[Ppnews] FBI loses trial against former AIM member Richard Marshall

Thu May 13 15:49:20 EDT 2010

BLOG POST posted on May 12, 2010 by 
<http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/user/1059>oshipeya

http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/blog/oshipeya/3397

Blog posts are the work of individual contributors, reflecting their 
thoughts, opinions and research.

FBI loses trial against former American Indian Movement member Richard Marshall

Richard Marshall found not guilty of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash murder

Vancouver resident John Graham's trial set for July 6

By Oshipeya
Coast Salish Territory, Vancouver, Canada
May 12, 2010

An all-White jury in Rapid City, South Dakota, took less than two 
hours on April 22 to return a not-guilty verdict in the trial of 
former American Indian Movement (AIM) member Richard Marshall (of the 
Lakota Nation) in connection to the murder of fellow AIM member Anna 
Mae Pictou Aquash. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) claimed 
Marshall supplied the gun used to kill Aquash.

Aquash was a Mi'kmaq from Nova Scotia and a skilled organizer and 
warrior with AIM who was targeted and threatened with death by the 
FBI. When her body was found on the Pine Ridge reservation in South 
Dakota in February of 1976, the FBI tried to cover-up her identity 
and true cause of death by having her buried as an unknown "Jane Doe" 
who had supposedly died of exposure, despite an obvious bullet hole 
wound to her head. A second autopsy requested by family members 
revealed the murder. At the time, an FBI-supported death squad made 
up mostly of reservation police officers had killed some 60 members 
of AIM and traditional Lakota people on Pine Ridge. Other death squad 
murders had also been passed-off as death by exposure by the FBI's 
pathologist and were not investigated.

As Aquash's murder was exposed, the FBI told the media that AIM might 
have killed her because they suspected she was an informant. This was 
despite the fact that AIM never harmed confirmed FBI informants such 
as Douglass Durham, who had been AIM's head of security.

One Pine Ridge cop and death squad member, Duane Brewer, even 
admitted in an interview that his fellow cop and death squad member, 
Paul Herman, may have killed Aquash. Herman had killed a teenage 
Lakota girl, Sandra Wounded Foot, in the same way, shooting her in 
the head and dumping her body in a remote part of the reservation. 
Instead of being charged with murder, Herman was charged with 
voluntary manslaughter and only sentenced to 10 years in prison for 
killing Wounded Foot. Herman was one of the cops on the scene when 
Aquash's body was found.

The FBI's case against Richard Marshall faltered at trial when their 
star witness, Arlo Looking Cloud of Pine Ridge, who was convicted in 
2004 of aiding in the murder of Aquash, repeatedly contradicted his 
prior statements to law enforcement officers and those made by other 
people during his 2004 trial. He also admitted to repeatedly lying to 
law enforcement, as well as years of drug and alcohol abuse. 
Additionally, government offers of reduced jail time for testifying 
against AIM members were revealed.

The jury also did not believe the testimony of two paid FBI 
informants, journalist Serle Chapman and former AIM member Darlene 
Ecoffey (formerly Kamook Banks or Darlene Nichols), who had obvious 
financial motivation to lie about others. Nichols has been married 
for several years now to the primary investigator of the case, cop 
and former death squad member Robert Ecoffey.

Vancouver resident John Graham, a Southern Tutchone Nation member 
originally from the Yukon, is facing trial in July over the Aquash 
murder. He was formerly Richard Marshall's co-accused but had his 
case separated and moved to South Dakota State court because the US 
federal government was shown by his lawyer to not have jurisdiction 
over him regarding a crime allegedly committed on the reservation. 
Graham's new co-accused is fellow former AIM member, Thelma Rios, and 
the trial is scheduled to start July 6.

Arlo Looking Cloud has been expected to be the government's star 
witness against Graham as well, but his total lack of credibility as 
further shown in Marshall's trial brings into question how 
effectively the FBI will be able to use him from now on. A tape 
recorded conversation released to Graham's defense also revealed that 
when asked who he should blame for the murder, Looking Cloud was 
explicitly told by Nichols to point the finger at Graham, further 
illustrating the FBI's frame-up attempt.

The validity of Graham's extradition from Vancouver to a South Dakota 
prison was recently called into question by his lawyer when a 
government document was newly revealed advising prosecutors that in 
this case they did not have federal jurisdiction, which they 
willfully ignored and concealed from the defense.

AIM member Leonard Peltier was extradited from Vancouver to the US 
based on fraudulent affidavits in 1976 and has made several public 
statements on the Aquash and Graham case and its connection to his 
own (which can be found at ourfreedom.wordpress.com). Peltier has 
said that he never took seriously the rumor that Aquash was an 
informant and that he believes she was killed because she was a 
skilled organizer and leader for indigenous people.

In 2009, then government attorney Marty Jackley admitted to the 8th 
Circuit Court of Appeals that the government might not be able to 
prove who pulled the trigger in the murder of Aquash. Jackley has 
since become the Attorney General of South Dakota.

The FBI is clearly trying to smear AIM and indigenous resistance 
while covering up their own deadly campaign of repression.

Graham's family and legal defense campaign are in desperate need of 
funds to pay Graham's lawyer and the expenses of witnesses to travel 
to South Dakota.

For more information see the following websites:

<http://ourfreedom.wordpress.com>http://ourfreedom.wordpress.com

http://www.grahamdefense.org

To send funds in support contact:

grahamdefense(at)hotmail.com

Fran Asp
15 Firth Road
Whitehorse, Yukon

Y1A 4R5
Canada
Tel: (867) 633-3513

* Secretary Treasurer (sister of John Graham),
John Graham Defense Committee.

To write to John in prison:

John Graham
Pennington County Jail
307 St. Joseph Street
Rapid City, SD 57701
USA

Article references:

The Life and Death of Anna Mae Aquash by Johanna Brand

Court Docket at 
<http://grahamdefense.org/courtdocs/index.htm>http://grahamdefense.org/courtdocs/index.htm

Kevin McKiernan interview of Duane Brewer, quoted by Ward Churchill:

<http://books.google.ca/books?id=nrCWZZJD48MC&pg=PA249>http://books.google.ca/books?id=nrCWZZJD48MC&pg=PA249

Rapid City Journal & Black Hills Fox News

Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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