Page 24 - Flathead Beacon // 6.15.16

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JUNE 15, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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1. Supreme Court Rejects Request to
Review Glacier Park Murder Case
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal to review the case a Kalispell woman convicted of killing her husband in Glacier National Park.
The high court on Monday published its list of petitions seeking review and included the case of Jordan Linn Graham among its denials.
On May 5, an attorney for Graham led a writ of certiorari with the high court seeking a review of her 2013 conviction. Graham’s previous appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was denied.
In July 2013, Graham pushed her hus- band of seven days, Cody Lee Johnson, o a cli near Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier Park. Graham initially tried to cover up the death, telling friends and family that the couple had gotten into a ght and he left her.
Graham was later charged with rst- and second-degree murder and making false statements to law enforcement. On the fourth day of her trial in Decem- ber 2013, Graham agreed to a deal and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. In March 2014, she was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Soon after her sentencing, Federal Public Defender Michael Donahoe led an appeal arguing that Graham’s sen- tence was extreme.
Graham remains incarcerated at a fed- eral prison in Alabama.
APGAR VILLAGE
2. Black Bear Euthanized in Glacier
National Park
Rangers in Glacier National Park euth- anized a black bear on June 9 in Apgar Village, after several reports that the bear exhibited food-conditioned behaviors.
On Tuesday, June 7, the bear, weighing approximately 100 pounds, was involved in an incident at Fish Creek Campground in which the bear grabbed food out of an open vehicle trunk at an occupied camp- site while campers were eating at a pic- nic table a few feet away. The bear ate the
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food and left the area. Park rangers set a trap for the bear but the bear was not caught.
Then on Thursday, June 9, several peo- ple reported seeing the bear in Apgar Vil- lage, a populated area on the west side of the park. The bear didn’t seem phased by human presence, the park reported, and rangers called to the scene determined the bear was conditioned to human food.
The bear had an orange ear tag from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks iden- tifying him as having been captured before. According to FWP records, the bear was captured at Stanton Lake Lodge on June 5, 2015 for getting into garbage. The bear was two-and-a-half years old at the time and was relocated to Big Creek, 26 air miles away. There had been no fur- ther incidents with this bear until this week’s incidents in Glacier National Park.
PABLO
3. Legislation Drafted for Transfer of
Bison Range
The Confederated Salish and Koote- nai Tribes have drafted legislation for returning the National Bison Range to federal trust ownership.
The agreement comes after a lawsuit was led challenging the transfer of the lands and control of the bison, saying more research is needed.
A Bison Range Working Group has been formed to work on the project. The tribes are asking Montana’s congres- sional delegation to introduce a bill, but there has been no agreement on the leg- islation, the Missoulian reported.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told tribal chairman Vernon Finley in Febru- ary that it would support a transfer, but a lawsuit has been led that says more research is needed.
One issue hanging over the pending agreement is funding.
“The Fish and Wildlife Service made clear that, once it leaves the National Refuge System, there would be no fund- ing coming to operate it,” tribal spokes- man Rob McDonald told the Missoulian. “All operating costs would fall upon the tribes.”
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