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Thread: Ronald Allen Smith - Montana Death Row

  1. #41
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    Mont. board: No clemency for Canadian on death row

    The Montana Parole Board on Monday recommended that a Canadian man on death row be denied clemency.

    Ronald A. Smith's case now goes to Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who has the final say on the matter. Smith is seeking life in prison without the possibility of parole – instead of the death sentence he now faces.

    Smith is believed to be one of only two Canadians on death row in the United States.

    He argues his original 1983 trial for shooting two Blackfeet cousins – in which he asked for and received the death penalty – was botched. His attorneys also have argued it is fundamentally unfair that Smith, of Red Deer, Alberta, be killed while an accomplice was long ago released on parole and returned to Canada.

    The Montana Parole Board earlier this month heard testimony for a full day, with Smith's family tearfully pleading for his life. But Blackfeet tribal members and family of the victims argued the execution has been postponed for too long and say it is time for Smith to pay for his crimes.

    The Canadian government, after some internal policy changes, is again asking Schweitzer to spare Smith's life.

    Smith's lawyers say the governor should look beyond the horrific 1982 killings of Harvey Mad Man, 23, and Thomas Running Rabbit, 20, and consider that Smith is now a different person. They are hoping Schweitzer will take an objective look at the matter since he leaves office at year's end and won't be running again due to term limits.

    Schweitzer has not said what action he will take. However, in a past meeting with victims of the family the governor said he will think of them and their desire to see the death penalty carried out in making any decision. But he also has said he does not take lightly any decision to execute a man.

    There is no time limit for a final decision from Schweitzer.

    At this month's board hearing, prosecutors and victims said the original sentence has stood through several appeals for good reason: Smith committed a premeditated double murder during an international crime spree that stretched to California.

    The family of Mad Man and Running Rabbit said Smith's crime and lack of remorse at trial have forever scarred them.

    Board Chairman Michael McKee has said the board's decision will hinge on whether its members conclude Smith's rehabilitation and remorse are genuine.

    Smith and his supporters told the board he has become a valuable member of the prison community where he has educated himself and helped others. They said Smith has reconnected with his family in important ways, and argued his life has value.

    Smith was 24 years old when he marched the two young men into the woods just off U.S. 2 near Marias Pass and shot them both in the head with a .22-caliber rifle. He says he was out of his mind on drugs and alcohol.

    He told prosecutors at the time that he wanted to know what it was like to kill. But he later said the statements were fabricated to convince the judge to give him the death penalty. Smith even rejected a plea deal at the time that would have spared his life.

    At the parole board hearing earlier this month, Smith told the victims' families that he was "horrendously sorry."

    "I wish in some way I could take it back. I can't. All I can do is go forward with my life and be a better person," Smith said, adding he understands why they want to see him dead.

    Smith was long thought to be the only Canadian facing execution in the U.S., but a link to Canada recently emerged in another case.

    Court records show Robert Bolden, on death row for killing a bank security guard in Missouri, has Canadian citizenship, the Canadian Press has reported. Bolden was born to a Canadian woman in Newfoundland and moved to the U.S. when he was young.

    The Canadian government, which does not believe in capital punishment, initially refused to support Smith, saying he had been convicted in a democratic country. It now formally supports clemency for him, in accordance with a long-standing policy of seeking clemency for Canadians sentenced to death in foreign lands.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-w...-row-canadian/
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  2. #42
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    Schweitzer meets with family of MT death row inmate

    Montana governor Brian Schweitzer met on Friday with family members of Ronald Allen Smith, the Canadian man who is on death row in the Montana State Prison for killing Harvey Mad Man, Jr., 23, and Thomas Running Rabbit, 20, in 1983.

    Smith and two of his friends, Rodney Munro and Andre Fontaine, had left Canada for Mexico. They stopped in East Glacier Park and had a few beers at the Park Bar. They played pool with two Native American men, Thomas Running Rabbit Jr. and Harvey Mad Man Jr.

    Smith and his friends left the bar hitchhiking. Fontaine suggested they steal a car, even "if they had to kill someone to get it."

    Running Rabbit and Mad Man picked the men up, drove about 20 minutes and stopped to go to the bathroom on the side of the road.

    When Running Rabbit and Mad Man returned to the truck Smith put his sawed off .22 caliber rifle in the back of one of their heads, forcing them out of the car. Then Smith and Munro walked Running Rabbit and Mad Man into the woods. Smith unloaded, killing both men.

    Months later, Smith confessed to the murders and asked the judge for the death sentence saying he was a "violent person" and "felt no remorse for his actions."

    During Friday's meeting with Smith's family - including Smith's father, sister, daughter, and grandchildren - Schweitzer said, "Damn him to hell for forcing the state of Montana for making them sentence him to a state-assisted suicide death."

    During a quiet and somewhat emotional and tearful plea by Allen's sister, Schweitzer went on to say, "Earlier he testified he murdered someone just to see how it was. A lot of it was during a spur of the moment in a drug and alcohol induced state of mind."

    "There are people in the state of Montana that would ask, 'Are you sure this monster is gone?'," Schweitzer added.

    "I understand but he has changed and this person he is today is real and truthful and honest. And the people who get to know him know this," Allen's sister said.

    The governor told them he has been asked by citizens why the state is "wasting time and money" on Smith, and said that the answer is that, "...it's cheaper to have someone in prison than it is to have them on death row. For those people who want to talk about dollars and cents it is cheaper. Most people on death row die of old age before they are executed. But I keep coming back to this question of, what is fair? The family of those who he killed keep asking for him to be put to death so they can have closure and so he can't do it to anyone else."

    The Montana Parole Board in May recommended that Schweitzer deny clemency to convicted murderer Ronald Allen Smith. The board held a hearing on Wednesday, May 2nd, to hear Smith's request for clemency.

    The hearing included emotional testimony from family and friends of Mad Man and Running Rabbit, as well as advocates for Smith. Schweitzer has the ultimate say in whether or not to grant Smith clemency.

    http://www.kaj18.com/news/schweitzer...th-row-inmate/
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  3. #43
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    Ronald A. Smith, Canadian On Death Row, Hears Brian Schweitzer, Montana Governor, Still Undecided

    HELENA, Mont. - Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Friday told the family of a Canadian on death row that he is undecided on the inmate's request for executive clemency, at times expressing sympathy for his plight and at other times noting the desire of the victims' families for retribution.

    The governor had a long, frank discussion with relatives of convicted murderer Ronald A. Smith. Schweitzer told them that his options include doing nothing with the clemency request, which seeks life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of the death penalty.

    Schweitzer sympathized with the plight of Smith, who is scheduled to be executed in the 1982 killings of two Blackfeet Indian men. The governor said it is not fair for Smith to be executed after an accomplice was paroled, and indicated he believes that Smith may be a different man.

    But the governor said he has spoken with the victims' families, Blackfeet tribal members, who have told him they need Smith's death for closure. The governor said he remains uncertain whether Smith's death would improve the situation, and said he is not sure the traditional form of justice for the Blackfeet would include the death penalty.

    "In their system of justice, when people did something very bad, they were banished," Schweitzer said.

    A tribal council member has said that many in the tribe believe that if the governor gives clemency to Smith that means the governor values Native American lives less.

    Schweitzer told Smith's family, from Red Deer, Alta., that he is aware of that criticism, but argued it does not have merit because he believes he has done more than past governors to include Montana's largest minority group in his administration. Still, the governor is weighing the desire of those on the reservation.

    "They cannot rest until there is retribution and Ron's life is taken. They told us that," Schweitzer said.

    Blackfeet tribal members and family of the victims told the Montana Parole Board earlier this year that the execution has been postponed for too long and say it is time for Smith to pay for his crimes.

    The board is recommending that Schweitzer dismiss the clemency request, writing in their report that "justice is best served" by continuing with the execution. The governor makes the final call.

    Smith's sister, Rita Duncan, told the governor much of the same that she and others told the parole board: Smith is a changed man who deserves to live the rest of his life behind bars. Speaking in a barely audible whisper, Duncan at times broke down in tears, as she described the impact Smith has helping the rest of his family through letters and phone calls.

    Also at the meeting were Smith's dad Nelson Smith, his daughter Carmen Blackburn and her two children.

    The governor told them all options remain on the table. He does not have a timetable for making a decision, but noted the best-case scenario for Smith is life behind bars.

    "His sentence, one way or another, is death: slow or long," Schweitzer said.

    Schweitzer also expressed anger at Smith, who originally sought the death penalty at trial before changing his mind, for putting the state of Montana in the position of aiding a suicide he once wanted.

    The governor noted that the victims and others also wonder whether Smith's apparent turnabout is real.

    "Are we sure that monster is gone? Is this just a mask?" Schweitzer said.

    The governor said many who write or call his office think argue Smith needs to be killed.

    "I keep coming back to this question of what is fair. I don't know what is fair," the governor said in the hour-long meeting.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/07...n_1672750.html

  4. #44
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    Daughter of Canadian on death row satisfied governor's decision will be fair

    The daughter of Ronald Smith, one of two Canadians on death row in the United States, sees a small glimmer of hope that her father's life will be spared after her family met with Montana's governor earlier this month.

    "I don't want to get my hopes up too high, but at least I know whatever decision comes down it's going to be a fair one. It's going to be from (the governor's) heart," said a tearful Carmen Blackburn in an interview with The Canadian Press.

    "It's not going to be just something off the cuff."

    Blackburn and her family had a one-hour audience with Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer at his office in Helena in which they pleaded for Smith's life. Smith had a clemency hearing earlier this year and the panel recommended it be denied. The final decision, however, rests with the governor. Schweitzer's term in office runs out early next year.

    Smith and his friend Rodney Munro, both Canadians, were hitchhiking in Montana in 1982 when they caught a ride with Harvey Madman Jr. and Thomas Running Rabbit, both members of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. Drunk and high on drugs, the Canadian men marched Madman and Running Rabbit into the woods and shot and stabbed them to death.

    Smith, originally from Red Deer, Alta., rejected a plea deal and asked for the death penalty before later changing his mind. Munro pleaded guilty to aggravated kidnapping and was returned to Canada and released from jail in 1998.

    Blackburn says Schweitzer told Smith's family that he was undecided, but didn't think it was fair for Smith to be executed when Munro was paroled and free to live his life in Canada. He also indicated Smith may be a different man.

    "He was jotting notes while we were talking. I couldn't read all of them — there was just the one I could read very well and that was the word fair," said Blackburn.

    "You could see that word fair — his eyes kept going back to it and going back to it and he's really struggling with this. He is a man who is going to do what he wants, what he feels is right. I don't think anyone could force him one way or another."

    In an interview with The Canadian Press last month, Munro broke 30 years of silence and credited Smith with saving his life. He said he was given a plea deal and allowed to come home because Smith admitted to the murders.

    Although the state attorney downplayed Munro's role in the killings during Smith's clemency hearing, Munro said he was equally to blame.

    "When you're involved in what we were involved in, how can you not feel it? We put ourselves in a spot and two guys ended up dead and I think about it all the time,'' Munro said. "They don't want to know (about my role). That just brings up that he's not the monster."

    The family members of the victims were adamant at the clemency hearing that they won't be satisfied until Smith is put to death.

    "The decisions he made he has to pay for,'' Thomas Running Rabbit told Smith's clemency hearing. "He had no mercy for my father — a person I have never met.''

    An uncle told the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole that 30 years was too long to wait for justice. William Talks About said the victims' mothers never got to see justice done before they died.

    "Ronald Smith needs to be executed,'' said Talks About. "Thirty years is too long.''

    Schweitzer, a Democrat, has said he sympathizes with the victims' families but was unsure whether Smith's death would improve the situation. He also said he's not sure the traditional form of justice for the Blackfeet people would include the death penalty.

    "In their system of justice, when people did something very bad, they were banished,” Schweitzer said.

    Blackburn said Schweitzer has indicated he would be interested in speaking with Smith before coming to a final decision.

    "He did say he wouldn't mind meeting with my dad. It's one thing to hear about the remorse but when you hear it in my dad's voice and you see it in my dad's eyes — that's the difference," she said.

    "You can't fake remorse because your true colours always show through. You can see how much he regrets what he's done and wishes he could turn time back."

    http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Da...#ixzz221bF62mK
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  5. #45
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    Looks as if Gov. Schweitzer's going to commute Smith's sentence--especially since Schweitzer's not up for re-election.

  6. #46
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    Ronald Smith lawsuit challenging Montana's lethal injection to go before judge

    A legal challenge of how Montana carries out its death penalty is to go before a judge Wednesday for a death-row Canadian waiting to hear whether he will be granted clemency.

    The American Civil Liberties Union filed a civil lawsuit on Ron Smith's behalf in 2008 that argues the lethal injections the state uses to execute people are cruel and unusual punishment and violate the right to human dignity.

    A trial is scheduled for Sept. 4, but both sides are asking Judge Jeffrey Sherlock in Helena, Mont., to simply look at the evidence and make a decision immediately.

    "We're going to ask the judge to say yes or no as a matter of law and therefore there's no need to put evidence on," Ron Waterman, a lawyer for the civil liberties union, said Tuesday in an interview with The Canadian Press.

    "What we've got from the discoveries that we've engaged in so far demonstrates that the protocol is just so deficient that it's unconstitutional and the court can declare it unconstitutional as a matter of law," he added.

    "I think the case is capable of being decided Wednesday in our favour and quite frankly that's what I expect."

    Waterman said the judge could rule that lethal injections are unconstitutional or that they are fine the way they are. He could also decide to go ahead and sit through a full trial with evidence.

    Whatever his ruling, Sherlock is likely to take his time to write a "fairly succinct" decision which Waterman doesn't expect until later this summer.

    Smith, originally from Red Deer, Alta., pleaded guilty in 1983 to shooting cousins Thomas Running Rabbit and Harvey Mad Man Jr. in the head with a sawed-off, 22-calibre rifle while he was high on drugs and alcohol. Their bodies were dumped in the woods near East Glacier, Mont.

    He refused a plea deal and asked for a death sentence but later changed his mind. Three decades later, and after several execution dates were set and countless legal arguments made, his request for clemency was rejected this spring by the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole.

    His chance to live out his days in a tiny cell at Montana State Prison is now in the hands of Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

    "It might provide the governor an additional reason to say at least there's been litigation raised that questions the protocol and this litigation is going to extend out for years and years and it's time to put this to bed,'' said Waterman.

    The lawsuit initially stalled while Montana attempted to upgrade the trailer where state executions take place.

    The Montana Department of Corrections revised its lethal injection protocol last August. But the civil liberties union says it remains insufficient in terms of training, qualifications and procedures, and fails to ensure prisoner executions are free from cruel and unusual punishment.

    "The state's new protocol touches on many things, including how the prisoner is to be transported, where the witnesses will sit and how the prisoner will get his or her last meal, but it never once even mentions that the inmate has a right to not suffer cruelly during the execution," said Waterman.

    Procedures and training are covered in vague terms that leave too much up to chance, he said. Executioners are not required to be trained physicians or nurses, but only require a "familiarity" with intravenous drug administration.

    There are no details about how an officer administering the complicated three-drug lethal injection is to react if the fast-acting barbiturate is improperly prepared or administered, so a prisoner could be fully conscious and in excruciating pain when the paralytic agent is injected.

    "Those second and third drugs can be very extremely painful to a person unless that person has achieved close to ... unconsciousness ....''

    The lawsuit resulted in the most recent stay of execution for Smith which was scheduled for January 31, 2011. The Montana Supreme Court upheld the stay after a legal battle between two Montana judges.

    http://www.medicinehatnews.com/natio...-20120731.html
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  7. #47
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    Minor victory for Canadian on death row

    A Canadian who is fighting for his life on Montana’s death row scored a minor legal victory Thursday after a judge declared the state’s method of execution unconstitutional.

    The American Civil Liberties Union filed a civil lawsuit in 2008 on behalf of Ronald Smith that argued the lethal injections the state uses are cruel and unusual punishment and violate the right to human dignity.

    District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock has agreed, pointing to problems such as lack of training for the individual who administers the drug, a discrepancy over whether two or three drugs should be used in the execution and the method used to determine if the inmate is actually unconscious.

    “The Montana protocol has problems,” said Sherlock in his 26-page judgment.

    “All three of these concerns create a substantial risk of serious harm violative of the plaintiff’s right to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment.”

    But Sherlock noted it wouldn’t be difficult to bring the protocol into line with what is expected.

    “The court notes, theoretically, the legislature and the Department of Corrections can easily make changes to the protocol as are found wanting in this decision. These changes can be made quickly and, if done, the modified protocol could not be found in violation of the Montana Constitution.”

    Smith’s lawyer said the ruling wasn’t a knockout but does buy his client some time.

    “It’s a temporary victory. It was a given,” said Don Vernay, who practises law in Albuquerque, N.M. “When you’re executing people in a mobile home, you don’t really have your act together.

    “They’ll just have to redo it. The stay remains in place. Judge Sherlock is the one who issued the stay so obviously now there’s nothing they can do until they make a new one and then it comes back to court again. So we’re years away probably.”

    Vernay said it could be at least a year or two before Smith faces a potential execution again, but he is hopeful Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer will intervene in the meantime and grant his client clemency.

    Smith, who turns 55 on Friday, is originally from Red Deer, Alta.

    He pleaded guilty in 1983 to shooting cousins Thomas Running Rabbit and Harvey Mad Man Jr. in the head with a sawed-off, 22-calibre rifle while he was high on drugs and alcohol. Their bodies were dumped in the woods near East Glacier, Mont.

    He refused a plea deal and asked for a death sentence but later changed his mind. Three decades later, and after several execution dates were set and countless legal arguments made, his request for clemency was rejected in the spring by the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole.

    It is now in Schweitzer’s hands.

    Smith’s daughter welcomed the news but admitted it wasn’t what she had been hoping for.

    “I was hoping there was going to be word from the governor,” said Carmen Blackburn, who met with Schweitzer over the summer.

    “It’s good news and not just for us but anybody that is on death row. We haven’t had a lot of good news lately so this is really great. I’m shocked this has been dealt with so quickly.”

    Vernay said the ACLU deserves credit for the victory.

    “God bless ‘em because they worked hard on it and it’s a battle won,” he said.

    “But the war is ongoing.”

    http://metronews.ca/news/canada/3609...-on-death-row/
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  8. #48
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    Foreign affairs minister sends letter asking clemency for death row Canadian

    The Canadian government has sent a letter to Montana's governor requesting that he spare the life of death row inmate Ronald Smith.

    The Dec. 10 letter from Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird to Montana's outgoing Gov. Brian Schweitzer is almost identical to one sent to the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole a year ago prior to the Alberta man's clemency hearing. It makes it clear that the Federal Court ordered the federal government to support Smith's case for clemency.

    "The government of Canada requests that you grant clemency to Mr. Smith on humanitarian grounds," writes Baird. "The government of Canada does not sympathize with violent crime and this letter should not be construed as reflecting a judgment on Mr. Smith's conduct."

    Smith has been on death row since admitting he murdered Thomas Running Rabbit and Harvey Madman Jr. near East Glacier, Mont., in 1982.

    The Harper government initially refused to back Smith's calls for clemency, saying he was convicted in a democratic country. But the Federal Court ruled Ottawa must follow a long-standing practice of lobbying on behalf of Canadians sentenced to death in other countries.

    One of Smith's lawyers, Don Vernay, wasn't sure why the government sent the second letter to Schweitzer. No one in Braid's office was available for comment.

    "They just wanted to, I guess, put their two cents in which didn't really say too much, did it? It's the same lukewarm letter," Vernay said in an interview with The Canadian Press on Monday.

    "I guess they just want to go on the record because they're probably like everybody else wondering what's going on here? 'We should make sure we get on the record just to appease the masses in Canada who are against the death penalty.'"

    The Montana Board of Pardons and Parole recommended against granting clemency to Smith. The matter is now in the hands of Schweitzer, a two-term Democrat, who is to officially leave office in a matter of weeks.

    Schweitzer hasn't commented since the clemency hearing, but earlier indicated he didn't want to leave a decision up to his successor. He did talk about death penalty cases in an interview with The Canadian Press last year.

    "You're not talking to a governor who is jubilant about these things,'' he said from his office in Helena. "It feels like you're carrying more than the weight of an Angus bull on your shoulders.''

    Vernay said he remains hopeful, but is disappointed that Schweitzer still hasn't met personally with Smith.

    "I hope that he gets a chance to meet Mr. Smith before he does decide whether to uphold the recommendation of the board," Vernay said.

    "We're a little disappointed that he hasn't met with our client. The Smith family came down here to meet with him. We'd all like to hear something one way or the other for everybody involved."

    Smith, 55, and an accomplice were both high on drugs when they marched Running Rabbit and Mad Man Jr. into the woods and shot them in the head. It was a cold-blooded crime. They wanted to steal the men's car, but Smith also said he wanted to know what it was like to kill someone.

    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 since had a number of execution dates set and then put off.

    His execution remains in limbo because of a legal challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union on the methods Montana uses to carry out its lethal injections.

    A ruling by Montana District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock in September declared the state's executions unconstitutional and placed any future executions on hold. Sherlock is to hear arguments next year on whether the state can make changes to it protocols without going to the legislature for approval.

    A three-day hearing has been scheduled starting July 22.

    http://www.globalnews.ca/canada/fore...028/story.html
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  9. #49
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    Schweitzer mum on clemency request from Canadian on death row

    Gov. Brian Schweitzer isn't disclosing what his plans are for the request for clemency for a Canadian on death row.

    Earlier this year, the Montana Parole Board recommended to the governor that Ronald A. Smith be denied clemency. Schweitzer can accept that recommendation, reject it and offer clemency or do nothing at all.

    Smith is seeking life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of the death sentence he now faces.

    Smith argues his original 1983 trial for shooting two Blackfeet cousins was botched. He asked for and received the death penalty in that trial.

    Schweitzer says he isn't saying what he will do, if anything, before leaving office in early January.

    http://billingsgazette.com/news/stat...#ixzz2FtBkitPD
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    Ronald Smith death-row clemency case not likely to be resolved until new governor takes over

    Montana’s outgoing governor has given the clearest signal yet that he won’t be granting clemency to Canadian death-row inmate Ronald Smith during his final days in office, likely placing the Alberta-born killer’s fate in the hands of governor-elect Steve Bullock when he takes over the state’s top job next week.

    It’s a situation that one of Smith’s lawyers describes as “uncharted waters” for Montana’s justice system, which has been dealing with Smith’s case for more than 30 years.

    The 55-year-old Albertan is one of only two Canadians currently sentenced to death in the United States; the other, Newfoundland-born Robert Bolden, 48, is appealing his death sentence after being convicted in the 2002 killing of a St. Louis bank guard.

    Responding to questions about the Smith case in recent days, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer told The Associated Press: “The recommendation to me was not to do anything.”

    He added that he’s still “not saying one way or another” whether he might commute Smith’s death sentence before his gubernatorial term ends on Monday or endorse the recommendation made by Montana’s parole board earlier this year that the execution should proceed.

    But Smith’s case “is not any more on the table at this point than anyone else’s,” Schweitzer added — apparently referring to unresolved issues concerning the legality of Montana’s lethal-injection system, which must be dealt with before the Canadian’s execution could be carried out anyway.

    Schweitzer’s comments point to a hands-off approach that would leave the potentially explosive issue to his successor, Bullock, currently the state’s attorney general and nominally the Montana justice official who has been responsible for fighting Smith’s legal appeals in recent years to avoid execution.

    Yet Bullock, a Democrat like Schweitzer, is not considered an ardent supporter of capital punishment, and his moderate views on the subject have sparked attacks in the past by Republican rivals intent on preserving the ultimate punishment in a state sharply split over the issue.

    “We are waiting for Gov. Schweitzer to act on the clemency petition, and without his action then the issue shifts to the next governor,” Ronald Waterman, one of Smith’s three main lawyers, told Postmedia News this week. “But I don’t know that the clemency petition would automatically transfer over or whether a new petition would have to be presented before Gov. Bullock would be able to act on the petition. We are in uncharted waters here.”

    Throughout Schweitzer’s eight-year term, the populist governor had been expected at some point to make the final decision on whether Smith — who murdered two Montana men in August 1982 during a drunken hitchhiking trip to the U.S. from Red Deer, Alta. — would be executed as ordered by his trial judge in 1983, or have his death penalty commuted, largely because of his Canadian citizenship and this country’s abolition of the death penalty in 1976.

    Schweitzer, however, has been under pressure for years from relatives of Smith’s two victims — Blackfeet Indian cousins Thomas Running Rabbit and Harvey Mad Man — not to block the execution once all legal obstacles had been cleared to carry out the death penalty.

    Canada’s Conservative government, meanwhile, has sent mixed messages to the Montana governor, controversially declaring in 2007 that it would no longer lobby for Smith’s life, but then reluctantly reversing that stance in 2009 after a Federal Court of Canada judge ordered federal officials to resume efforts to secure clemency for Smith.

    Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird recently repeated Canada’s official request that Smith’s life be spared by sending a letter to Schweitzer that — like one he sent a year ago — emphasized that the government’s renewed push for clemency was forced by the 2009 Federal Court decision.

    Opposition critics have repeatedly slammed Baird and Prime Minister Stephen Harper for not doing enough to prevent Smith’s execution.

    Waterman said Smith’s legal team holds out some hope that Bullock is reluctant to see a death sentence carried out during his term as governor.

    “Bullock has a history of being consistent with all past attorneys general, who have always worked with county attorneys to try to keep them from seeking the death penalty,” noted Waterman.

    “I believe that Bullock is not a strong advocate for the death penalty, and did not lobby against the abolition bills when they were presented (the) last time the issue was before the legislature,” Waterman added. “And he generally supported the argument that the death penalty was not an essential part of the criminal justice proceedings in Montana because it was so infrequently used.”

    At the same time, Bullock has confronted accusations from Republican opponents during his political campaigns that he would be too soft on crime as Montana’s attorney general or as its governor.

    Ahead of his November victory over Republican contender Rick Hill in the Montana governor’s race, Bullock said he “personally” supports the death penalty in principle, but only in “limited circumstances.”

    Postmedia News first reported in May that the Smith case appeared likely to land in the lap of Schweitzer’s successor. The situation arises because of unresolved issues from a 2008 lawsuit — filed jointly by Smith’s defence team and the Montana branch of the American Civil Liberties Union — over the protocols involved in administering Montana’s lethal-injection method of capital punishment.

    Smith and the ACLU argued that flaws or potential flaws in the three-drug regime for executing prisoners in Montana amount to “cruel and unusual punishment” and violate any condemned individual’s constitutional rights.

    In September, a Montana judge ruled that the state’s death-penalty regime required significant changes before an execution date for Smith could be set.

    “We are waiting for the state to propose revisions to the protocol or announce that they will not try to amend the protocol,” Waterman said, adding that he and Smith’s other lawyers expect to see proposed revisions by mid-January.

    But a further legal controversy is likely to push Smith’s earliest possible execution date several more months into the future: the question of whether the state’s death-penalty protocols can be amended without direct approval by Montana legislators.

    “Until there is a new protocol in place approved by the courts, there is no execution potential,” said Waterman, adding that, “if the state cannot revise the protocol without going to the legislature, then it is possible there could be a greater length of a delay.”

    http://o.canada.com/2013/01/01/ronal...or-takes-over/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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