Key charge against John Graham dismissed April 30, 2009

Key charge dismissed in 1975 slaying of Canadian activist

The Canadian Press
April 30, 2009

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A judge in South Dakota has dismissed a key charge against one of two men accused in the 1975 slaying of a Canadian woman active in the American Indian Movement.

A hearing is now scheduled for Tuesday on whether the men should be tried separately.

John Graham and Richard Marshall are scheduled to stand trial May 12 in Rapid City on charges they committed or aided and abetted the murder of Annie Mae Aquash, of Nova Scotia.

U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Piersol dismissed one of three counts against Graham because he and Aquash did not belong to American Indian tribes when she was killed.

The judge says if prosecutors can’t prove to jurors that either Graham or Aquash was part Indian, the other two remaining charges against Graham will likely be dismissed, though he could be tried in state court.

Freedom Now April 30, 2009

Freedom Now

Posted By: Larry Wartels
mondaymag.com
Victoria, BC
April 29, 2009

The continuing struggles for justice for Leonard Peltier and John Graham

A stirring mural of John Graham was painted two years ago on the wall of Wildfire Bakery. It has now vanished with his freedom. But we are very grateful to Wildfire for allowing the talented muralist Alex Caverly to paint it in the first place.

Who are Leonard Peltier and John Graham? Peltier is a Lakota Sioux from North Dakota; Graham is a Tutchone First Nation from the Yukon. Both were extradited from British Columbia on false and hearsay “evidence,” Peltier in 1975 and Graham in 2007. The well-established-as-innocent Peltier is now 32 years into two life sentences for murdering federal agents. Graham is awaiting trial in South Dakota on May 12, 2009, for being an accessory to the murder of Anna Mae Aquash of Nova Scotia. (South Dakota is also where Peltier was falsely convicted.) Terrence LaLiberte, Queen’s Counsel, Graham’s Canadian lawyer, said: “In Canada, I’d drive a truck through the holes in this case.” Dr. Jennifer Wade, retired UBC English professor and cofounder of Amnesty International B.C., emphatically asserts Graham’s innocence.

The real reason for these persecutions? Many feel it is because Graham and Peltier worked with Anna Mae Aquash and the American Indian Movement to stop coal and uranium mining in the U.S. midwest and Saskatchewan, standing up to huge conglomerates, who wanted these courageous resisters out of the way. To find out more, watch Robert Redford’s Incident at Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story, which is free online at freepeltiernow.org, and the short John Graham documentary, Burdened by Murder: A Fight for Justice, can be seen at grahamdefense.org, also for free.

In any other country, we would hear about the injustices of such people in our media. But people and organizations around the world—including the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu and the European Parliament—have demanded justice and freedom for Graham and Peltier. And many people in Canada are trying to prevent a repeat of the travesty trial that put Peltier in prison in the first place.

There is also a letter-writing campaign for both, which urges U.S. President Obama to grant executive clemency to Peltier by the 2010 Olympics, and urges minister of indian affairs Chuck Strahl to use his authority to ensure that Graham’s trial is fair. The letter-writing campaign links can be found at grahamdefense.org/update.htm and freepeltiernow.org/legal/clemency.htm, if you feel like helping free Leonard Peltier and ensuring justice for John Graham.

As a closing thought, let us consider the words of Eugene Debs (1855-1926), an American labour and political leader, and, under the banner of the Socialist Party of America, a candidate for U.S. President. Debs was arrested under the Espionage Act of 1917, however, for making a speech on June 16, 1918 opposing World War I. He was then convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison, and disenfranchised for life—even though American president Warren G. Harding commuted his sentence in 1921. (While in prison, Debs received over 900,000 votes for president in 1920—the highest ever for a socialist candidate.) But at his sentencing hearing in 1919, Debs said these words, which resonate today:

“Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the Earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”

Larry Wartels is a local activist who believes freedom has no politics. He also volunteers for criticalresistance.org, a prison-abolition organization founded by Angela Davis. E-mail freeusall1[at]gmail.com for more information.

Judge denies motions in Annie Mae Aquash murder case April 30, 2009

Judge denies motions in Annie Mae Aquash murder case

By Heidi Bell Gease, Rapid City Journal staff | Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The Bureau of Indian Affairs does not have to disclose information on any investigation of what a defense attorney says was an improper relationship between a government informant and the lead investigator in the 1975 slaying of American Indian Movement activist Annie Mae Aquash, a judge has ruled.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Veronica Duffy also denied a request by Richard “Dickie” Marshall’s defense attorney asking that federal prosecutors provide inmate records for Arlo Looking Cloud, who was convicted in 2004 of Aquash’s death and is serving a life sentence.

Marshall, 57, and John Graham, 52, are scheduled to go on trial in U.S. District Court May 12 for the murder of Aquash, whose body was found on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in February 1976.

According to federal court documents, prosecutors say they don’t have inmate files for Looking Cloud, nor do they have evidence of any complaint or investigation of alleged misconduct between former U.S. Marshall Robert Ecoffey and a female witness with the code name “Maverick.”

Duffy wrote that prosecutors are not required to obtain documents for the defense if those agencies are not acting on behalf of the government.

Defense attorney Dana Hanna had also requested records regarding what he called an “improper relationship” between Ecoffey and Maverick, saying that evidence of an investigation or sanctions would “impeach the credibility of Ecoffey and the integrity of the government’s investigation of the facts of this case.”

Duffy denied the request, writing that “the key fact which has the possibility of reflecting on the credibility of the witnesses is the fact of the relationship itself, not any action that may have been taken by Mr. Ecoffey’s employer when faced with evidence of the relationship at some later date.” Hanna can cross-examine Ecoffey regarding the issue, she said.

Duffy will allow defense attorneys to review Maverick’s criminal record. The trial court would then determine whether any information on that criminal record is admissible at trial.

If convicted Marshall and Graham face life in prison.

AIM case awaits several rulings April 30, 2009

AIM case awaits several rulings

By Carson Walker, Associated Press Writer | Saturday, April 25, 2009

SIOUX FALLS — Federal judges in Sioux Falls and St. Louis have pending before them several decisions that could again change the criminal case against two men charged with killing or aiding the murder of a Canadian woman 33 years ago — including a chance the case against one of them could be tried in state court.

John Graham and Richard Marshall are scheduled to stand trial May 12 in Rapid City on federal charges they committed or aided and abetted the December 1975 murder of Annie Mae Aquash on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Marshall, a Lakota from Pine Ridge, was indicted in August, five years after Graham and Arlo Looking Cloud were charged.

Looking Cloud, also a Lakota from South Dakota who was living in Denver, was convicted in 2004 for his role in Aquash’s murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Witnesses said he, Graham and another AIM member drove Aquash from Denver and that Graham shot Aquash on orders from AIM leaders who suspected she was a government informant. Prosecutors accuse Marshall of providing the revolver and shells.

Days before Graham’s trial was to start in October, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol threw out the indictment because it didn’t show that either Graham or Aquash belonged to a federally recognized American Indian tribe. Tribal status gives the federal government jurisdiction in the case.

Graham is from the Tsimshian Tribe [Graham is from the Tutchone not the Tsimshian] in the Yukon and fought his return in British Columbia for more than four years before he was extradited in December 2007.

Aquash was a member of Mi’kmaq Tribe of Nova Scotia.

After Piersol dismissed the 2003 indictment, federal prosecutors re-indicted Graham and Marshall, combined their case and appealed the ruling. A three-judge panel with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals in St. Louis heard oral arguments on it April 15.

U.S. Attorney Marty Jackley argued the law does not require Graham to be an American Indian because co-defendant Looking Cloud belongs to a federally recognized tribe.

“We may not know and be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt who actually pulled the trigger. But these two, in concert, joined in a criminal venture to murder Aquash. And they did that on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Thus, this court has jurisdiction,” he said.

But Graham’s lawyer, John Murphy, said nothing in statute allows an aider and abetter to be tried in federal court if the person does not belong to a federally recognized tribe. Since Graham is Canadian, the U.S. does not have jurisdiction, he said.

“Congress very clearly was trying to create a very narrow class of cases that permit the federal government to exercise exclusive jurisdiction. They said, ‘Indian defendants,’” Murphy said.

“Non-Indians are not subject to federal prosecution.”

Murphy said during the hearing it’s possible Piersol will wait on a ruling from the 8th Circuit before deciding whether to dismiss the new charges — something he and Marshall’s lawyer have requested.

Murphy also asked the court to dismiss the government’s appeal.

If the dismissal of the 2003 indictments stands, one of the three counts in the 2008 indictment could also be dismissed because it deals with Graham’s Indian status.

And though unlikely, Jackley and Murphy also acknowledged during the hearing that the case against Graham could ultimately end up in state court if the appeals court concludes the U.S. does not have jurisdiction.

South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long affirmed that possibility.

“If the 8th (Circuit) agrees with the district court, what they have to conclude is the perpetrator and victim are Canadians and therefore do not meet the American Indian definition and therefore it is a non-Indian on non-Indian crime committed in Indian Country,” he said.

“Then jurisdiction lies with the state and not the feds.”

8th Circuit hears Indian status appeal in Aquash case April 16, 2009

Government Attorney Marty Jackley admitted during arguments before the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on April 15, 2009, that the government might not be able to prove who pulled the trigger in the murder of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash.

You can listen online or download an MP3 of the oral arguments here.

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8th Circuit hears Indian status appeal in Aquash case

Thursday, April 16, 2009
Indianz.com
Filed Under: Law

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on Wednesday in the case of a man who is accused of murdering American Indian Movement activist Anna Mae Pictou Aquash.

John Graham is from the Southern Tutchone First Nation in Canada. Since he isn’t a member of a federally-recognized U.S. tribe, he says he can’t be tried in federal court for the December 1975 murder of Aquash.

A federal judge agreed and dismissed the indictment because it didn’t lay out Graham’s “Indian” status. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Dakota appealed that decision and filed a second indictment that links Graham to another defendant, Richard Marshall, who is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

Based on the oral argument, the 8th Circuit judges appeared to disagree with U.S. Attorney Marty Jackley’s interpretation of federal criminal laws affecting Indian Country. They said Graham’s “Indian” status was not specified in the first indictment against him.

At least one judge was concerned that the first indictment did not specify Aquash’s status as an “Indian” either. She was Mi’kmaq from Canada.

Although the second indictment is not before the court, the judges appeared to be concerned about it and whether Graham can be indicted in federal court for aiding and abetting other Indians.

If the federal court lacks jurisdiction, Graham’s attorney said his client can be charge in state court for Aquash’s murder.

You can download an MP3 of the oral argument here.

In related news, a federal judge refused to release Marshall from jail before the May 12 murder trial.

Attorney seeks information on witnesses ‘improper relationship’ in AIM shooting case April 1, 2009

Attorney seeks information on witnesses ‘improper relationship’ in AIM shooting case
Lawyer says investigator, informant were romantically involved

By Heidi Bell Gease, Rapid City Journal staff | Wednesday, April 01, 2009

The attorney for a man charged in the 1975 slaying of Annie Mae Aquash wants to know whether the federal government investigated what he says was an improper and unethical relationship between the supervising investigator and a government informant in the case.

Richard “Dickie” Marshall, 57, and John Graham, 52, are to stand trial beginning May 12 in U.S. District Court on charges they killed Aquash, a fellow American Indian Movement activist. Her body was found on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in February 1976.

In a motion filed Tuesday, Marshall’s attorney, Dana Hanna, asked prosecutors to provide him with information about any investigation or sanctions against investigator Robert Ecoffey related to an alleged “improper relationship” with an unidentified female informant code-named “Maverick.” Hanna claimed the woman had a felony record and “deep involvement in the events leading to the murder of Anna Mae Aquash.”

Hanna’s motion said such a relationship is “universally considered unprofessional and unethical conduct by federal law enforcement officials and … likely to undermine the objectivity of the investigator and the integrity of the investigation.”

Hanna also is requesting federal Bureau of Prisons information about Arlo Looking Cloud’s criminal history, mental disorders, chronic drug abuse and alcohol addiction that might make him a less credible witness. Looking Cloud was convicted of Aquash’s murder and sentenced to life in prison.

In the motion, Hanna speculates that “Looking Cloud enjoys a reasonable hope or expectation of having his conviction set aside as a result of his cooperation and testimony with the government.”