11) JOHN GRAHAM CONTINUES STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE
Special to PV
Refusing to give up despite his conviction in an unfair trial, Tuchone native John Graham is carrying on his struggle for justice, supported by his family and friends. A May 15 statement issued by Graham from his South Dakota jail cell says that his lawyer has filed appeals of the conviction and life sentence.
Last December 10, a jury found Graham guilty in the death of American Indian Movement (AIM) member Anna Mae Aquash, the victim of an execution-style killing in South Dakota.
Graham, originally from Yukon, and Nova Scotia-born Aquash worked closely together in AIM before her murder 35 years ago. During that period, the FBI and pro-business elements of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation were conducting a war against AIM members and other "traditionals". Dozens of people were killed during the mid-1970s by cops and goon squads, but those deaths have never been given serious police attention.
One common FBI tactic, used in other operations against progressive and radical movements, was known as "snitch-jacketing." This refers to spreading rumours that individuals were informants, a tactic which often created serious divisions. It appears that Anna Mae Aquash, seen by the U.S. state as a powerful figure within AIM, may have been a target of this tactic. The circumstances of her death may also point to a more direct form of involvement by FBI undercover agents. In either case, the murder and later events fanned suspicions within the AIM leadership.
One obvious factor in the Bureau's long campaign to destroy AIM is the 1975 killing of two FBI agents during a disastrous raid at the Jumping Bull ranch in South Dakota, where AIM members and traditionals were staying to avoid the violence sweeping the area. AIM leader Leonard Peltier was convicted in these deaths, following his extradition from Canada and a kangaroo-court trial. Peltier remains in prison to this day, despite revelations that evidence against him was fabricated.
The FBI was determined to get revenge against AIM. Since then, a tangled web of lies, accusations and betrayals has accumulated. Aquash told friends that she had refused an FBI offer to testify against Peltier, who himself rejected promises of freedom in return for testifying that Graham was responsible for the murder of Aquash. Graham says that while living back in Yukon, on four occasions police threatened that unless he testified that AIM leaders were implicated in the murder of Aquash, he would himself face charges.
Those charges were brought against Graham a decade ago. His attempts to fight extradition failed when the Canadian government refused to lift a finger to protect his legal rights.
In 2004, Arlo Looking Cloud, a man with a long history of substance abuse, was convicted of murder for aiding in the murder of Aquash. He received a life sentence with a chance of parole in 2013. Last year, Richard Marshall was acquitted on the charge of supplying the gun that killed Aquash. Looking Cloud testified against both Marshall and Graham.
Another former AIM member, Thelma Rios, pleaded guilty in November 2010 to charges of aiding and abetting, for which she received five years of probation and no jail time. Rios claimed that John Graham took Aquash from Denver and killed her in the hills of South Dakota.
Observers at the Graham trial say it was "riddled with inconsistencies." Witnesses contradicted each another about the kidnapping in Denver, for example, but these were dismissed by the prosecution as a problem of "degraded memory." The case was based on verbal testimony, not material evidence.
Several witnesses had strong FBI connections. Darlene Ecoffey (formerly Kamook Banks) is the wife of Robert Ecoffey, the lead investigator of Aquash's murder and present superintendent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs on Pine Ridge. Ecoffey has admitted to being paid over $40,000 for her activities as an FBI informant. Angie Janis, who claimed she was at the house in Denver when Anna Mae was "kidnapped", works as a secretary at the Pine Ridge BIA. Her boss is Robert Ecoffey. Testimony was also heard from other FBI and BIA agents.
The defense rested its case without calling a single witness. Defense lawyer John Murphy twice asked Judge Jack Delaney to dismiss the charges against Graham, arguing that prosecutors had not proven their case. But his motions were denied.
The May 15 statement by John Graham reads:
"After a week long trial and several inconsistent and contradicting prosecution witnesses, and the defense calling no witnesses, a South Dakota jury found me NOT GUILTY OF PREMEDITATED 1975 MURDER OF ANNA MAE AQUASH. After totally contradicting testimonies about the alleged kidnapping from Denver the same South Dakota jury found me guilty of the lesser charge of felony murder kidnapping. In felony murder cases the prosecution does not have to prove that the accused actually killed anyone. Instead the accused is found criminally liable for any deaths that occurred during or in furtherance of a felony. In this case the felony is the kidnapping charge. The murder having taken place in 1975, more than 35 years ago, the many contradictions in testimony were explained by the prosecution as a problem of degraded memory. Their entire case rested on verbal testimony without a shred of material or factual evidence. My defense motion for dismissal of charges, because the prosecution failed to prove their case, was denied by judge Jack Delaney. Felony murder carries the same sentence as premeditated murder so the judge had no alternative but to sentence me to life with no possibility of parole. My lawyer filed an appeal on both the sentence and conviction. The trial transcript will be posted on my website in the very near future."
For more information, see these websites: http://ourfreedom.wordpress.com, http://www.grahamdefense.org.
(The above article is from the June 16-30, 2011, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)