Posts: 8851
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 10:02 pm
Does anyone here remember when this was current news and not just current events? I do! Here's a little bit of background on the 'Canadian Citizen' whom our fine folks in Ottawa are now going to go to bat for. Can you say 'Brenda Martin'???
Alberta man sentenced to die for murder
in Montana loses appeal - Tuesday, June 26, 2001
HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- Ronald Smith, of Red Deer, Alta., sentenced
to die 18 years ago for the execution-style murders of two
Montana men has inched closer to execution after losing an
appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The highest U.S. court refused to consider the case last week, a
move that ended Smith's options in state courts, assistant
attorney general Mark Fowler said Tuesday.
"He goes back to the federal court system," he said.
Don Vernay of Bigfork, Mont., Smith's lawyer, agreed and
said: "This should be the last round of appeals."
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision left in place a ruling by the
Montana Supreme Court last December that refused to overturn
Smith's death sentence for the kidnapping and murders of Thomas
Running Rabbit and Harvey Mad Man in August 1982.
Smith, 43, at first wanted to be executed before changing his
mind and deciding to fight his execution. During myriad appeals,
he has been sentenced to death three times. He is one of six men
on death row in Montana.
Smith admitted to abducting and killing Running Rabbit, 20, and
Mad Man, 23, after the two men picked up Smith as he hitchhiked
along U.S. 2 near Marias Pass. Planning to steal the men's car,
Smith marched his victims into the nearby bushes and shot them in
the head with a sawed-off .22-calibre rifle.
Smith said later he wanted "to find out what it would be like to
kill somebody."
Vernay said the issues in the federal appeals will be the same
raised in state courts, where the latest death sentence was
challenged as being handed down by a biased judge.
He claims the judge wrongly considered the earlier death
sentences and a report on Smith's mental condition that was
prepared by the state's psychiatrist.
In the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Smith already has
argued he did not have an effective lawyer when he pleaded guilty
to the crimes. That case is pending and Vernay expects no action
to be taken until the new round of federal appeals also reach the
circuit court. Fowler said Smith's execution will not occur any
time soon. "We're still a long way off. The federal procedures
will take a minimum of three to four years."
Ronald Smith (DOC # Unknown)