Published in Redwire magazine, February 2009
Attorneys debate role of handgun in Aquash case March 30, 2009
Attorneys debate role of handgun in Aquash case
By Heidi Bell Gease, Rapid City Journal staff | Monday, March 23, 2009
The defense attorney for a man charged in the 1975 murder of an American Indian Movement activist says jurors should not hear about his client’s previous shooting death conviction.
Richard “Dickie” Marshall, 57, and John Graham, 52, are scheduled to go on trial May 12 in U.S. District Court in connection with the fatal shooting of Annie Mae Aquash, whose body was found on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in February 1976.
Federal prosecutors have said they plan to introduce trial evidence regarding Marshall’s killing of Martin Montileaux on March 1, 1975, in a Scenic bar. Prosecutors said the Montileaux and Aquash cases are related because Marshall had the opportunity to provide the .32-caliber revolver that was confiscated after the Montileaux killing for the shooting of Aquash in December 1975.
Prosecutors say that revolver was released from police custody June 1, 1975.
According to Dana Hanna, Marshall’s attorney, it could not have been the same handgun.
“It could not have been the gun that was used to kill Aquash and which was then buried in December 1975 because state prosecutors produced it in the courtroom and offered it as an exhibit in the trial on April 2, 1976,” Hanna wrote. He said the revolver remained in police custody as evidence from the time it was seized until Marshall’s trial ended.
Hanna asked that U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol direct prosecutors not to offer or refer to the Montileaux evidence at trial.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors have asked the judge to deny Hanna’s request to dismiss the case against Marshall for denial of due process.
Hanna said the government used one crime theory to convict Arlo Looking Cloud of Aquash’s death and is now using another theory to try to convict Marshall. Hanna said previous testimony was that Looking Cloud had provided the murder weapon to Graham, who then shot Aquash in the head. Prosecutors have accused Marshall of providing the murder weapon.
But prosecutors responded last week that Hanna was trying to create a “factual discrepancy” by mixing conduct at Marshall’s home with conduct at the murder scene.
“At his residence, Defendant Marshall provided aid to the criminal venture, including the revolver, shells and consultation,” the response reads. “Thereafter, other aiders and abettors, namely co-Defendant Graham and co-participants Arlo Looking Cloud and Theda Clarke, continued the criminal venture at the bluff where Aquash was murdered.”
Looking Cloud was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Marshall and Graham face the same sentence if convicted.
Free John Graham! Fight Uranium Mining! Free Leonard Peltier! March 24, 2009
Click on graphic to enlarge
AIM Slaying Gets Appeal Hearing Before Trial March 24, 2009
1975 AIM Slaying Gets Appeal Hearing Before Trial
By AP Writer Carson Walker, March 21, 2009
SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota (AP) – South Dakota’s U.S. attorney and a defense lawyer will argue an appeal in the 1975 slaying of a woman one month before the case goes to trial.
John Graham is one of two men indicted on charges they killed or aided the murder of fellow American Indian Movement member Annie Mae Aquash.
Days before Graham was to stand trial in October, a federal judge threw out the indictment because grand jurors didn’t consider whether Graham or Aquash belonged to a federally recognized Indian tribe. Both were Canadian.
The U.S. attorney appealed that ruling. A federal appeals court granted the request for a hearing and scheduled oral arguments for April 15 in St. Louis.
Graham and co-defendant Richard Marshall are scheduled to stand trial May 12 in Rapid City.
130 Attend John Graham Benefit Show in Oakland, California March 14, 2009
130 Attend John Graham Benefit Show in Oakland, California
About 130 people attended the John Graham benefit show in Oakland, California, on March 14, 2009. T-shirts, information publications and stickers in support of John Graham were distributed.
A BENEFIT show in Oakland for indigenous political prisoner John Graham.
March 14, 2009
$5 donation (or more) at the door.
bands:
Blackbird RAUM
Madrona
Miguel from Oakland
Industria
John Graham, Southern Tuchone from the Yukon, is a former American Indian Movement member being charged by the US Gov’t for the 1975 murder of his comrade, Anna Mae Aquash. John firmly maintains his innocence. He is currently imprisoned awaiting trial in South Dakota.
For more information, see the Graham Defense [http://grahamdefense.org] or Our Freedom website (linked below). Or, come to the event: there will be literature tables and a brief presentation on John’s case.
http://ourfreedom.wordpress.com/
Graham and Marshall trial set for May 12, 2009 March 6, 2009
1975 [or '76] AIM trial set for May in Rapid City
Mar 2, 2009
Associated Press
By CARSON WALKER
Associated Press Writer
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) A new trial date is scheduled for two men charged in the 1975 [or '76 ] slaying of a woman on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
John Graham and Richard Marshall were to stand trial starting last week on charges they committed or aided and abetted the murder of Annie Mae Aquash (AH’-kwash).
The trial was delayed to give the defense more time and is now set to start May 12 in Rapid City.
Marshall was indicted in August, five years after Graham and Arlo Looking Cloud were charged.
Looking Cloud was convicted in 2004 for his role and sentenced to life in prison.
Prosecution witnesses accuse Marshall of providing the handgun Graham used to kill Aquash on orders from American Indian Movement leaders who suspected she was a government informant.
100 Attend Graham Benefit March 6, 2009
100 Attend Graham Benefit
On February 25, 2009, at the Wise Hall in Vancouver, about 100 people attended the John Graham family benefit concert that featured four different musical performances and dancing, as well as T-shirts and an information publication in support of John Graham.
