SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A Denver man convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the 1975 shooting death of an American Indian Movement activist has had his federal prison sentence reduced from life to 20 years, federal court documents show.
In February 2004, a federal jury in Rapid City, S.D., convicted Arlo Looking Cloud, 58, in the slaying of fellow AIM activist Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, a 30-year-old member of the Mi’kmaq tribe of Nova Scotia.
He was sentenced to a mandatory life prison term.
But Looking Cloud in December testified for state prosecutors against co-conspirator John Graham, whom jurors convicted of felony murder.
A series of court filings in Looking Cloud’s federal case since March have been sealed, but documents show that U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol signed an order in August reducing Looking Cloud’s sentence.
Aquash’s frozen body was found in February 1976 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
