Sioux Falls, South Dakota (AP/ICC) 9-08
A judge has been asked to decide whether the jury in the murder trial of John Graham can hear evidence from several witnesses that he raped Canadian aboriginal activist Annie Mae Aquash before allegedly shooting her to death three decades ago.
In a court filing, federal prosecutors claim they are legally entitled to show jurors testimony that Graham, also a Canadian, acknowledged the rape to other witnesses.
Graham's trial on a charge of first-degree murder in the 1975 slaying of Aquash, a Mi'kmaq from Pictou, N.S., and a fellow member of the American Indian Movement, starts Oct. 6 in federal court in Rapid City, S.D.
He's one of three AIM members indicted. One of them, Arlo Looking Cloud was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to a mandatory life prison term. The other, Richard Marshall, is scheduled to go on trial Feb. 24 in Sioux Falls on a charge of aiding and abetting.
