Peltier Family Reunion Filled with Joy
In the spring of 2010 the RFC awarded a special $2000 Attica Prison Visit grant to allow the then one, four, and six-year-old great grandchildren of Leonard Peltier to meet him for the first time. The family had been unable to afford to make the trip to visit Leonard in prison in Pennsylvania, and asked for the RFC’s assistance to bring several generations together.
As Robert Meeropol explained to supporters at a 20th anniversary event after the grant was approved, “We don’t have the power to end Leonard’s 30-plus years of imprisonment, although I wish we did. But we do collectively have the ability to bring some joy to his life and allow him to meet the next generation of his family.”
After the visit, we received the photo above along with a card thanking the RFC community for making this reunion possible, for giving these children the opportunity to meet their great grandpa, and for bringing Leonard happiness in the face of ongoing oppression.
[You can read more about Leonard's case here.]
Activist Mother Released, Conviction Overturned
In March 2008, Briana Waters was sentenced to six years in federal prison following her conviction for arson as part of the Bush administration’s “Green Scare” targeting environmental activists under post-9/11 domestic terrorism legislation. For the past three years, grants from the RFC have allowed Briana’s daughter, now six, to travel from her home on the West Coast to visit her mother in prison in New England.
Despite these vital reunions, Briana’s incarceration was extremely difficult for both mother and daughter. But we are thrilled to report a positive turn of events: on September 15, 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Briana Water’s conviction and ordered a new trial.
In granting the appeal, the Court held that Briana’s trial suffered from a number of errors, including the introduction of “highly prejudicial” articles. She was granted bail on October 13, 2010 and released the following day. Briana is now back home with her daughter. She wrote us to share her “immense gratitude” to the entire RFC community for allowing mother and daughter to maintain contact during her incarceration. Briana cited that continuity as helping to make the transition back to daily family life easier for everyone.
Targeted at 14 and Now Giving Back
“I recently received money as part of the settlement …of a suit brought by those of us arrested at an anti-prison industrial complex [demonstration]” began a letter we received recently along with a very generous contribution. The donor, who is a graduate student now but was 14 at the time of the protest she attended with her mother, went on to write, “Naturally some of the settlement needs to go back into the activist pot.” The RFC is grateful for and heartened by this young woman’s gesture that demonstrates both her commitment to her community of fellow activists and her belief in the RFC mantra, “carry it forward and pass it on.”