AIM case hearing set for December

| Tuesday, November 02, 2004

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — An American Indian Movement activist charged with murder in South Dakota almost 30 years ago may learn more next month about the strength of the U.S. case against him.

John Graham is charged with first-degree murder in the 1975 killing of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, a fellow AIM member, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Another man, Arlo Looking Cloud, was convicted in February and was sentenced to life in prison.

Witnesses at Looking Cloud's trial testified that Graham shot Pictou Aquash in the back of the head as she begged for her life.

Graham pleaded not guilty and is fighting extradition. He is out on bail with strict conditions.

More than two weeks have been set aside for his extradition hearing in December. On Monday, lawyers were in court to make final arrangements for arguments related to that hearing.

Graham's lawyer, Terry LaLiberte, told Justice Elizabeth Bennett he will make an argument for fuller disclosure of evidence as well as a challenge to whether Canada's Extradition Act can allow hearsay evidence.

"I don't trust their client," LaLiberte told Bennett, referring to the U.S. government, which is represented in court by a federal Justice Department lawyer, Deborah Strachan.

Outside court, LaLiberte said he has been provided with an "overview" of the United States' case against Graham but he wants to know more fully "what they are going to rely on."

Aquash's death came amid a series of bloody clashes between federal agents and AIM, which called for treaty rights and self-determination for Indians.

Aquash, a Mi'kmaq from Nova Scotia, was among the Indian militants who occupied the village of Wounded Knee for 71 days in 1973.

Aquash's family exhumed her body last month from a South Dakota grave so she could be reburied in Nova Scotia.