RAPID CITY, S.D. — A man was convicted Friday in the decades-old killing of an American Indian Movement activist whose death came to symbolize the group’s often violent struggles with federal agents during the 1970s.
The jury found John Graham guilty of felony murder during the kidnapping of Annie Mae Aquash, 30, but acquitted him of premeditated murder.
Attorney General Marty Jackley, who prosecuted the case, said both murder charges carried a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
Prosecutors alleged Graham and two other AIM activists killed Aquash because they thought she was a government informant. Graham’s attorney, John Murphy, didn’t call any witnesses but questioned the reliability of several prosecution witnesses.
Jurors took a day and a half to return their verdicts for Graham, a 55-year-old Southern Tutchone Indian from Canada, after briefly telling the judge late Friday that they had deadlocked on one of the charges. They soon returned with decision on both counts.
During five days of testimony, prosecution witnesses testified they saw Graham and two other AIM supporters, Arlo Looking Cloud and Theda Clark, tie Aquash’s hands and place her in the back of a Ford Pinto. The three took Aquash from Denver toward the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, witnesses testified.
A key prosecution witness was Looking Cloud, who was convicted six years ago for his role in Aquash’s murder and is serving life in prison. Looking Cloud said he stood nearby as Graham shot Aquash.
Former U.S. Marshal Robert Ecoffey and Bureau of Indian Affairs agent Mitch Pourier said they saw Graham become nervous and talk about going to jail after they asked him about the murder in 1994.
The defense called no witnesses. Instead, Murphy questioned several prosecution witnesses — particularly Looking Cloud — on conflicts between their testimony and previous statements. Murphy accused Looking Cloud of embellishing his story for a more lenient prison sentence.
The conviction comes after an investigation that started shortly after Aquash’s body was found in February 1976.
Aquash was a member of the Mi’kmaq tribe of Nova Scotia. Her death came about two years after she participated in AIM’s 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee, S.D.
