Monday, June 12, 2000
AIM leader's imprisonment pits protesters, FBI
By Tom O'Neill
The Cincinnati Enquirer
This is the story of 40 people: 39 who held a vigil in Cincinnati Sunday night for the release of convicted killer and American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, and one local FBI agent staunchly opposed to it.
The latter is Eddie Wood, an FBI agent for 28 years, the last 14 in Cincinnati.
He's the reason for the vigil at the Hamilton County Courthouse, organizers said. There were 13 other vigils in the United States, from Boston to Louisville to Fairbanks, Alaska.
A parole hearing for Mr. Peltier is set to begin today at the Federal Penitentiary in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. A leader of the American Indian Movement, he is serving two life sentences for the deaths of two FBI agents during a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1975.
“Someone killed those agents, there's no denying that,” said local vigil organizer LeeAnn McNabb, 23, of the East End. “But there was evidence not allowed, and false affidavits.”
Supporters say Mr. Peltier was the victim of overzealous federal agents. Critics say Mr. Peltier admitted firing on the agents and that his alibi, implicating a “Mr. X,” has been discredited.
Mr. Wood, on his own time and money, plans to be at the parole hearing with documents supporting Mr. Peltier's conviction. He became impassioned on April 3 when he met a son of agent Jack Coler, who was 28 when he was killed at Pine Ridge.
“I'm taking Peltier's own words and offering them back to the people in the middle who are willing to look at both sides,” Mr. Wood said. “I feel a connection to Jack.”
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