Leonard Peltier’s hopes for a presidential pardon were dashed when Bill Clinton freed more than 150 people from jail, but not him.
The outgoing president waited until his last day in office to decide that Peltier wouldn’t be among those pardoned.
Pardons went to a slew of jailed businesspeople, former politicians and his own brother, Roger, for a drug charge.
Among those freed were several people connected to the Whitewater-corruption scandal, which threatened to bring down Clinton and his wife.
Clinton extended a pardon to his former Whitewater business partner Susan McDougal, who was jailed after refusing to testify against the president.
Her former husband, Arkansas savings and loan operator James McDougal, was also convicted at the same trial, but he took a different path.
He chose to implicate the Clintons in wrongdoing before his sudden death in prison.
A pardon also went to former Navajo Nation Chairman Peter MacDonald, 72. He had been sitting in a Texas jail since 1992 for his role in a riot that resulted in the deaths of two of his supporters in 1989.
MacDonald was removed from office for taking bribes and kickbacks. The two supporters were killed on July 20,1989, by tribal police during a march to protest what they considered a coup against their leader.
MacDonald was sentenced to 14 years for inciting the deadly riot.
You can write to Leonard to give him your support at:
Leonard Peltier, #89637-132, P.O. Box 1000, Leavenworth, KS, 66048, USA
