A federal jury deliberated for less than two hours Thursday before finding Vine Richard “Dickie” Marshall not guilty of murder in connection with the 1975 slaying of American Indian Movement activist Annie Mae Aquash.

Marshall’s supporters, who filled one side of the U.S. District courtroom, erupted in cheers and applause when the verdict was read about 2 p.m. Marshall stood and hugged Dana Hanna, his court-appointed attorney.

Afterward, Hanna noted that people have said a Native American cannot get a fair trial in front of an all-white jury in South Dakota. “We have proved them wrong today,” he said.

Prosecutors had tried to prove that Marshall, 59, provided the handgun used to kill Aquash, who some in AIM believed was a government informant.

Arlo Looking Cloud, who was convicted in 2004 of her murder and is serving life in prison, was the government’s key witness. After years of denying that he, John Graham, Theda Clarke and Aquash had stopped at Marshall’s home in Allen just hours before Aquash was killed near Wanblee, Looking Cloud came forward in 2008 to say they had stopped in Allen and that Marshall had given them a handgun.

On the witness stand last week, Looking Cloud claimed he did not tell the story sooner because he was afraid of Marshall.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Mandel suggested to jurors that there was another reason Looking Cloud didn’t talk sooner. If he had mentioned going to Marshall’s to get a gun, Looking Cloud would have been admitting he knew Aquash would be killed, Mandel said.

Mandel cited evidence that Clarke had given Graham a note that read something like, “take care of this baggage.”

“Folks, there wasn’t any baggage,” he said. “There was only a human being they wanted taken care of, and that was Annie Mae Pictou … ‘Take care of it?’ Hey, you can draw your own conclusions as to what that meant.”

In order for Marshall to be convicted, federal prosecutors had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he had both provided the gun and known it would be used to kill Aquash. Hanna suggested in his closing arguments that the government had proven neither.

“This case of the government consists of the words that came out of Arlo Looking Cloud’s mouth and Serle Chapman’s mouth,” neither of which Hanna said were credible.

Hanna argued that Looking Cloud made up the story about Marshall in hopes of getting out of prison and because Looking Cloud believed Marshall had “ratted him out” to investigators.

And Hanna questioned why Chapman, a British writer, did not tell investigators until 2008 about an unrecorded conversation in which he said he asked Marshall about the gun.

continued at RAPID CITY JOURNAL

Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com