Incident at Oglala

I've seen this documentary, executive produced and narrated by Robert Redford, several times, and each time I get angrier than after the previous viewing. "I don't know what justice is," says one Native American near the end of the film, and it's hard not to agree with him. Add to the injustice in the Leonard Peltier case, the growing list of wrongly accused people released after new DNA evidence, many on death row. We don't have an admirable track record in convicting the right people, the actual criminals.

The issue is this: is it worse to let a guilty criminal free or to convict someone who is innocent? The system favors the former. We need to revamp the system so it favors the latter. Freeing a few criminals is the price you pay to protect the innocent. Otherwise, as now, convicting the innocent is the sacrifice one must make to be sure the criminals are in jail.

Free Leonard Peltier