RAPID CITY, S.D. – In an extraordinary action, former US Prosecutor James Reynolds has sent an open letter to President Obama requesting clemency for convicted AIM activist, Leonard Peltier.
The 77-year-old Reynolds said to the Guardian on Wednesday, “There seems to be no point in taxpayers paying his room and board.” The 72-year-old Peltier has served forty years of two life sentences, and is in poor health, and Reynolds said, “It’s time to call it quits.”
Reynolds is silent about whether he believes Peltier is guilty. Peltier was convicted in aiding and abetting in the murder of two FBI special agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams in June, 1975.
Reynolds did say he thought it was wrong Peltier remain behind bars after 40 years and that prosecutors considered him an accomplice in the murders: “You’re not really participating in the crime yourself. Just because you’re there, you’re going to get nailed.”
Peltier’s present attorney, Cynthia K. Dunne, a former assistant US attorney said that, “If (Obama) doesn’t take action before January 19, Mr. Peltier will die in jail. He’s too frail and too sick to make it much longer in the prison system.”
Obama has been pardoning hundreds of prisoners in his final weeks in office.
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