by Eric Ture Muhammad

WASHINGTON�Several hundred FBI agents in trench coats and sunglasses solemnly marched to the White House Dec. 15, saying President Clinton should not consider American Indian Movement (AIM) leader Leonard Peltier for executive clemency. Their protest came despite questions about government misconduct in the case and an admission from the partner of the slain agents that he never saw Mr. Peltier shoot them.

The protest came nearly a week after several thousand demonstrators rallied in New York, showing support for the 56-year-old Native American leader who is serving a double life sentence in Leavenworth Penitentiary for the murder of two FBI agents. Mr. Peltier has always maintained his innocence, saying he didn�t shoot the agents during a government siege at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota 25-years- ago. The agents died in a shoot-out between AIM members, local authorities and the FBI.

The Peltier cause has received support the world over, but a spokesperson for agents outside the White House said Peltier supporters have been duped. The FBI agents say Mr. Peltier is a murderer and commuting his sentence would send the wrong message.

"There is no doubt in our mind, he participated in the murder of these two agents. It has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that he put the bullets into the heads of those two agents," said Agent John Stennett, president of the FBI Agents Association. Peltier supporters want to cause confusion and deliberately miscast a criminal as a freedom fighter and social rights advocate, Mr. Stennett told The Final Call.

He was unmoved by a judge�s criticism of investigators for misconduct, witness intimidation and suppression of evidence, and an appellate court�s finding that the entire case was "circumstantial."

"This is one of President Clinton�s last chances to set straight one of the ugliest chapters of civil rights abuses in recent history," said Peltier attorney Jennifer Harbury during a news conference at the National Press Club, prior to the noon FBI demonstration. "Mr. Peltier has been turned down in his quest for justice every single step of the way for 25 years. He is not allowing himself to assume that he will be released, he has thought that too many times in the past," said Ms. Harbury.

"I don�t want to die here. I don�t want to die in prison. I want to go home," an ailing Mr. Peltier said during a recent television interview. Mr. Peltier, whose health has steadily failed him over the years, suffers from high blood pressure and is blind in one eye.

In an exclusive interview with The Final Call outside the White House, David Price, an FBI agent and partner of the slain officers, said: "I never saw Peltier that day. I�ve never seen Peltier except in court." Still Mr. Price, the first agent to arrive on the scene where agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams were fatally wounded, is certain Mr. Peltier is guilty and should stay in jail.

President Clinton has received many letters calling for the commuting of life sentences. The widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., Mrs. Coretta Scott King, has joined the chorus. "I am writing you out of my concern for Mr. Leonard Peltier, a man who I believe has been unjustly imprisoned for 24 years, and to appeal to you to use your powers of executive clemency to allow him to return to his family," she wrote. Judicial impropriety, witness coercion, fabricated evidence and falsified ballistics tests were factors in Mr. Peltier�s conviction and other evidence that might have exonerated him was suppressed, she noted.

During the news conference Native American Kenarahdiyoh, read an appeal to Mr. Clinton, on behalf of the National Congress of American Indians calling for Mr. Peltier�s release. A statement was also read from retired California congressman and former FBI agent Don Edwards.

"Granting clemency for Mr. Peltier should not be viewed as expressing any disrespect for the current agents or leadership of the FBI, nor would it represent any condoning of the killings that took place on Pine Ridge. Instead, clemency for Mr. Peltier would recognize past wrongdoing and the undermining of the government�s case since trial," said Mr. Edwards. "Finally, it would serve as a crucial step in the reconciliation and healing between the U.S. government and Native Americans, on the Pine Ridge Reservation and throughout the country," he added.

Also killed during the June 26, 1975 firefight was a young Indian man, Joe Stuntz, who is rarely mentioned.

In early December, FBI chief Louie Freeh wrote Mr. Clinton asking that Mr. Peltier remain in prison. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) and 21 members of the House forwarded a letter Dec. 15 to Mr. Clinton, opposing any Peltier clemency consideration. President Clinton�s decision could come as early as Dec. 25.