Peltier Hearing in Minneapolis on March 11

0 views
Skip to first unread message

marcel

unread,
Feb 19, 2008, 6:05:41 PM2/19/08
to First Nations Skyvillage
Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:52:28 -0800
From: "Arthur J. Miller" <ba...@blarg.net>
Subject: [nwpeltiersupport] Fw: Peltier Hearing in Minneapolis on
March 11

:


> TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 2008, BEGINNING AT 9:00 A.M.
> Case No. 07-1745MN
> Leonard Peltier v. Federal Bureau of Investigation
> U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit
> University of St. Thomas School of Law
> Frey Moot Courtroom
> 1000 LaSalle Avenue
> Minneapolis, Minnesota
>
> Background:
>
> On June 8, 2007, Peltier attorneys 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 the brief, it
> is argued that the FBI's promises to its informants expired long ago,
> and were waived when those informants testified publicly. It is
> asserted that the virtually unprecedented public interest in the case
> of Leonard Peltier warrants careful judicial review of the withheld
> documents. In addition, it is demonstrated 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.
>
> The government's response was 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.
>
> On October 9, 2007, attorneys Ron Kuby and David Pressman filed a
> reply brief with the United States Courts of Appeals for the Eight
> Circuit. According to the Peltier attorneys:
>
> "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."
>
> Time to set him free... Because it is the RIGHT thing to do.
>
> Friends of Peltier
> http://www.FreePeltierNow.org


Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages