[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 1019]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                            PELTIER'S PARDON

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DOUG BEREUTER

                              of nebraska

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 30, 2001

  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, this Member would ask his colleagues to 
consider carefully the following editorial from the December 27, 2000, 
edition of the Norfolk Daily News, entitled ``Peltier Pardon Would Be 
Wrong.''

 Peltier Pardon Would Be Wrong--Pine Ridge Murderer of Two FBI Agents 
                       Not Deserving of Clemency

       Not since Gerald Ford ascended to the presidency and 
     promptly pardoned former President Richard Nixon for any 
     Watergrate crimes has an American president been faced with 
     as important a test of the unique constitutional powers of 
     clemency. The U.S. Constitution makes it possible for a 
     president to forgive otherwise unpardonable acts. The power 
     is absolute with the exception of impeachment: ``He shall 
     have the power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses 
     against the United States.''
       That makes it possible for President Clinton to follow his 
     pardoning decisions in 62 cases announced recently and 
     provide clemency for Leonard Peltier, 56. Peltier is serving 
     two life sentences in federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan., 
     for the murder of two agents of the Federal Bureau of 
     Investigation in 1975. The agents, Ron Williams and Jack 
     Coler, were attempting to arrest robbery suspects on the Pine 
     Ridge reservation. The agents were injured, then shot in the 
     head repeatedly, at point blank range. The guilty verdict, 
     rendered in 1977 after Peltier had been returned from Canada 
     where he fled after the crime, has withstood multiple 
     appeals.
       His time in prison has found him playing the role of a 
     victim, innocent not by reason of having no association with 
     the crime but because of the injustice done American Indians. 
     Injustices of the past, however, should not be allowed to 
     excuse vicious crimes of the present.
       There is now the possibility that President Clinton might 
     agree to the demand of today's activists. They claim (1) that 
     Peltier was a victim of overzealous agents of the federal 
     government, (2) that if he, in fact, committed the crimes for 
     which he was found guilty beyond reasonable doubt, 
     mistreatment of American Indians justified the slayings and 
     (3) that he has become a changed man in prison, and written 
     useful books about the plight of reservation Indians.
       There is no question that for many, and especially on the 
     Pine Ridge, conditions were harsh and still are. Murder is 
     still not justified, however, and that must apply especially 
     to those responsible for law enforcement.
       While we do not believe in the propriety of demonstration--
     either against Peltier's incarceration as have taken place 
     repeatedly over the years, or against clemency as the FBI 
     agents did in an orderly way in Washington several days ago--
     they have served to highlight this unusual and tragic case.
       In reaching his last-minute decision, Mr. Clinton needs to 
     look especially at what are the incontrovertible facts of a 
     vicious crime, and the importance to the American system of 
     justice of not treating lightly the cold-blooded murder of 
     federal agents acting to uphold the law.

     

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