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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Canadian should be executed: board
Life now depends on state governor
CALGARY -- A Canadian on death row in Montana for killing two men 30 years ago was dealt a major blow Monday in his bid to avoid execution.
The Montana Board of Pardons and Paroles is recommending against allowing Ronald Smith to live out the rest of his life at the state prison -- despite an emotional apology from Smith at his clemency hearing earlier this month.
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"It's not a surprise at all. Even though they made a big to-do about it, this report just shows the way the state of Montana has been all along," Smith's longtime lawyer Don Vernay said in a telephone interview with The Canadian Press.
"It's always been they're going to kill this guy because for them to do an investigation in the manner they did shows they don't care."
A report done by staff at the board, obtained prior to the clemency hearing, strongly recommended against granting Smith mercy.
Vernay said the board obviously didn't want to rock the boat.
"It's the easy route. It's just going with the flow and it flies in the face of all the prison officials that testified and wrote letters for him," he said.
"It's just ridiculous when prison guards come up and say they sought this guy out to say goodbye when they retired. These people like him. I've never seen anything like it. If there is a case for clemency it is this one.
"The guy really has changed. You can't fake it for 30 years."
Smith had asked the board to recommend his death sentence be commuted, but the board ruled that he did not meet the conditions necessary for clemency.
The recommendation is not binding. It is now up to Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer to decide if Smith lives or dies.
Smith, 54, has been on death row ever since he admitted to shooting Thomas Mad Man Jr. and Harvey Running Rabbit near East Glacier, Mont., in 1982.
Originally from Red Deer, Alta., Smith was 24 and had been taking LSD and drinking when he and Rodney Munro marched the two men into the woods where Munro stabbed one of them and Smith shot them both in the head.
Munro accepted a plea deal, was eventually transferred to a Canadian prison and has completed his sentence.
-- The Canadian Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 22, 2012 A11
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