Tom: Hey Leonard?

Leonard: Yes.

T: Hey, how are you doing?

L: Alright Tom, how are you doing?

T: Excellent. Welcome to Radio Free Los Angeles.

L: Alright, thank you.

T: O.K. Lets just get down to business. Theres overwhelming evidence of your innocence and overwhelming evidence of misconduct by the prosecution in the case and a huge international support for your release, so why is it that the U.S. government is still keeping you in jail?

L: Well thats a tough question to answer. We really dont have an answer for it, its all speculation and the only thing we can come up with is that the government wants someone to pay for the shooting of their agents and its unfortunate that I am that individual. Its surprising to many of us, that the FBI would have such control over the justice system to where as I cant get any justice in the courts. Weve been able to prove that the murder weapon, the so called strongest evidence against me, was manufactured.

T: Right, there was a long list.

L: Theres a long list. This is just one of many issues.

T: How long have you been in prison?

L: Ive been in twenty plus years.

T: Could you just briefly go over what happened on the Pine Ridge Reservation on that day.

L: Well, at the time of June 26 there was a corrupt chairman that the Lakota people were trying to get removed legally, Dick Wilson. He had created a private police force. We now know that the Jumping Bull Ranch and another ranch in Lakial, South Dakota also an Indian reservation, were singled out and there were plans of attacking the ranches because they knew there was a lot of the strong hold of the American Indian Movement. This came from Dwayne Brewer, who is one of the leaders of the Goon Squad. He stated in a documentary that was shown nationally and around the world that they were given intelligence, they were given financial assistance, armored piercing ammunition and sophisticated weaponry.

T: Why do you think the FBI found the American Indian Movement such a threat to national security?

L: For many reasons: The termination policy was in effect. They wanted to terminate all the Indian reservations in the United States which is something I had been working on since the fifties, to opposing it. Involved in it was large masses of land, mineral rights, the exposure of the discrimination against the native people, the injustices in the court rooms
(theres millions of millions of dollars involved in this whole thing - billions of dollars involved. The government - and the Indians were going to lose out on it - those who were pushing the termination policy. There was a big move to squash the American Indian Movement.

T: The biggest hole in the prosecutions case is that they even admitted now they dont know who shot the FBI agents.

L: Right. At the trial during the closing arguments, which is not supposed to be considered evidence, but it was at my trial because there was no evidence over a first degree murder which was what I was suppose to be prosecuted on. The agreement between the United States and Canada, if Canada signed the extradition treaty, I would be prosecuted on first degree murder and first degree murder only. This is a treaty between two sovereign nations. I was prosecuted on first degree murder on circumstantial evidence. But people have to remember the circumstances of it. We had an all white jury, the trial was moved into an area where Yankee sentiment is very strong, it is still to this day, they had admitted racists on the jury. The closing argument that Len Crooks, the prosecutor, was that the strongest evidence against me was the murder weapon. We found that the murder weapon was a manufactured piece---.(THE PHONE DISCONNECTED.)

T: Hi, Leonard, sorry about that, one of the perils of recording calls from Leavenworth.

L: Springfield


T: Oh, Springfield now.

L: Yeah, Im expecting to be moved back to Leavenworth for rehabilitation on my jaw and health. Anyway the government claimed that the strongest evidence against me at the trial was the murder weapon, and we found that through the Freedom Of Information lawsuit, that this strongest evidence against me, the murder weapon, was manufactured. They claim they couldnt do a firing pin test on it and we found documentation that they had and it came out negative. So at that 8(superscript: th) Circuit Court of Appeals hearing, Oral Arguments, its called, the judges asked the Prosecutor, Just what was Mr. Pelletier charged with? As we cannot find any evidence of first degree murder in the record. Thats when Crooks made the first statement, We dont know who killed the agents nor do we know what participation Leonard Pelletier may have played in it. So Ive been in prison since 1985, where the government has admitted that they dont know what Im in prison for.

T: Its pretty shameful. People assume that its only other countries that have political prisoners and it seems pretty clear that youre in prison now more for your beliefs. (PHONE DISCONNECTED)