Leonard Peltier Killer Keating
Political Prisoner Oklahoma Governor
Leonard Peltier
Killer Keating
Political Prisoner
Oklahoma Governor
Freeing Peltier Would Stain Clinton’s Legacy
By Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating
The Wall Street Journal - December 19, 2000
PRESIDENT CLINTON has indicated that he will consider a clemency request
for Leonard Peltier before he leaves office.
Peltier is serving consecutive life sentences for the 1975 murders of two
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, both of whom were slain at close
range
as they lay wounded, following an ambush on a South Dakota Indian reservation.
In Peltier's long criminal career, he has also been charged in two other
armed
confrontations with police, and in connection with a jailbreak that left
another
prisoner dead.
This man does not deserve clemency. But amazingly, he has become a martyr
to the
left, who may succeed in convincing Mr. Clinton to take action in his case.
That
would be an insult to all law enforcement officers, and would leave an
indelible stain
on the Clinton presidency.
The myths that surround the Peltier case have all but obscured the facts.
There are
several "Free Peltier" Web sites, bearing support from such "experts" in
criminal
justice as Ed Asner and Oliver Stone. Those sites are packed with falsehoods,
beginning with their claims that Peltier was framed and is an innocent
man.
In fact, Peltier was found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the vicious
murders of
FBI Special Agents Jack R. Coler, 28, the father of two young sons, and
Ronald L.
Williams, 27. On June 26, 1975, Peltier and other American Indian Movement
activists ambushed Coler and Williams as they drove, in separate vehicles,
on
property that was part of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The
agents
were seeking a suspect in a beating and robbery, and had no knowledge that
Peltier,
who was wanted on warrants for the attempted murder of a Milwaukee police
officer, was present.
Peltier, who has since admitted firing at the agents, was joined by other
AIM gunmen
in opening fire with high-powered rifles and other weapons. The FBI agents,
grievously wounded and outgunned, returned a total of five shots; there
were more
than 125 bullet holes in their cars -- and more still in their bodies.
The wounded Williams apparently removed his bloody shirt, crawled to Coler's
side,
and wrapped it around Coler's arm, nearly severed by gunfire. As they lay
helpless,
both were shot through the head at point-blank range. The shot that killed
Williams
passed through his upraised hand, as if he had pleaded for his life. At
the scene were
114 shell casings, all later linked to Peltier's rifle.
One witness, Michael Anderson, an AIM member who took part in the attack,
later
testified that he saw Peltier standing beside the agents' vehicles with
the rifle in his
hands. Three other witnesses, none especially sympathetic to the FBI or
the
government, also said the weapon was Peltier's. No one else at the scene
that day
carried such a rifle. Peltier and others fled the scene. The murder weapon
was later
recovered from a vehicle driven by Peltier associates in Kansas, along
with weapons
taken from Williams and Coler at the murder scene. The rifle's extractor
mechanism
was matched to all 114 spent casings from Pine Ridge, proving that it was
the
weapon that fired the fatal shots.
In November 1975, when the fugitive Peltier was stopped by State Trooper
Ken
Griffith in Oregon, he exchanged shots with the trooper and escaped on
foot. His
abandoned vehicle and a car driven by his companions yielded a large cache
of
ammunition: 14 handguns, nine grenades and Coler's service revolver. It
was in a
paper bag, under the driver's seat, that bore Peltier's fingerprints.
In February 1976, Peltier was captured by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
on an
Indian reservation where he had been hiding since his flight from Oregon.
Though
armed, Peltier was surprised and unable to resist. He later made statements
to the
Mounties admitting involvement in the Oregon shootout and in the Coler-Williams
slayings. He also told Chief Small Boy, who had granted him refuge and
hospitality,
that had he had advance warning of the Mounties' raid, he would have "blown
them
out of their shoes."
Peltier was convicted on April 18, 1977 of both murders and sentenced to
consecutive life terms. His convictions have been repeatedly upheld by
appellate
courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear his appeals. He
later
escaped briefly from the federal prison at Lompoc, Calif., in an incident
that led to
the death of another fleeing prisoner. When Peltier was recaptured, he
had a stolen
rifle and had attempted to rob a farmer at gunpoint. He was convicted in
additional
charges related to that escape.
The "Free Peltier" forces lobbying Mr. Clinton have concocted a range of
specious
and sometimes bizarre conspiracy theories in support of their claims that
he is
innocent. In one, the FBI men were supposedly trying to assassinate Peltier
in
shadowy support of uranium miners who wanted to exploit reserves said to
be
located on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Peltier's supporters even try to gloss over his admission, on a 60 Minutes
broadcast,
that he was among the shooters on June 26, 1975. They also make much of
the fact
that two Peltier associates were eventually acquitted in a separate trial,
ignoring
overwhelming evidence that continues to point to Peltier as the triggerman.
"I cannot begin to explain adequately the devastating effect Jack's murder
has had on
me and my family," wrote Peggy Coler in 1994. "How does a young widow explain
to
her sons age 4 and 1 why they will never see their daddy again? What kind
of human
being blasts two point blank range bullets into a helpless man?" Peltier
did that.
Now Mr. Clinton may free him. Clemency for Peltier would be a sad and shameful
way to close a presidency.
* Frank Keating is governor of Oklahoma and a
former federal prosecutor and
official of the Department of Justice. He began his career as an
FBI special agent
For The Truth about Leonard Peltier
and his wrongful conviction visit:
http://ccadp.org/keating-peltier.htm
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