Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #528 The Wrongful Conviction of Leonard Peltier - Part 2

Transcript

#528 The Wrongful Conviction of Leonard Peltier - Part 2 · Wrongful Conviction

0:02
Speaker 1: Previously, on our coverage of Leonard Piltier, we talked about
0:06
Speaker 1: the history that gave rise to Native activism like aim
0:10
Speaker 1: the American Indian Movement in the nineteen sixties and seventies.
0:14
Speaker 1: In addition to a focus on treaty violations, land reclamation,
0:18
Speaker 1: and other issues, Aims supported the resistance to mining interest
0:22
Speaker 1: in South Dakota, but they were met in force by
0:26
Speaker 1: a federally funded paramilitary group called the Goon Squad that
0:29
Speaker 1: perpetrated a reign of terror beginning in nineteen seventy two
0:33
Speaker 1: on the Pine Ridge Reservation, leaving sixty unsolved murders in
0:39
Speaker 1: its wake. So on June twenty sixth, nineteen seventy five,
0:44
Speaker 1: when two plain close agents and unmarked vehicles drove onto
0:48
Speaker 1: an AIME stronghold and drew their weapons, they were both
0:52
Speaker 1: killed before the conveniently stationed SWAT teams could swoop in,
0:57
Speaker 1: leaving the FEDS to figure out how they prosecuted someone
1:01
Speaker 1: for defending their own community. This is wrongful conviction. You're
1:12
Speaker 1: listening to wrongful conviction. You can listen to this and
1:15
Speaker 1: all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early and
1:18
Speaker 1: ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on
1:22
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction, where I'm once
1:32
Speaker 1: again thrilled to be joined by Ben Bolan from one
1:35
Speaker 1: of my favorite podcasts, Stuff They Don't Want You to Know.
1:39
Speaker 1: As we continue now our coverage of the wrongful conviction
1:43
Speaker 1: of Leonard Peltier.
1:45
Speaker 2: To help tell the story, we'll hear again from the
1:47
Speaker 2: man himself, one of his co defendants, Dino Butler, as
1:51
Speaker 2: well as one of his attorneys, Bruce Ellison. In addition,
1:54
Speaker 2: we'll hear from one of his appellate attorneys, Ron Cooby.
1:57
Speaker 1: We'll pick up Leonard's story where we left off last
1:59
Speaker 1: time on June twenty sixth, nineteen seventy five, when federal
2:03
Speaker 1: forces had Jumping bull Ridge surrounded and it seemed like
2:06
Speaker 1: an eagle was showing Leonard Peltier, Dino Butler, and Bob
2:11
Speaker 1: Rogudoo to safety. They had made their way into a culvert,
2:15
Speaker 1: one of those sometimes barely walkable drainage pipes that travel
2:19
Speaker 1: under roadways. They had stopped there to pray, and, almost
2:23
Speaker 1: as if by divine intervention, a surveillance plane left the area,
2:28
Speaker 1: so they made their move, unsure of their fate or
2:32
Speaker 1: of how many agents and goon squad members were still
2:35
Speaker 1: up on the road.
2:36
Speaker 3: We had some young kids with us, and my responsibility
2:39
Speaker 3: to make sure that they got safe. I sent them
2:42
Speaker 3: ahead of me. I told them, go, I'll take up
2:45
Speaker 3: the rear. And when they started shooting us, turn around
2:48
Speaker 3: and start shooting back. And I'm not trying to make
2:51
Speaker 3: myself and the hero. I was fighting for my life.
2:55
Speaker 4: And there were so many bullets flying around us. Man,
2:58
Speaker 4: I just knew that somebody was going to get shot.
3:00
Speaker 4: I could just feel the bullets buzzing around me. And
3:03
Speaker 4: I ran and ran until I couldn't run no more,
3:05
Speaker 4: and I just I thought, all hecky with it, and
3:07
Speaker 4: I just lay down catch my breath. I was expecting
3:10
Speaker 4: bullets to enter my body anytime.
3:12
Speaker 3: They were getting closer and closer to hit some of us,
3:15
Speaker 3: so I would turn around to them, go keep going,
3:18
Speaker 3: and I would start shooting back at them.
3:21
Speaker 4: I caught my breath, so I jumped up and I
3:22
Speaker 4: started running again, and I couldn't see Leonard, I couldn't
3:26
Speaker 4: see anybody, but I was praying that nobody was hurt.
3:29
Speaker 4: And I ran until I couldn't run no more, and
3:31
Speaker 4: I stopped, dropped on the ground. And I just kept
3:34
Speaker 4: praying like that, no bullets entered my body. And I
3:37
Speaker 4: got up again and I ran up.
3:38
Speaker 3: There was a little flat, so I finally made it
3:41
Speaker 3: to the top, and here they come from the back
3:44
Speaker 3: of the hill.
3:45
Speaker 4: So I turned around. I went back to the edge
3:47
Speaker 4: of that platte, and there was a car coming up
3:49
Speaker 4: the hill full of goons. I laid on the ground
3:52
Speaker 4: and I emptied my gun out that car and it
3:53
Speaker 4: turned around and ran back down the hill real fast.
3:57
Speaker 4: And I couldn't believe we were all safe. None of
3:59
Speaker 4: us got shot, no wounds or nothing. Man, when we
4:05
Speaker 4: got up to the top of that hill, two brothers
4:06
Speaker 4: come riding down on horseback and they said, Hey, what's
4:10
Speaker 4: going on. What's happening, brothers?
4:12
Speaker 3: I asked him, I said, what are you guys doing here?
4:14
Speaker 3: He said, well, this is our people, this is our
4:16
Speaker 3: war too. We are here to help you. And so
4:20
Speaker 3: they led us out of there. These two young kids
4:23
Speaker 3: came through a hail of bullet to come and help us.
4:26
Speaker 5: And that's a fact.
4:28
Speaker 4: The last time the FBI's horse heading out of there,
4:30
Speaker 4: following those brothers on horseback, and Noah wounded lived up there,
4:36
Speaker 4: and these brothers knew him and everything.
4:37
Speaker 5: He was the elder.
4:39
Speaker 4: That's where they took us. And he opened the door
4:41
Speaker 4: and he says, I've been expecting you come on in.
4:45
Speaker 4: So we all walked in there and he said, I
4:47
Speaker 4: don't have much food. He said, but you're welcome to it.
4:49
Speaker 4: And he said, you eat what you want.
4:51
Speaker 3: I found out later that the whole reservation was praying
4:55
Speaker 3: for us that we would get out of there. So
4:59
Speaker 3: I believe it great spirit helped us get out of there.
5:02
Speaker 4: If we had done something wrong that day, we wouldn't
5:06
Speaker 4: have got out of there. I mean that Diego helped us.
5:09
Speaker 4: Those people help us. There was so much help.
5:13
Speaker 2: At this point, FBI agents examined the bodies and collected
5:17
Speaker 2: bullets and casings, and they allegedly found one two twenty
5:21
Speaker 2: three caliber shell casing in the agent's trunk, typical AMMO
5:25
Speaker 2: for AR fifteen's. This becomes important later since none of
5:29
Speaker 2: the agent's guns could fire that caliber. Agent Williams had
5:33
Speaker 2: a handgun, which he allegedly fired only twice, while Agent
5:37
Speaker 2: Kohler fired a handgun, three Toho eight rifle, and a
5:40
Speaker 2: twelve gage shotgun once each.
5:43
Speaker 1: Which sounds just as strange as the fact that these
5:47
Speaker 1: two well trained agents only fired five shots total, just
5:52
Speaker 1: five against an estimated one hundred and twenty five bullets
5:55
Speaker 1: that were rained down on them by forty two different
5:58
Speaker 1: shooters from the ranch, who, by the way, let's call
6:01
Speaker 1: it what it is. They had every right to defend themselves,
6:03
Speaker 1: especially when unidentified intruders had driven five hundred yards onto
6:10
Speaker 1: private property and drawn their weapons, whether they had a
6:13
Speaker 1: warrant or not.
6:15
Speaker 6: It was a day that should never have happened. Three
6:18
Speaker 6: people unnecessarily died because of this government agenda.
6:23
Speaker 3: After the shooting, they wanted to course arrest somebody, and
6:27
Speaker 3: they couldn't get nobody to talk to them.
6:30
Speaker 5: So the nationwide search starts.
6:32
Speaker 6: They even included at one point every Native man who
6:37
Speaker 6: had ever been in combat in Indo, China on.
6:40
Speaker 5: Their suspect list. Wow, they also included a four year old.
6:44
Speaker 1: While the FEDS tried to whittle down that suspect list,
6:47
Speaker 1: AIM leadership, including Dennis Banks and Leonard Peltier, traveled out
6:52
Speaker 1: west to gather financial support for whoever was about to
6:55
Speaker 1: fight a tremendous legal battle, and one of their visits
6:59
Speaker 1: was with the Godfather himself, Marlon fucking Brando.
7:03
Speaker 3: He was from Omaha, Nebraska. There's a big reservation right
7:06
Speaker 3: on the border there, so his mother had some Native
7:10
Speaker 3: blood in there. Marlon had been involved in a Native
7:14
Speaker 3: struggle since the fifties. Dennis and I decided to go
7:19
Speaker 3: to California and see some of our friends there to
7:22
Speaker 3: see if to give us some financial help, and we
7:26
Speaker 3: were successful in that. Marlon even gave us a mobile
7:29
Speaker 3: home to take back with us to Pine Ridge. It
7:33
Speaker 3: was literally a war scene.
7:35
Speaker 5: Now.
7:36
Speaker 3: You had FBI agents running around the fatigues, you had
7:40
Speaker 3: helicopters flying all over, you had SWAT teams running around
7:44
Speaker 3: the reservation.
7:45
Speaker 6: It was decided that they were going to break the
7:48
Speaker 6: American indew movement. They were going to do it one
7:50
Speaker 6: way or another. They were going to go as for
7:52
Speaker 6: as they could with kind of insurgency. Helicopters, armored cars,
7:57
Speaker 6: a lot of heavy weaponry being brought into Pine Ridge
8:00
Speaker 6: and throughout the reservation. Over over the days, searches of homes,
8:05
Speaker 6: terrorizing the people.
8:07
Speaker 3: They were threatening them, especially the kids. Somebody's going to
8:10
Speaker 3: end up killing them because they were there. Something was
8:14
Speaker 3: going to happen to their families. And they still couldn't
8:16
Speaker 3: get nobody to talk to them because nobody knew nothing.
8:19
Speaker 3: I dies, but nobody's going to talk to them anyway.
8:22
Speaker 6: The local people felt tremendous love and support towards the resistance.
8:28
Speaker 6: But to counter that, you want to terrorize people so
8:31
Speaker 6: that they don't help, or maybe they inform as an
8:35
Speaker 6: attorney with the who they need Offense Committee. I was
8:38
Speaker 6: on the ground right after the firefight Oglala. I was
8:42
Speaker 6: still studying for the bar at that time, and if
8:44
Speaker 6: Offense Comittee had a little hut where some of us
8:46
Speaker 6: stayed overnight, and we got a call that there had
8:49
Speaker 6: been a goon attack and we went probably equivalent about
8:51
Speaker 6: three city blocks over to this house and you could
8:55
Speaker 6: still see the dust in the air, and you could
8:57
Speaker 6: smell courtite, You could see the terror and the fear.
9:00
Speaker 6: That was a woman and a couple of kids, And
9:03
Speaker 6: these are kind of unique experiences for a young Jewish
9:06
Speaker 6: kid out of New York.
9:07
Speaker 2: But Bruce quickly got acquainted with the situation and he
9:11
Speaker 2: told us about an AIM member named Byron Deserso. Deserts's
9:15
Speaker 2: father read an underground newspaper that was critical of the
9:18
Speaker 2: tribal chairman Dick Wilson and his federally funded pairamilitary group,
9:24
Speaker 2: the Goon Squad, which had attacked Byron's friends.
9:27
Speaker 6: They started shooting at a young couple as they got
9:30
Speaker 6: out of their car. The person who defended himself with
9:32
Speaker 6: a single shot twenty two against semioma and automatic weapons
9:37
Speaker 6: was arrested in his home for disorderly conduct. So Byron
9:40
Speaker 6: was going there to see how he can help out.
9:42
Speaker 6: And Byron was on his way home in Womblee and
9:46
Speaker 6: a caravan of goons passed by and they riddled the
9:49
Speaker 6: car with bullets and they killed Byron Breccacy. The other
9:53
Speaker 6: three people in the car were not hurt and as
9:56
Speaker 6: a winning defense cann't remember. We were asked to go
9:58
Speaker 6: down and to investigate. And the first thing that we
10:02
Speaker 6: were met with in the streets of Wombli, we were
10:04
Speaker 6: surrounded by a SWAT team which questioned us at gunpoint.
10:09
Speaker 6: But it was part of that fear there. They had
10:11
Speaker 6: already destroyed two homes by fire bombing them. They had
10:14
Speaker 6: shot up about a half a dozen homes.
10:17
Speaker 3: Well, we started to protect the people again because of
10:20
Speaker 3: all the chaos and terrorism they were committing against the
10:24
Speaker 3: local citizens.
10:26
Speaker 6: There, and you know, staying overnight in that community and
10:29
Speaker 6: watching the elders get together and give a warning to
10:32
Speaker 6: the goons. You get out the next day by noon,
10:36
Speaker 6: or we're going to come and take you out. Because
10:38
Speaker 6: the government wasn't taking them out.
10:40
Speaker 2: It appears that Leonard's participation in resisting this continued reign
10:44
Speaker 2: of terror put a target on his back.
10:47
Speaker 5: Cornypi documents.
10:48
Speaker 6: They decided that Leonard had shot the agents two and
10:50
Speaker 6: a half weeks after the firefight. And they made this
10:53
Speaker 6: conclusion because they say they found some of his fingerprints
10:56
Speaker 6: on some items that were in the camp area about
11:00
Speaker 6: quarter from mile away from the scene.
11:01
Speaker 1: Which says exactly nothing.
11:04
Speaker 6: But that was where they started from. And then they
11:07
Speaker 6: went and they targeted four people Leonard, Dino Butler, Bob
11:12
Speaker 6: Robberdew and Jimmy Eagle.
11:14
Speaker 3: Jimmy Eagle, I wasn't even in the state. It was
11:17
Speaker 3: on a Wyoming reservation. We didn't understand why we were indicted,
11:24
Speaker 3: why we were being accused, because we don't know who
11:26
Speaker 3: the real shooters are.
11:28
Speaker 2: They caught up with Dino Butler first.
11:31
Speaker 4: I was arrested in Rosebud and I was taking to Pierce,
11:35
Speaker 4: South Dakota. I was put in jail there, Dad two
11:39
Speaker 4: holding tanks, one tank where they put all the goons
11:42
Speaker 4: and the other tank of where they put all the
11:44
Speaker 4: AIM members.
11:45
Speaker 6: So first they captured Dino Butler in Rosebud and then
11:48
Speaker 6: Bob Robberdy down in Kansas.
11:50
Speaker 1: In September nineteen seventy five, Bob Robadu and two other
11:54
Speaker 1: AM members, Michael Anderson and Norman Charles, were traveling through Wichita,
11:58
Speaker 1: Kansas in Leonards station wagon when either ammunition or an
12:02
Speaker 1: explosive went off in the back of the vehicle, and
12:04
Speaker 1: authorities found an AR fifteen inside the burning wreck, which
12:08
Speaker 1: was then taken for comparison to the two twenty three
12:11
Speaker 1: shellcasing allegedly found an Asian Kohler's trunk, and we'll hear
12:15
Speaker 1: more about that later. But meanwhile they put pressure on Bob, Mike,
12:18
Speaker 1: Norman as well as the people back on Pine Ridge
12:21
Speaker 1: and continued to pursue both Jimmy Eagle and Leonard Peltier.
12:25
Speaker 3: They offered people money, cattle, They offered people land on
12:30
Speaker 3: our own reservation. How the hell do you got a
12:32
Speaker 3: right to offer us land on our own reservation to
12:36
Speaker 3: become an informant, But the people said, no, we're not
12:39
Speaker 3: going to do this to Leonard, you can kiss our ass.
12:42
Speaker 5: We're not going to do it.
12:44
Speaker 3: We're not going to get up there and make false
12:45
Speaker 3: statements against him. So I was protected by the people,
12:50
Speaker 3: but they were still continuing to do this for.
12:54
Speaker 5: Quite a while.
12:55
Speaker 3: And there is a treaty among the United States and
12:58
Speaker 3: Canada that people can cross that border anytime they want.
13:03
Speaker 3: So that's when the elders are telling me that I
13:05
Speaker 3: should go to Canada and we could find out what
13:08
Speaker 3: kind of evidence they got.
13:09
Speaker 2: According to the extradition agreement between the United States and Canada,
13:14
Speaker 2: the authorities must produce convincing evidence of guilt for Canada
13:19
Speaker 2: to extradite. So Leonard left for Canada in Marlon Brando's
13:23
Speaker 2: motor home with Dennis Banks as well as with two
13:26
Speaker 2: other individuals, and they made it to Oregon. Then they
13:30
Speaker 2: were pulled over on November fourteenth, nineteen seventy five.
13:34
Speaker 3: We were traveling down the highway and this cop pulls
13:37
Speaker 3: us over, and I think you jumped the gun because
13:41
Speaker 3: right down the road they had a whole road blocks
13:43
Speaker 3: and everything else set up, but just cop pulled us over.
13:47
Speaker 3: Like I said, I think it was premature. He started
13:49
Speaker 3: shooting and I tried to draw them shooting away from
13:53
Speaker 3: camouting her kids. They were all laying on the ground
13:56
Speaker 3: and there was cop screaming and yelling and all.
13:59
Speaker 5: This other shit.
14:00
Speaker 3: It so we've split up and we've shaped I did
14:06
Speaker 3: get shot there still to this day have laded my body.
14:10
Speaker 5: Where were you shot Leonard in the back? That's a miracle.
14:13
Speaker 5: If you weren't killed or paralyzed. You can't go to
14:15
Speaker 5: a hospital.
14:16
Speaker 3: You can't go to hospital. And I'm wounded. Some of
14:19
Speaker 3: the supporters that opened their homes for me, and so
14:22
Speaker 3: I had a doctor comment, we're trying to get the
14:24
Speaker 3: bullet out of my shoulder. And from there I went
14:27
Speaker 3: in a state with various people. I think it was
14:31
Speaker 3: at least six months.
14:32
Speaker 1: During which time Leonard's name went to the top of
14:35
Speaker 1: the FBI's most wanted list before he went to Canada,
14:38
Speaker 1: where he was picked up by the Royal Canadian Mounted
14:40
Speaker 1: Police in Hinton, Alberta in February nineteen seventy six, and
14:44
Speaker 1: then he was transported to the much less Native friendly
14:48
Speaker 1: province of British Columbia.
14:50
Speaker 3: I went before a very conservative judge who was not
14:55
Speaker 3: my friend, not Indians, native people's friends. It was quite
14:58
Speaker 3: obvious even he said it was not going to turn
15:02
Speaker 3: me back to the United States. He said, there is
15:05
Speaker 3: no evidence. I can't just turn this man over. They
15:23
Speaker 3: continued to develop false evidence. They created a false witness.
15:27
Speaker 3: I never met her in my life, but she was
15:30
Speaker 3: claiming she was my girlfriend and she was an eyewitness.
15:34
Speaker 7: And the FBI used what they knew to be a
15:39
Speaker 7: perjured affidavit in order to obtain his extradition from Canada.
15:45
Speaker 2: This is one of Leonard's appellot attorneys, Ron Cooby. He's
15:48
Speaker 2: explaining how the FBI found a woman named Mirgal poor Bear,
15:52
Speaker 2: who gave three affidavits. Her first, which was initially hidden,
15:56
Speaker 2: said that Leonard had confessed to her after the fact,
16:00
Speaker 2: and then poor Bear swore two more affidavits saying that
16:04
Speaker 2: she was an eye witness.
16:06
Speaker 7: Myrtle poor Bear, who was deeply psychotic, made a number
16:12
Speaker 7: of different affidavids till she satisfied the FBI, and she
16:16
Speaker 7: said she actually witnessed Leonard Pilteer shoot the agent's at
16:19
Speaker 7: close range because she was there. Now everybody knew that
16:23
Speaker 7: Myrtle poor Bear was nowhere near the scene of this.
16:27
Speaker 3: The people in the community stated out right that he
16:31
Speaker 3: was the faith.
16:31
Speaker 5: They don't know her.
16:33
Speaker 3: They knew I was never a winner or not because
16:35
Speaker 3: I had a girl from there. I had two kids there.
16:38
Speaker 6: And by the way, when murder Poor Bear was Leonard
16:40
Speaker 6: Belteer's girlfriend, she was also a local aim leader's girlfriend
16:44
Speaker 6: by the name of Dick Marshall, and later she claimed
16:46
Speaker 6: that Dick Marshall confessed to her to killing a goon.
16:49
Speaker 7: Ancillary to that perjured Affid David was an Affid David
16:54
Speaker 7: from firearms expert Evan Hodge that the shell case that
17:00
Speaker 7: was found in the agent's car had extractor marks on it.
17:06
Speaker 7: Extractor mark comparisons are not an exact science, unlike say,
17:11
Speaker 7: firing pin comparisons.
17:13
Speaker 2: When a semi automatic weapon is fired, the firing pin
17:17
Speaker 2: springs forward through the breach face behind the bullet. It
17:21
Speaker 2: strikes the bullet primer, a small explosive that ignites the
17:24
Speaker 2: propellant gunpowder, and this creates enough high pressure gas to
17:29
Speaker 2: send both the projectile forward from its casing down the
17:32
Speaker 2: barrel and sliding the casing back against the breach face
17:36
Speaker 2: where it's grabbed by the extractor. This extractor slides the
17:40
Speaker 2: casing further back where it's hit by the ejector and
17:43
Speaker 2: then flies out an opening on the right side of
17:47
Speaker 2: the gut.
17:47
Speaker 1: Each movement leaves striations, and each machine part leaves marks
17:53
Speaker 1: on the casing, which can then be compared to other
17:56
Speaker 1: casings produced by test firing a suspect weapon, and really
18:01
Speaker 1: all firearm analysis is best suited for excluding a firearm
18:06
Speaker 1: rather than actually making definitive matches. However, the firing pin
18:12
Speaker 1: test provides the most accurate reading, and it improved from
18:15
Speaker 1: two D microscopic images in nineteen seventy five to the
18:18
Speaker 1: three D imaging available by twenty ten, delivering up to
18:22
Speaker 1: ninety eight point eight percent accuracy, Whereas extractor marks are
18:27
Speaker 1: described as being able to identify class characteristics like the
18:31
Speaker 1: make and model, but they have no value in identifying
18:34
Speaker 1: the individual weapon well. Extractor marks were the subject of
18:39
Speaker 1: Evan Hodge's Affidavid, which, along with Myrtle Poor bears Affidavid
18:44
Speaker 1: one extradition. So while Leonard's team appealed the extradition and
18:49
Speaker 1: Jimmy Eagle hadn't even been located yet, Dino and Bob
18:53
Speaker 1: went to trial in July of nineteen seventy six.
18:57
Speaker 4: What do I went on trial and see the rapids
19:00
Speaker 4: the FBI sent a team and they just terrorized those
19:02
Speaker 4: people and see the rapids that they said that they
19:05
Speaker 4: had two A members. I killed two fbis. No one
19:09
Speaker 4: should go out alone by themselves. Don't leave your cars unlock.
19:13
Speaker 4: They told them that there would be snipers up on
19:15
Speaker 4: buildings and everything. There's going to be Dog soldiers terrorizing
19:18
Speaker 4: the people and trying to set us free and all.
19:20
Speaker 4: I mean, they really done a job on those people
19:22
Speaker 4: before our trial.
19:24
Speaker 2: The term Dog Soldiers refers to a militaristic band of
19:28
Speaker 2: the Cheyenne Nation dating back to the eighteen thirties. They
19:32
Speaker 2: served as an effective bulwark against western expansion in present
19:36
Speaker 2: day Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming.
19:39
Speaker 6: It was all about creating a climate of fear and terror.
19:43
Speaker 4: When my parents, our defense team came to see the rapids,
19:46
Speaker 4: my mother and father, my little brother, no one would
19:49
Speaker 4: take them in. Finally John Tredell and his group came
19:52
Speaker 4: in and they started making speeches and talking to these people,
19:56
Speaker 4: and the doors opened up, the church open up, and
20:00
Speaker 4: they have some land to our people to set up
20:02
Speaker 4: their camps there, and my mom and dad got a
20:05
Speaker 4: hotel room. I mean, it was a beautiful what happened there.
20:10
Speaker 4: Without those people, we would have probably been convicted there.
20:13
Speaker 1: So the FBI's jurypool poisoning had been neutralized for civil
20:19
Speaker 1: rights attorney William Kunstler to present the self defense theory,
20:23
Speaker 1: while the prosecution now had to prove their narrative.
20:27
Speaker 6: The government's theory in about the Robberty trial was that
20:29
Speaker 6: this was a pre planned ambush, and they argued that
20:33
Speaker 6: and tried to assert it, and it kind of blew
20:35
Speaker 6: up on their face in the middle of the trial.
20:37
Speaker 6: It just became so ludicrous.
20:39
Speaker 2: Initially, this narrative was built in part on Myrtle Poor
20:43
Speaker 2: Bears affidavits, the ones which she also said that she
20:47
Speaker 2: witnessed this group allegedly planning to lure agents into the
20:51
Speaker 2: compound to be ambushed, but soon after the extradition proceedings,
20:56
Speaker 2: she stopped cooperating with the FEDS. The FEDS then had
21:00
Speaker 2: had to produce new testimony to assert that Bob and
21:03
Speaker 2: Dino were part of some premeditated act.
21:06
Speaker 6: One of the things that the FBI was very successful
21:09
Speaker 6: at was going into jails and finding people who were
21:12
Speaker 6: in the same jail, maybe as a person who they
21:15
Speaker 6: were targeting, and suddenly the targeted person would.
21:18
Speaker 1: Confess them, of course, so how mus to this day,
21:21
Speaker 1: that's right.
21:21
Speaker 6: And the FBI particularly liked to go to people who
21:24
Speaker 6: are accused of breaking in homes.
21:25
Speaker 5: And raping women, four children, or elders.
21:28
Speaker 6: In this case, they found a man that was facing
21:31
Speaker 6: extradition to Texas, where the Texas Rangers sent word that
21:35
Speaker 6: if they get him back there, he's not going to
21:39
Speaker 6: survive very long.
21:40
Speaker 4: His name was Vern Harper. He said that I confessed
21:43
Speaker 4: everything to him in the jails, and the agreement that
21:46
Speaker 4: he made with the government is that he would testify
21:50
Speaker 4: against us if they would see that the charges in
21:52
Speaker 4: Texas against him were dismissed.
21:54
Speaker 6: And you saw how much do you know, talked after
21:56
Speaker 6: all these years. Usually people when they made denal Butler,
22:00
Speaker 6: they might not hear him say a word for two weeks.
22:03
Speaker 6: But nevertheless, that night those two became such good friends
22:06
Speaker 6: that Dino confessed to not only being involved in killing
22:09
Speaker 6: the agents, but also trying to assassinate a federal judge
22:13
Speaker 6: in Rapid City.
22:14
Speaker 1: But Vern Harper was exposed for what he had stood
22:17
Speaker 1: to gain, and then another witness, Wilford Draper, admitted that
22:21
Speaker 1: he'd changed his story upon instruction from the FBI. Nonetheless,
22:25
Speaker 1: Draper put an AR fifteen in Leonard's hands, as did
22:28
Speaker 1: Norman Brown, who received immunity and later recanted. Brown placed
22:34
Speaker 1: Bob Dino and Leonard near the agent's car with an
22:37
Speaker 1: AR fifteen, but at this point the AR fifteen from
22:40
Speaker 1: the car fire in Wichitah was only tacitly linked to
22:44
Speaker 1: the two twenty three casing bound in Asian Kohler's car.
22:48
Speaker 1: After all, there were other AR fifteens on Jumping Bull Ranch.
22:52
Speaker 6: In the public robbery trial, they presented testimony to basically
22:57
Speaker 6: this weapon, this damaged AR fifteen that was found, and
23:00
Speaker 6: witchta that they could not conclusively state that that weapon
23:05
Speaker 6: had been used to fire at the agents because they
23:08
Speaker 6: couldn't do a firing pin test on what was left
23:11
Speaker 6: of this rifle, and it was a mess except for
23:15
Speaker 6: what looked like a brand new bolt mechanism when we
23:17
Speaker 6: saw it.
23:18
Speaker 2: The brand new bolt mechanism is important to remember for later,
23:22
Speaker 2: but for now, there was no known firing pin test. Therefore,
23:26
Speaker 2: this was a case of self defense. It's a case
23:29
Speaker 2: where the FEDS thought they were in pursuit of Jimmy
23:32
Speaker 2: Eagle in a red pickup truck and drove on to
23:35
Speaker 2: the compound. A firefight started, and Robadu and Butler arrived
23:39
Speaker 2: after the fact, unsure who they were exchanging fire with,
23:43
Speaker 2: and that scenario wasn't exactly out of ordinary for them.
23:47
Speaker 2: At this time, we.
23:49
Speaker 6: Were able to present members of the community, the people
23:52
Speaker 6: of Pine Ridge, who came in and talked to the jury.
23:57
Speaker 6: Helped them to understand what life was like during what
24:03
Speaker 6: was regarded as the Reign of Terror, scores of people
24:06
Speaker 6: being killed, people being kept on the floors of their
24:10
Speaker 6: homes while bullets went through the walls. Clarence Kelly, the
24:14
Speaker 6: FBI director at the time, we subpoened him and put
24:17
Speaker 6: him on the witness stand and he admitted that everyone
24:21
Speaker 6: has the right to defend themselves and it doesn't matter
24:24
Speaker 6: who the aggressor is, and he even said even if
24:27
Speaker 6: it's an FBI agent. And the jury became convinced that
24:32
Speaker 6: Dino Butler and Bob Robert and Leonard had he been
24:35
Speaker 6: on trial with them, were acting in self defense that
24:40
Speaker 6: day in whoever was responsible for the killing of the
24:44
Speaker 6: deaths of the agents.
24:45
Speaker 3: Everybody knew that this was an American Indian Movement stronghold,
24:50
Speaker 3: and they came right onto where the cars were found.
24:52
Speaker 3: If they did that to a white community, they would
24:56
Speaker 3: have been shot too. We were protectling in our homes
24:59
Speaker 3: like any other American has the right to do, and
25:04
Speaker 3: they got acquitted. The jury to all white jury Christians,
25:09
Speaker 3: conservative juries said those Indians have the same rights as
25:15
Speaker 3: we do to protect their homes, to protect their families and.
25:19
Speaker 5: Their children and everything else.
25:21
Speaker 3: That's why they were acquitted.
25:31
Speaker 6: The acquittals happened in seedar rapids. The jurors, some of
25:34
Speaker 6: them in post trial interviews said by the way they
25:37
Speaker 6: were treated, said they came away from the trial terrified
25:41
Speaker 6: that they were going to face reprisals from the FBI
25:44
Speaker 6: and the US marshalls.
25:45
Speaker 4: After I got out of jail, I came back to
25:48
Speaker 4: Oregon at my mother and father's house in Cutler City.
25:55
Speaker 4: One night, meing Neelock decided to go up to town
25:59
Speaker 4: and we met my cousin in the bar there just
26:01
Speaker 4: playing pool. And while we were there, this one guy
26:04
Speaker 4: and one white guy. He came over to our table
26:07
Speaker 4: and he started talking about these two FBI agans that
26:09
Speaker 4: were killed, and he was saying how they deserved that
26:12
Speaker 4: and all this and that. My cousin said, well, what
26:15
Speaker 4: the hell are you talking about? And he said, get
26:17
Speaker 4: the hell out of here. I don't know if he
26:19
Speaker 4: was a FBI Asian or not, but he left. And
26:24
Speaker 4: I had an uncle that lived about two blocks from
26:26
Speaker 4: where we were at. My mom and dad lived about
26:29
Speaker 4: a mile from where we were at, and we were
26:31
Speaker 4: on foot, so I told Neila, let's walk up to
26:33
Speaker 4: my uncle's place and we'll stay there tonight. So we
26:36
Speaker 4: did that. Next morning, my little brother came up there
26:40
Speaker 4: and told us that the FBI had raised at my
26:42
Speaker 4: mom and dad's house. And he said when he woke up,
26:46
Speaker 4: an FBI Asian was pointing a pistol at his head
26:48
Speaker 4: and says, where's your fucking brother at. And when they
26:51
Speaker 4: found out we weren't there, Mom, she said, one of
26:54
Speaker 4: those Asians walked over to her and they told her,
26:56
Speaker 4: you know, we may not have got him this time,
26:59
Speaker 4: we will get him.
27:01
Speaker 5: We will get him.
27:02
Speaker 6: After the Butler robbery trial, the government kind of freaked
27:05
Speaker 6: out and they decide that they're going to have a
27:07
Speaker 6: meeting in Washington, DC at FBI headquarters. Prosecutors are their
27:12
Speaker 6: the FBI's the air, and they either have to decide
27:15
Speaker 6: that the agents followed Jimmy Eagle into the jumping boat compound,
27:21
Speaker 6: which is what the deceased agents transmitted they were doing.
27:24
Speaker 5: Or they had to say.
27:27
Speaker 6: Jimmy Eagle was never there, and really it was Leonard
27:30
Speaker 6: Peltier who was the killer.
27:32
Speaker 7: Somebody had to pay, and that somebody was going to
27:36
Speaker 7: be Leonard Peltier. He was the last one available to them.
27:41
Speaker 6: So they made a decision to dismiss the charges against
27:44
Speaker 6: Jimmy Eagle and in their words, put the full prosecutive
27:48
Speaker 6: weight of the federal government to be directed.
27:51
Speaker 5: Against Leonard Peltier.
27:53
Speaker 6: So they decide that they have to if they're going
27:55
Speaker 6: to win, they have to prove that Leonard did it.
27:58
Speaker 1: Because Dino and Robert were able to prove that it
28:01
Speaker 1: was self defense, they changed the whole story and said
28:04
Speaker 1: that this was actually a cold blooded execution.
28:06
Speaker 6: Then suddenly this damaged day R fifteen that was found
28:09
Speaker 6: in Wichita, which they never attributed to Leonard in any way.
28:13
Speaker 6: That weapon had to have been the one that was
28:14
Speaker 6: used to kill the agents, And they found the showcase
28:16
Speaker 6: and that was a couple of feet away in the
28:18
Speaker 6: open trunk, and therefore Leonard Muster did it.
28:21
Speaker 1: And by eliminating the idea that there were other ar
28:23
Speaker 1: fifteens on the compound, which was just a lie. It
28:26
Speaker 1: wasn't true. The extractor marked comparison in absence of a
28:30
Speaker 1: firing pin test became enough for them to say that's
28:32
Speaker 1: the gun, and since it was found close to the bodies,
28:35
Speaker 1: the narrative was that he was able to walk up
28:37
Speaker 1: to the agents, who were no longer a threat, and
28:40
Speaker 1: execute them in cold blood, as supported by Myrtle Poor
28:43
Speaker 1: Bears Affid Davids. But by this time Myrtle herself had
28:48
Speaker 1: come forward.
28:49
Speaker 5: It was total bs. They terrified this one.
28:51
Speaker 1: They threatened to take her kids away, right to take
28:53
Speaker 1: your kids away, which is also standard operating procedure, unfortunately
28:56
Speaker 1: and police departments too often around the country.
28:59
Speaker 2: In pre trial proceedings, Leonard's attorney tried to admit Myrtle
29:03
Speaker 2: Poor Bear as their witness, where she would testify as
29:06
Speaker 2: to how she was treated and forced to lie. However,
29:10
Speaker 2: the judge barred her from testifying and he cited mental incompetence.
29:15
Speaker 1: They got a different judge, a notoriously racist judge as
29:18
Speaker 1: we understand it, a guy named Paul Benson.
29:21
Speaker 4: They moved a child from Saya Rapids up to Fargo,
29:24
Speaker 4: North Dakota.
29:25
Speaker 1: There was an all white jury.
29:27
Speaker 4: I mean the program that set up was a program
29:30
Speaker 4: meant to convict Leonard.
29:32
Speaker 1: And with the new narrative that this was a cold
29:34
Speaker 1: blooded execution of two incapacitated FBI agents, self defense was
29:39
Speaker 1: off the table and the judge would not allow any
29:41
Speaker 1: testimony about the climate of violence and fear that led
29:45
Speaker 1: up to June twenty sixth, nineteen seventy five.
29:47
Speaker 3: The judge would not let them make the statement. The
29:51
Speaker 3: judge d a statement that Leonard Peltiers is on trial here,
29:56
Speaker 3: not FBI, and that was a begin the type of
30:00
Speaker 3: trial I was going to receive.
30:03
Speaker 1: And that's where we'll pause for the second of three
30:05
Speaker 1: episodes of the wrongful conviction of Leonard Peltier and stick
30:10
Speaker 1: around because there's still so much more to come.
30:13
Speaker 3: First, opportunity I got, I was able to escape.
30:16
Speaker 7: Kunstler learned of this teletype from Agent Hodge, which had
30:21
Speaker 7: been suppressed.
30:22
Speaker 6: That damaged AR fifteen could produce a firing pentest.
30:26
Speaker 3: I don't know who pulled a trigger.
30:28
Speaker 6: Then how could the judge deny him the same defense
30:31
Speaker 6: that Butler and Robberty.
30:32
Speaker 7: You have nothing that any of the dozens of lawyers
30:37
Speaker 7: did accomplished a single damned thing for Leonard.
30:40
Speaker 1: You had on your side, Hope Francis, Archbishop to to Mother,
30:44
Speaker 1: Teresa Nelson, Mandela Muhammad Ali, the Dali Lama Correta, Scott
30:49
Speaker 1: King out rage against the machine, Tom Morello, Johnny Depp.
30:53
Speaker 3: Regional director of the FBI. Don Edwards is the supporter
30:57
Speaker 3: of mine. He said, I worked there. I know what
31:00
Speaker 3: they did to Leonard.
31:02
Speaker 6: Clinton was told that South Dakota senator would lose the selection.
31:07
Speaker 5: If he pardoned Peltier. My anger kept me alive.
31:10
Speaker 3: I just made my mind up. You ain't going to
31:12
Speaker 3: break me.
31:13
Speaker 7: Most of us never thought we would see the day
31:16
Speaker 7: that Leonard would walk out of prison alive.
31:19
Speaker 2: The guard there said, ma'am, I've told you there's no
31:21
Speaker 2: visitation today.
31:22
Speaker 4: And I said, the President has just granted clemency to
31:25
Speaker 4: Leonard Peltier, and so I'm wondering if you could let
31:27
Speaker 4: him know.
31:28
Speaker 3: It is just about Leonard Peltier. It's about the struggle.
31:32
Speaker 3: It's about what they'd tried to do to us natives.
31:36
Speaker 3: They tried to exterminate us.
31:39
Speaker 1: Be sure to tune in for the final episode of
31:42
Speaker 1: The Wrongful Conviction of Leonard Peltier. Thank you for listening
31:51
Speaker 1: to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this and all
31:54
Speaker 1: the Lava for Good podcasts one week early and ad
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Speaker 1: free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
32:01
Speaker 1: I want to thank our production team, Connor Hall and
32:03
Speaker 1: Kathleen Fink, as well as my fellow executive producers Jeff Kempler,
32:07
Speaker 1: Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Kleiber. The music in this production
32:10
Speaker 1: was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
32:13
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us across all social media platforms
32:15
Speaker 1: at Lava for Good and at Wrongful Conviction. You can
32:18
Speaker 1: also follow me on Instagram at It's Jason Flamm. Wrongful
32:22
Speaker 1: Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts and
32:24
Speaker 1: association with Signal Company Number One. We have worked hard
32:27
Speaker 1: to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate.
32:30
Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in
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Speaker 1: those of Lava for Good