Looking Cloud Relieves Lawyer

CBC World News:

Lawyer asks to withdraw as counsel for man convicted in AIM death
09:54:43 EST Dec 15, 2005

CARSON WALKER

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – A Cleveland lawyer representing a man convicted of killing American Indian Movement activist Anna Mae Pictou Aquash in 1975 wants to be taken off the case.

Terry Gilbert represents Arlo Looking Cloud, who received a mandatory life sentence after a Rapid City jury convicted him last year of first-degree murder of the Canadian woman committed in the perpetration of a kidnapping. He could qualify for parole after 10 years.

Gilbert started representing Looking Cloud after the trial. A three-member federal appeals court has since upheld Looking Cloud’s conviction and denied his request for a rehearing.

According to a motion filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, Gilbert wrote that his request is based on a letter from Looking Cloud.

In that handwritten note, dated Oct. 23, Looking Cloud wrote: “I am sorry, but I cannot continue as you being my counsel. Please file a formal motion to withdraw as my attorney. Thank you for your time and consideration.”

Looking Cloud, 52, is now at a federal prison in Atwater, Calif., according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Another man charged in connection with Aquash’s killing, John Graham, is free on bail in Vancouver, at least until June. He is fighting extradition to South Dakota to stand trial.

Aquash, a Mi’kmaq from Nova Scotia, was shot in the back of the head at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where her body was discovered on Feb. 24, 1976.

Her death came amid a string of bloody clashes between federal agents and AIM. She was among the Indians who occupied the village of Wounded Knee for 71 days in 1973.

Graham, a Yukon native arrested in December 2003, claims he had nothing to do with Aquash’s death.

Prosecutors said AIM leaders ordered Aquash’s killing late in 1975 because they suspected she was a government informant. AIM leaders denied the accusation and blamed the government for her death.