to "question the good faith of the agency," Cox v
Department of Justice, 576 F2d 1302, 1312( 8 Cir.1978) unless the litigant
can prove misconduct in the FOIA proceedings themselves. The Government's
assertion that it can wave away its sordid history of proven FBI and
prosecutorial misconduct toward Peltier with a " what have we done to you
lately" nonchalance rests entirely on the Government's own insistence.
More significantly, the Government conflates Peltier's lengthy, documented,
proven history of the most serious governmental misconduct with some
fanciful, gauzy grievance made by some hypothetical litigant. The Government
again demonstrates that it does not now, nor has it ever, taken seriously
any of the courts that have admonished it about the treatment of Leonard
Peltier. It has been proven that the FBI withheld exculpatory evidence,
manufactured inculpatory evidence that it knew to be false, coerced
witnesses and engaged in an over reaction to Wounded Knee sufficiently grave
to cause a Senior Judge of this Court to opine that the Government shares
responsibility for the firefight that led to the death of the two FBI
agents. The Government has shown no solicitude for the enormous" burden on
the judiciary" that its own malfeasance has caused.
Please click here for copy of reply brief for the United States Courts of
Appeals for the Eight Circuit. ( filed Oct 9, 2007) :



Respectfully,
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee