Trial
On December 22, 1975, Peltier was named to the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. On February 6, 1976, Peltier was arrested after being found in a friend's cabin in Hinton, Alberta. In December 1976, he was extradited from Canada based on documents submitted by the FBI. Warren Allmand, Canada's Solicitor General at the time, later stated that these documents contained false information.
One of those documents was an affidavit signed by Myrtle Poor Bear, a Native American woman local to the area near Pine Ridge Reservation. While Poor Bear stated that she was Peltier's girlfriend during that time and watched the killings, Peltier and others at the scene said that Poor Bear did not know Peltier and was not present during the murders. Poor Bear later admitted to lying to the FBI, but said that the agents interviewing her had coerced her into making these claims above. When Poor Bear tried to testify against the FBI, the judge barred her testimony because of mental incompetence.
Peltier fought extradition to the United States. Robideau and Butler were acquitted on the grounds of self-defense by a federal jury in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Peltier returned too late to be tried with Robideau and Butler, and he was subsequently tried separately. Peltier's trial was held in Fargo, North Dakota, where a jury convicted Peltier of the murders of Coler and Williams. Unlike the testimony in the trial for Butler and Robideau, the jury was informed that the two FBI agents were killed by close-range shots to their heads, when they were already defenseless due to previous gunshot wounds. Consequently, Peltier could not submit a self-defense testimony that may have resulted in an acquittal. The jury was also shown autopsy and crime scene photographs of the two agents, which had not been shown to the jury at Cedar Rapids. In April 1977, Peltier was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
Inconsistencies in the prosecution's case
Numerous doubts have been raised over Peltier's guilt and the fairness of his trial, based on allegations and inconsistencies regarding the FBI and prosecution's handling of this case. Several key witnesses in the initial trial have recanted their statements and admitted they were made under duress at the hands of the FBI. At least one witness was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for testimony against Peltier.
Recanted witness statements
Peltier was convicted in 1977 largely on the evidence presented by three witness affidavits, all signed by Myrtle Poor Bear, that placed him at the scene of the shootout and contended that Peltier planned his crimes. Poor Bear claimed to be Peltier's girlfriend at the time, but later admitted that she never knew him personally. Moreover, Poor Bear was known to be mentally unstable. This was confirmed when the FBI deemed her unfit to testify at court. But her testimony, as put forth in her previous affidavits, remained a key part of the prosecution's case against Peltier. Two other witnesses whose testimony was used to place Peltier at the scene of the crime also later recanted. They alleged that the FBI had coerced and threatened them by tying them to chairs, denying them their right to talk to their attorney, and otherwise intimidated them.
Discrepancies in material evidence
FBI radio intercepts indicated that the two FBI agents Williams and Coler had entered the Pine Ridge Reservation in pursuit of a suspected thief in a red pickup truck. The FBI confirmed this claim the day after the shootout, but red pickup trucks near the reservation had been stopped for weeks, and Leonard Peltier did not drive a red pickup truck. Evidence was given that Peltier was driving a Chevrolet Suburban; a large station wagon-style sedan built on a pickup truck chassis, with an enclosed rear section. Peltier's vehicle was orange with a white roof—not a red, open-tray pickup truck with no white paint. At Peltier's trial, the FBI changed their previous statements that they had been in search of a red pickup truck and instead said that they were looking for an orange and white van, similar to the one Peltier drove. This contradictory statement by the FBI was a highly contentious matter of evidence in the trials.
Though the FBI's investigation indicated that an AR-15 was used to kill the agents, several different AR-15s were in the area at the time of the shootout. Also, no other cartridge cases or evidence about them were offered by the prosecutor's office, although other bullets were fired at the crime scene. During the trial, all the bullets and bullet fragments found at the scene were provided as evidence and detailed by Cortland Cunningham, FBI Firearms expert, in testimony (Ref US v. Leonard Peltier, Vol 9). Years later, a request under the Freedom of Information Act prompted another examination of the FBI ballistics report used to convict Peltier. An impartial expert evaluated the firing pin linked to the gun that shot Williams and Coler and concluded that the cartridge case from the scene of the crime did not come from the rifle tied to Peltier. This evidence negated a key facet of the prosecution's case against Peltier. The court did not allow the defense to present the Fargo jury with information about other cases in which the FBI had been rebuked for tampering with evidence and witnesses. In some similar prosecutions against AIM leaders at the time, defense attorneys did present such evidence to the juries.
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Hoping for compassion to win out this time around. 
