[news] Fw: Update on Annie Mae's case

[sharai]

-----Original Message-----
From: John Boncore <splitting_the_sky at yahoo.com>
To: Harvey Arden <roadjumper at earthlink.net>
Date: Monday, February 02, 2004 7:04 PM
Subject: Fwd: Update on Annie Mae's case




Ellen Gabriel <ellen.gabriel at mcgill.ca> wrote: 
  Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2004 12:31:13 -0500
  From: Ellen Gabriel 
  Subject: Update on Annie Mae's case



  >
  > FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
  > Indigenous Women Challenge Man Indicted for
  > Anna Mae's Murder to take Lie-Detector
  > Friday 30, January, 2004
  >
  > The Indigenous Women for Justice (IWJ), a US based Native women's
  > advocacy group, today challenged John Boy Graham, one of the two men
  > indicted for the first-degree murder of Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash, to
  > take a polygraph to be conducted by an independent examiner. The IWJ
  > sent their invitation to Graham via his attorney, Terry LaLiberte.
  > Graham, a one-time American Indian Movement (AIM) subordinate, was
  > indicted for Aquash's murder by a federal grand jury in March 2003,
  > along with Arlo Looking Cloud. Since being apprehended in December
  > 2003, Graham's family and friends have created a website to recruit
  > supporters and raise funds to oppose Graham's extradition to the US to
  > face trial. The basis for Graham's fundraising activities is his
  > insistence that he is innocent, but the IWJ has produced a document
  > entitled, "The Lies of John Graham," to counter Graham's claims.
  >
  > "The Lies of John Graham" can be viewed at
  > www.indigenouswomenforjustice.org. "The Lies of John Graham" is
  > compiled from on-the-record, recorded interviews with AIM leaders,
  > members, and individuals connected to the Aquash murder case, along
  > with written testimonials and transcripts. Graham conducted one of the
  > recorded interviews, and should Graham directly question the
  > credibility of the statements attributed to him, or others, in "The
  > Lies of John Graham," the IWJ will air those recorded statements.
  > Letter to LaLiberte
  > January 30, 2004
  >
  > Violence against women, the lifegivers, is not traditional. Mental,
  > physical, and sexual abuse against indigenous women is rampant
  > throughout our communities. Our sister, Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash,
  > suffered all of those brutal indignities in the last 36-hours of her
  > life. Even at the last, as she was forced to kneel before her
  > executioners, her thoughts were not for herself; her thoughts and
  > prayers were for her daughters. Anna Mae is an indigenous mother
  > still. How do we know what happened to Anna Mae? Because IWJ members
  > were silent witnesses who are silent no more. If John Graham has been
  > wrongly indicted for her murder, the IWJ see no reason why he would
  > not consent to a polygraph, for if he is truly innocent, what does he
  > have to fear?
  >
  > Indigenous Women for Justice also call on Graham's attorney, Terry
  > LaLiberte, to either retract or amend the factually inaccurate and
  > misleading statement attributed to him in yesterday's press. LaLiberte
  > is quoted as saying, "There's no evidence. There's no bullets. There's
  > no gun. There's no DNA." Dr. Garry Peterson removed a .32 caliber slug
  > from Anna Mae's head to establish the cause of death, so clearly there
  > is a bullet.[3a771b.jpg] Anna Mae's body was found fully clothed, and
  > forensic pathology was able to establish from traces of semen in Anna
  > Mae's underwear that she had either had intercourse, or been raped,
  > shortly before she was killed. Eye-witness testimony indicates that
  > Graham raped Anna Mae. The US has until the end of January to file its
  > extradition documents, so it is unlikely that LaLiberte will have seen
  > those documents, and therefore he cannot give a sound appraisal of the
  > content. LaLiberte should explain that, under extradition treaty
  > between the US and Canada, the US does not have to present all of the
  > evidence against Graham, they only need to provide a summary. An
  > extradition hearing is not a trial, and LaLiberte should know that
  > murder cases do not stand or fall on forensic evidence alone, but on a
  > body of evidence as a whole. Again, if he is so confident of his
  > client's innocence, he should have no objections to him taking a
  > lie-detector test.
  >
  > With all of the controversy, propaganda, and intimidation that has
  > surrounded Anna Mae's death, if this case can be resolved then it
  > might provide hope for others who lost loved ones during that era, and
  > who are still awaiting closure. If Anna Mae Pictou-Aquashs life is
  > expendable, where does it end? Are we to believe that the lives of all
  > young Indian mother's are expendable? Or should we just accept that a
  > handful of men associated with AIM have the right to decide who lives
  > or dies, and that it's okay to take an Indian woman's life as long as
  > her executioners are Indian? The IWJ do not believe that Anna Mae
  > Pictou-Aquash's life is expendable; we do not believe that any woman's
  > life is expendable. This isn't a battle between what's left of AIM and
  > the FBI, this is a struggle to bring justice for one of our sisters
  > who was kidnapped, brutalized, and murdered.
  >
  > Violence against women is not traditional, and the Indigenous Women
  > for Justice urges Canada to extradite John Graham to face trial for
  > the charge on which he is indicted, the first-degree murder of a
  > Canadian citizen and First Nation mother, Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash.
  >
  > For further information contact www.indigenouswomenforjustice.org
  >
  > The IWJ is a unity sisterhood of women from indigenous nations located
  >
  > in what is
  > commonly called the United States and Canada.
  > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  > The IWJ can be contacted at: sisters at indigenouswomenforjustice.org
  >
  --

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Katsi'tsakwas Ellen Gabriel
  3505 Peel,
  Montreal, Quebec
  H3A 1W7
  phone: 514-398-3217
  fax: 514-398-8169
  www.mcgill.ca/fph/
  ===============================================================




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