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Thread: Ronald Allen Smith - Montana Death Row

  1. #61
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Final brief on lethal injections with judge; could affect fate of Ronald Smith

    By Bill Graveland
    The Canadian Press

    CALGARY – A ruling by a Montana judge is a step closer on whether the state can take a shortcut in its attempt to get approval to change the way it carries out executions.

    Ron Waterman, lead lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, says the group has filed its final brief in a court challenge that could ultimately affect the fate of Canadian Ronald Smith.

    Smith, originally from Red Deer, Alta., is on death row in Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge for murdering two men in 1982.

    The civil liberties group filed a lawsuit in 2008 on behalf of Smith and another death-row inmate that argued the lethal injections used in state executions are cruel and unusual punishment and violate the right to human dignity.

    Montana District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock ruled in September 2012 that the injections were unconstitutional. He pointed to a lack of training for individuals who administer the drugs and a discrepancy over whether two or three drugs should be used. He also questioned the method used to determine if an inmate is actually unconscious before receiving an injection.

    His ruling gave hope to Smith.

    But the Montana government convinced Sherlock to hear arguments from the state, which wants to bypass a requirement it would normally have to fill before getting the legislature’s approval to change the way executions are carried out.

    The case has been dragging on ever since.

    “They want to change the rules without going through the legislature and we’re saying not only can’t you change the rules without going through the legislature, but the way in which you changed the rules was totally incorrect,” Waterman said from Helena, Mont., in an interview with The Canadian Press on Friday.

    “You have to go through a rule-making process, which means giving notice to the public, giving opportunities to be heard before adopting a rule.”

    It’s now in the hands of Sherlock.

    “This is the final briefing. This now puts all of those issues before the district judge and the judge will render a decision maybe within a couple of months — sometime in March or April,” Waterman said.

    Smith, was convicted in 1983 for shooting Harvey Madman Jr. and Thomas Running Rabbit, while he was high on drugs and alcohol near East Glacier, Mont.

    He had been taking 30 to 40 hits of LSD and consuming between 12 and 18 beers a day at the time of the murders. He refused a plea deal that would have seen him avoid death row and spend the rest of his life in prison. Three weeks later, he pleaded guilty. He asked for and was given a death sentence.

    Smith later had a change of heart and has had a number of execution dates set and overturned.

    http://www.680news.com/2014/02/21/fi...-ronald-smith/

  2. #62
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    May 10, 2014

    Judge: Dispute over Montana execution drug will go to trial

    HELENA — A judge has upheld most of the changes Montana corrections officials made to execution methods after a legal challenge by two death-row inmates, but he said a dispute over one of the drugs used in lethal injections should be decided at trial.

    Montana last year changed its lethal-injection method from a combination of three drugs to two after District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock of Helena noted state law specifically called for two drugs to be used.

    Corrections officials also rewrote execution protocols so that one person with medical training administers the lethal mixture and another qualified person checks the inmate's consciousness.

    No executions have been performed in Montana since the changes.

    Attorneys for inmates Rodney Allen Smith and William J. Gollehon challenged the changes on multiple fronts, most of which Sherlock dismissed in Thursday's order.

    But one argument stuck — that the state's substitute for a drug no longer available in the U.S. for executions may not be adequate.

    The new procedure calls for an injection of sodium pentothal to put the inmate into a coma, followed by an injection of a paralytic agent called pancuronium bromide.

    Sodium pentothal is no longer manufactured in the U.S., and it can't be imported. The Department of Corrections said another barbiturate, pentobarbital, can be substituted for sodium pentothal.

    The plaintiffs argued that pentobarbital is not an "ultra-fast-acting" barbiturate that is required by state law to be administered in executions.

    Pentobarbital is fast-acting but there is a dispute about what the Legislature meant by using the words "ultra-fast-acting" and whether the drug meets that definition, Sherlock wrote, and that must be decided at trial.

    Sherlock wrote that other claims raised by the plaintiffs included absurd interpretations of the law, such as requiring the two drugs in the lethal blend to be mixed together instead of administered one after the other.

    Another suggestion by the plaintiffs that a one-drug execution would be more humane is ironic, Sherlock wrote, given the plaintiffs previously advocated for a two-drug procedure.

    Sherlock said he is mindful of the importance of a case involving the death penalty, but he told the plaintiffs this would be the last time he addresses new claims they bring up against the state's execution methods.

    "Plaintiffs cannot keep pointing out flaws in the (methods) only to have the state correct those flaws and then be faced with a new round of complaints that could have been addressed earlier," Sherlock wrote.

    http://missoulian.com/news/state-and...a4bcf887a.html

  3. #63
    Weidmann1939
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    "Plaintiffs cannot keep pointing out flaws in the (methods) only to have the state correct those flaws then be faced with a new round of complaints that could have been addressed earlier"
    A common sense shot over the bow, if ever I heard one.

  4. #64
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    Montana death row inmates await court decision over lethal injection

    Montana is not a state which executes prisoners on a regular basis. Only three people have been put to death since 1976.

    Since 1995, the state has used lethal injection as its method of capital punishment. Prior to that, it relied upon death by hanging.

    Lethal injection is becoming a hot-button issue across the country as more attention is placed on the drugs being used to execute prisoners. Just last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case over a drug that has been used in several botched executions.

    The case concerns a plea of death row inmates in Oklahoma to outlaw the sedative midazolam. Attorneys argue it is ineffective in preventing pain from other drugs used in lethal injections.

    Montana uses the sedative pentobarbital instead of midazolam in executions, but this drug is also at the center of a lawsuit which has stopped the state from being able to carry out capital punishment.

    The two men who sit on Montana's death row, Ronald Allen Smith and William Jay Gollehon, argue that pentobarbital is not "ultra" fast-acting and therefore, unconstitutional.

    “There's a huge amount of literature on this which talks about pentobarbital being fast-acting but not ultra fast-acting,” said Ron Waterman, the lead attorney for Smith and Gollehon.

    When the state's statute was originally written, sodium thiopental was still available. Sodium thiopental is considered an ultra fast-acting drug, but in 2011, the manufacturer of the drug ceased production and the state was forced to modify its lethal injection protocol.

    The revised method allowed for the substitution of pentobarbital,which in a press release dated August 15, 2011, Department of Corrections officials said had “survived court challenges and been used successfully in other states.”

    But Waterman argues that pentobarbital cannot be classified as ultra-fast acting. The attorney said most states have since modified their statutes to include a broader definition of which drugs can be used. But Montana is unique in that it's one of the few states that still have a requirement of the ultra-fast acting barbiturate.

    “We believe the state still does not have anyone that is willing to say pentobarbital is an ultra-fast acting barbiturate,” said Waterman. “If you don't administer an effective drug to bring about a death, then the paralytic agent will actually cause an individual to suffocate and that death would be a long, protracted suffocation death.”

    Waterman has been waging war over Montana's lethal injection protocol, on behalf of Smith and Gollehon, for the last seven years. But he's been entrenched in the issue for over two decades. He first got involved back in the 90's when his client, Duncan McKenzie, was put to death.

    “I was in the execution chamber with him at the time of his death,” said Waterman. “I had been morally opposed to the death penalty beforehand but became involved with that execution.”

    McKenzie was given the death sentence for the 1974 murder of schoolteacher Lana Harding in the small town of Conrad. When he was executed in 1995, it was the first time Montana used lethal injection and the first execution the state carried out in five decades.

    “We had a hanging execution in 1945, we then went 50 years before we had another execution with Duncan McKenzie,” said Waterman.

    Since then, the state has executed two more prisoners by lethal injection, Terry Langford in 1998 and David Dawson in 2006. Both men instructed their lawyers to stop all appeals and told the state they were ready to die.

    Waterman supports abolition of the death penalty, saying it no longer serves a purpose.

    “We've rarely used the death penalty, taking it off the books doesn't affect the criminal justice system at all. It just removes what's cruel and unusual,” he said.

    Bills to do away with the death penalty have been proposed in every state legislature since 1995, but have never succeeded. This year was the closest death penalty opponents have ever come, with HB 370 deadlocking in the House on a 50-50 vote.

    But Waterman is not relying on the state legislature to save his clients. A hearing in Smith vs. Batista is set for July and Waterman said he feels confident they will prevail in getting a permanent injunction against Montana's current lethal injection protocol.

    Whatever happens in court, Waterman realizes it's a matter of life or death for Smith and Gollehon.

    “For both of these individuals everything hinges on this case,” he said.

    We reached out to the Montana State Prison and Department of Corrections for comment. Both agencies referred us to the Attorney General's Office, where a spokesman said Tim Fox would not comment on pending litigation.

    http://www.ktvq.com/story/28971083/d...thal-injection

  5. #65
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    October 6, 2015

    Judge rejects execution drug in case of Canadian on death row

    By Bill Graveland
    The Canadian Press

    CALGARY -- A U.S. judge has rejected a request from the state of Montana to change one of the drugs used to execute prisoners on death row.

    The decision by District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock could be good news for Ronald Smith of Red Deer, Alta., who is one of two inmates condemned to die in that state.

    Sherlock presided over a hearing last month on whether the sedative pentobarbital, which was being proposed by the state, complies with language in Montana's execution protocol requiring an "ultra-fast-acting barbiturate."

    Lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the sedative could lead to an "excruciating and terrifying" death.

    "This case is not about whether the use of pentobarbital in a lethal injection setting is cruel and unusual or if pentobarbital in the doses contemplated by the State of Montana would produce a painless death," wrote Sherlock in his decision.

    "This case is only about whether the drug selected ... meets the legislatively required classification of being an ultra-fast-acting barbiturate.

    "The court rules that pentobarbital is not."

    Sherlock's decision means it's back to the drawing board for Montana officials, who are now prevented from going ahead with any executions.

    "The State of Montana will either need to select a barbiturate that is ultra-fast-acting ... or it will need to modify its statute."

    Lethal injection has been the sole method of execution in Montana since 1997. It is the only state that specifies the death penalty must be accomplished by an "ultra-fast-acting" barbiturate.

    Ron Waterman, a senior counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, was happy with the ruling and said the issue will have to go back to the state legislature.

    "It would have to be a bill that is introduced at the next legislative session, which is 2017. It would then have to be passed by both houses of the legislature and then signed by the governor," he said.

    Waterman said getting both the legislature and the senate to pass a new law would be challenging for the state of Montana and bodes well for his clients.

    "It's very good news," Waterman said. "I believe this is a very good outcome and we're very pleased."

    Smith, 57, was convicted in 1983 for shooting Harvey Madman Jr. and Thomas Running Rabbit while he was high on drugs and alcohol near East Glacier, Mont.

    He had been taking 30 to 40 hits of LSD and consuming between 12 and 18 beers a day at the time. He refused a plea deal that would have seen him avoid death row and spend the rest of his life in prison.

    Three weeks later, he pleaded guilty. He asked for and was given a death sentence. Smith later had a change of heart and has been fighting for his life ever since. He has had a number of execution dates set and overturned.

    http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/judge-r...-row-1.2598031

  6. #66
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    "Hope springs eternal": Ronald Smith lawyer encouraged by Stephane Dion's comments

    Dion says he will ask for clemency in all cases where Canadians face the death penalty abroad

    By Bill Graveland
    The Canadian Press

    An apparent change in federal policy regarding Canadians facing execution in other countries could benefit an Alberta man who has been on death row in Montana for more than 30 years.

    Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion issued a statement Monday following a meeting with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

    "If the government of Canada does not ask for clemency for every Canadian facing the death penalty, how can we be credible when we ask for clemency in selective cases or countries?," said Dion's statement.

    "We must end this incoherent double standard. Canada opposes the death penalty and will ask for clemency in each and every case, no exceptions."

    That statement is a far cry from the former Conservative government, which offered what was described as "tepid support" for Ronald Smith in his clemency hearing in Helena, Mont., in 2011.

    The clemency board recommended against commuting Smith's sentence and the request is now sitting on the desk of current Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, who has yet to make a final decision.

    One of Smith's lawyers wasn't surprised at the Canadian government's chance of heart.

    "I assumed with Trudeau getting in that there was going to be a change in policy," said one of Smith's long-time lawyers, Don Vernay, who now practises law in Albuquerque, N.M.

    "I mean he's legalizing dope so it's obvious he's a bit more Liberal in his point of view."

    Refused plea deal

    Smith, who is originally from Red Deer, Alta., has been on death row since 1983 for fatally shooting two cousins while he was high on drugs and alcohol near East Glacier, Mont.

    He refused a plea deal that would have seen him avoid death row and spend the rest of his life in prison. Three weeks later, he pleaded guilty. He asked for and was given a death sentence.

    Smith had a change of heart and has been on a legal roller-coaster for decades. An execution date has been set five times and each time the order was overturned.

    Vernay said it's a shame that the new philosophy wasn't in effect prior to the clemency hearing, but he said it's good news and hopefully will hold sway with Bullock.

    "As usual, hope springs eternal from this end," said Vernay.

    "We'll see. It's up to Gov. Bullock now and hopefully he will take Canada's wishes into consideration."

    All executions in Montana have been stayed since a 2008 challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union.

    A Montana judge rejected a request from the state last year to change one of the drugs used to execute prisoners on death row.

    The decision could still be appealed.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/deat...450844?cmp=rss

  7. #67
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Montana death-row inmates question use of execution drug

    HELENA – Attorneys for two Montana death-row inmates are questioning whether state Department of Justice officials told a witness to change his testimony to bolster their failed argument that a substitute drug met the legal requirements for use in executions.

    District Judge Deann Cooney has scheduled a Nov. 18 hearing on the issue raised by ACLU of Montana Legal Director Jim Taylor, one of the lawyers representing inmates Ronald Allen Smith and William Gollehon.

    "Had the expert not changed his testimony, we would not have gotten to trial," Taylor said. "We want to know what happened. We just want a hearing and we've been trying to get a hearing for a year."

    Department of Justice spokesman John Barnes did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.

    In court documents filed in response to the inmates' request to preserve evidence and re-open the case, Assistant Attorney General Ben Reed said the accusation is groundless and Auburn University pharmacy school dean Roswell Lee Evans' testimony was consistent.

    At the trial last year, District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock effectively blocked executions in Montana after ruling that one of the two drugs to be used in lethal injections did not meet a requirement under state law to be an "ultra-fast-acting barbiturate." The state does not have an alternative barbiturate to use in lethal injections.

    Montana originally used sodium pentothal as the barbiturate, but that drug is no longer available in the U.S. for executions. State officials named pentobarbital as a substitute.

    State attorneys argued unsuccessfully at trial that pentobarbital, which has never been used in a Montana execution, meets the requirement. Their expert, Evans, wrote an expert declaration in March 2015 that did not address the "ultra-fast acting" question. In April 2015, he supplemented that declaration by adding pentobarbital could be considered "ultra-fast acting" but that it is classified differently.

    Taylor wrote in his request to re-open the case in March that Evans testified in a separate case in Tennessee in which he was asked about his testimony in the Montana case. According to a transcript, Evans was asked whether the Montana attorney general needed him to say pentobarbital was ultra-fast acting and he wrote that it could be.

    "Could be," Evans answered. "That's not how it's classified."

    Based on that testimony, Taylor wrote, it appears state attorneys persuaded Evans to change his original declaration.

    "A fair reading of Evans' testimony ... is that someone from the Montana Attorney General's Office told Evans that what he had said in his first expert report was insufficient, and that he needed to change his opinion to fit what the defense required," Taylor wrote.

    Reed, in response, wrote that Evans' testimony was consistent because barbiturates are typically classified by duration – "ultra-short acting" – and not rapidity – "ultra-fast acting." When read together, his statements are consistent and explain that while it is not classified as "ultra-fast acting" it could be described that way because the drug's onset is incredibly fast.

    Evans' "could be" answer to the Tennessee attorney's question addressed what Evans actually wrote in the declaration, not whether the Montana attorney general's office needed him to change his testimony.

    Taylor said the inmates' attorneys took their concerns to the attorney general's office. They received a response in February that "we took what we believed to be the appropriate actions with the DOJ lawyers involved in the death penalty litigation." The email also said that the state's dealings with Evans had ended.

    Taylor said the actions the state may have taken against its attorneys in the case merit investigation by the court.

    Reed responded that the argument is "nebulous and speculative."

    http://missoulian.com/news/local/mon...4dcd6b2bf.html

  8. #68
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Clemency request for Red Deer man on Montana's death row before governor

    A petition asking the governor of Montana to spare the life of a Canadian on death row is being dusted off and given a fresh look this week.

    Ronald Smith, who is originally from Red Deer, Alta., has been on death row since 1983 for fatally shooting Harvey Madman Jr. and Thomas Running Rabbit while he was high on LSD and alcohol near East Glacier, Mont.

    The petition for clemency was given to former Gov. Brian Schweitzer four years ago but he chose not to deal with it before finishing his term in office.

    His successor, Gov. Steve Bullock, has also not dealt with the thorny clemency issue. Now elected to his final term in office, Smith’s lawyers have officially requested Bullock take another look Smith’s case.

    “Governor Schweitzer chose not to act on it … so it never went anywhere. It’s just been sitting on somebody’s desk gathering dust,” said Smith, 59, in an interview with The Canadian Press earlier this year.

    “Given the new position of the Canadian government, I think it’s time to act on it.”

    Members of Smith’s legal team have met with representatives of the Canadian consulate who have expressed their support for clemency.

    Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion issued a statement earlier this year following a meeting with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights saying Canada opposes the death penalty and “will ask for clemency in each and every case, no exceptions.”

    It’s a marked shift from the former Conservative government, which initially decided against seeking clemency for Smith or any other multiple murderer facing the death penalty in a democratic country.

    A court ruling later forced the government to abandon the policy but Smith’s lawyer accused the Canadian government of “treachery” for its handling of the 2012 clemency hearing.

    Lawyer Greg Jackson said he could file for another hearing but it’s unnecessary. Bullock could simply take all the material already on the record and make a decision on clemency, he said.

    “There’s a full transcript of the hearing, there’s a whole videotape of the hearing. Everything is available to him that was available to the original board. Probably the easiest, the most economic thing would be for the present petition to be reviewed.”

    Jackson said he had a couple of initial discussions with the governor’s staff four years ago but it never went anywhere.

    All executions in Montana have been on hold since 2008 when a court fight began over the types of drugs used during the process.

    “I think the fact is it’s been out of sight, out of mind,” he said. “I think the prevailing thought was there’s no immediate prospect of execution. There’s no reason to act.”

    Smith thinks this is the best time to renew his efforts.

    “It’s unlikely there’s going to be a death sentence after the legislative session anyway. It’s highly improbable they will keep it since they can’t use it. There’s no drugs available. There’s no other form of execution so I don’t see it continuing on,” he said.

    “Given those factors I think now’s the time to go to the governor and say maybe it’s time to revisit this. I believe the Canadian government would be more than willing to take me back and take my butt the hell out of the country.”

    While Smith may have an ally in the Canadian government, family members of his victims have lobbied for his death.

    “The decisions he made, he has to pay for,” Running Rabbit’s son told Smith’s clemency hearing in 2012. “He had no mercy for my father — a person I have never met.”

    Smith, who initially asked for and was granted the death penalty, later changed his mind and has been fighting execution ever since. Despite what appears to be a change of fortune, he’s not optimistic.

    “After 34 years of doing this, that’s a no.”

    http://calgaryherald.com/news/crime/...efore-governor
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  9. #69
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Potato Head AKA Justin Trudeau will push for clemency.
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #70
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Montana Judge Sanctions State in Execution Drug Case

    Montana Department of Justice spokesman says agency would immediately turn over the documents

    BY MATTHEW BROWN
    THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

    BILLINGS — A judge has sanctioned the state of Montana over its yearlong delay in complying with a court demand to turn over documents that could reveal if there was manipulation of an expert witness in a case that halted lethal injections.

    Montana Department of Justice spokesman Eric Sell said Tuesday that the agency would immediately turn over the documents under the order from Judge James Reynolds.

    The documents will be given to attorneys for the plaintiffs in the case — Ronald Smith and William Gollehon, Montana’s only two death row inmates.

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana, which is representing Smith, has questioned whether the testimony of expert witness Roswell Evans was manipulated at trial to bolster the state’s unsuccessful claim that the drug pentobarbital was suitable for use in executions.

    Sell says there was no manipulation by the state.

    Smith and Gollehon sued Montana in 2008, challenging the constitutionality of its lethal injection statute. The suit focused on the state’s plans to use pentobarbital in lethal injections after the Department of Corrections was no longer able to obtain sodium pentothal, the original barbiturate used in the state’s two-drug execution protocol.

    Evans had testified in 2015 that the drug pentobarbital met a state law requirement that an “ultra-fast-acting barbiturate” be used in lethal injections. But he also testified in a separate case in Tennessee that the drug was not classified as ultra-fast acting.

    After rejecting Evan’s testimony in the Montana case, District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock ruled pentobarbital did not comport with state law, which effectively blocked executions in the state.

    The state later investigated the testimony and told the ACLU that it had terminated its dealings with Evans, but it did not turn over the documents associated with the investigation.

    ACLU legal director Alex Rate said the organization would be reviewing the documents to determine if further sanctions or other actions are warranted.

    Reynolds also ordered the state to cover some of the plaintiffs’ attorney fees as punishment for not turning over the documents more quickly.

    The documents were originally ordered released on Dec. 12, 2016, but the state sought a protective order that would prevent the plaintiffs from further disseminating the information.

    Reynold rejected the request for the protective order and said in a Dec. 12 ruling that the state’s arguments for delay were “not well-founded” and were deserving of sanctions.

    http://flatheadbeacon.com/2017/12/19...ion-drug-case/

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