... the jury found that there was no evidence to link them to the fatal, close range bullets and that the mere act of returning fire was a matter of self-defense under those circumstances. Peltier did not fare as well as his associates; Peltier was extradited from Canada on the basis of an affidavit signed by Myrtle Poor Bear, a local woman who claimed that she was Mr. Peltier's girlfriend and had personally witnessed the killings. Peltier unlike his associates was not tried in Iowa but in North Dakota, by a more conservative federal judge who allegedly allowed the prosecutor to suppress evidence and failed to hear contradictory testimonies. There were many other alleged improprieties in the arrest, extradition, trial and treatment of Leonard Peltier. Peltier, despite these improprieties was convicted of two counts of murder, and has served twenty-seven years of two life sentences in Leavenworth Federal Prison. In the ...

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