While many will join President Clinton today in supporting the MSU men’s basketball team at Breslin Student Events Center, others plan to show their support for another cause.
A group of MSU students will organize a rally outside of the Breslin Center in support of Leonard Peltier, a leader of the American Indian Movement who was convicted of the murder of two FBI agents and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
President Clinton has issued presidential pardons to 62 people during his final days in the White House. Many feel Clinton holds Peltier’s last chance at clemency before President-elect Bush takes office Jan. 20.
Political science senior David Khilji plans to participate in today’s rally. He emphasized that the rally will not be a protest against Clinton, but a tool to raise consciousness.
“Basically, we want to raise the issue and raise awareness in President Clinton’s mind,” he said. “This is a very big issue. Peltier would have been freed a long time ago. Actually, he should have never been arrested.”
Khilji also said the group hopes to help people attending today’s event become more aware of the plight of political prisoners.
There is much controversy surrounding the case against Peltier, who was convicted and sentenced in 1977.
In 1975, two FBI agents were called to the Jumping Bull Compound on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge reservation on a minor theft complaint. A gun battle between FBI agents and dozens of Native Americans broke out, and lasted six hours. Two agents and one native man were killed.
Peltier, an American Ojibway, fled because he knew he was one of the suspects in the agent’s murders. He was arrested in Canada and extradited in 1976. His extradition was based mainly on evidence by a woman who claimed she was his girlfriend and saw him shoot the FBI agents.
Peltier’s defense contended that the evidence against him was falsified. Since then, thousands of people have joined in the fight for clemency for Peltier, including the Dalai Lama, Gloria Steinem, former FBI agent Wesley Swearingen and the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
