Peltier inquiry finds dubious evidence, urges clemency

Canada's justice minister doesn't think a native-rights activist was extradited on falsified evidence despite a report by a former Quebec judge who says Leonard Peltier's case was highly questionable.

Peltier, 56, was extradited from Canada in 1976 and has been in jail since for the killing of two FBI agents.

A spokesperson for Justice Minister Anne McLennan says Peltier's case is out of the minister's hands.

The spokesperson said Peltier was tried and convicted in the U.S. without the testimony in question. Therefore, the minister believes he was lawfully extradited.

Judge Fred Kaufman led the inquiry. He has written to U.S. President Bill Clinton, urging him to grant clemency to Peltier. Kaufman included a transcript of last October's inquiry.

On June 26, 1975, the two officers 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 American Indians broke out and lasted for six hours. Two federal officers and one native man were killed.

Peltier, an American Ojibway, fled because he knew he was one of the suspects in the officers' murders. He was arrested in Hinton, Alta. in 1976.

Peltier was extradited based mainly on evidence by Myrtle Poor Bear, who claimed she was his girlfriend and she saw him shoot the FBI officers.

The Innocence Project, a group that tries to expose wrongful convictions, organized a one-day inquiry into the Peltier case in Toronto in October.

There, Poor Bear recanted her testimony of two decades ago, admitting she lied when she told police she saw Peltier kill the FBI agents.

Kaufman also sent inquiry material to Prime Minister Jean Chrtien.