40+ years ago, the imprisonment of Leonard Peltier was literally all the rage. On my side of the political spectrum, people protested and wrote letters to their Congress-critters. Being young and skeptical, I did some research, which back then meant an afternoon with microfiche news archives at the library, and I walked away certain that there was AT LEAST reasonable doubt of his guilt.
Which makes his conviction false, his imprisonment unjust.
These days nobody much talks about Peltier, and he’s just had parole denied again. The feds are still adamant that he’s guilty, overjoyed that he remains in prison. I remain unconvinced that he’s guilty, and if he is, 48 years in prison seems ample punishment, but he’ll doubtless die there.
I just did more reading about this. The media really backs the FBIs story and doesn’t ask many questions.
From what I can tell Leonard Peliter seems to be the type of person who would shoot at FBI agents, especially in these high pressure circumstances, and he might have been involved in the shootout. But with many other people involved and no evidence there’s really no reason to believe he killed the FBI agents.
There’s an interesting article here https://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/home/facts/shootout/