St. Paul, Minn. ? An attorney for imprisoned American Indian activist Leonard Peltier asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to reduce his sentence for the 1975 murders of two FBI agents and let him go free on parole.

Peltier’s attorney, Eric Seitz, said the consecutive life sentences were unjust because important evidence was suppressed during Peltier’s 1977 trial. The sentences also should have been imposed concurrently, which would have made Peltier eligible for parole 10 years ago, Seitz argued.

“Judge (Lloyd) Benson believed that (Peltier) fired the fatal shot,” Seitz said. “Later, it was found out that that was not reliable.”

He said that if Benson, the federal district judge who presided over Peltier’s original trial, knew that Peltier couldn’t be directly linked to the shootings, he would have given Peltier a concurrent instead of consecutive sentences.

In his 8-minute argument, Seitz said that Peltier was automatically entitled to a resentencing hearing because he filed within the allotted time, and that the court can reduce the sentence if it sees fit.

But former Assistant U.S. Atty. Lynn Crooks, who came out of retirement to argue against a resentencing, said Peltier’s defense team was raising issues that already have been rejected in previous hearings. And, he said, Peltier missed his deadline to appeal. His bid for a resentencing hearing was rejected in 1979.

Crooks said unless Peltier’s attorney could show there’s been some change, the law says the sentence should remain.

Seitz said ballistics test results obtained by Peltier’s defense team in 1981 revealed the government could not link to the crime scene the rifle alleged to have been used by Peltier.

Crooks said this had been discussed in an appeals motion in 1993. It’s “water that’s been under the dam since 1985,” he said. “They’ve had those two substantive appeals, and this is really nothing more than a repeat of what they argued in 1993.”

During the hearing, the courtroom was packed with supporters wearing “Free Leonard Peltier!” T-shirts.

Peltier’s defense committee is based in Lawrence.

Peltier, 57, has served 26 years in prison. He is currently in the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kan., is not due to get a full parole hearing until 2008.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering Peltier’s appeal of a lower court ruling that denied his bid for re-sentencing. The court did not immediately rule on his request.

Peltier, a member of the American Indian Movement, was convicted in the June 26, 1975, murders of agents Ron Williams and Jack Coler at a time of high tension on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Both agents were shot in the head at point-blank range after they were injured. The bodies were left on a dirt road.

Two suspects were acquitted, and a third was freed for lack of evidence.

Peltier’s supporters say the government falsified evidence leading to his arrest and coerced false testimony or hid evidence to obtain his conviction. The government denies the claims.

Just before leaving office, President Clinton considered granting Peltier clemency but decided against it.