Canada ordered to help killer

The Associated Press and The Daily Inter Lake

Toronto judge tells feds to aid Montana inmate

TORONTO - A Canadian judge ordered the government Wednesday to resume efforts to win clemency for a Canadian on death row in Montana.

Ronald Smith, convicted of the August 1982 murder of two Browning men in Flathead County, has been fighting execution for decades. He initially requested the death penalty but later changed his mind and has been fighting it for more than 25 years.

Smith, of Red Deer, Alberta, pleaded guilty in 1983 to kidnapping and killing Harvey Mad Man, 23, and Thomas Running Rabbit, 20, near Marias Pass.

Canada's previous Liberal Party government sought clemency for Smith, but the Conservatives withdrew help after winning power in 2006 elections, saying they would no longer automatically seek clemency for Canadians sentenced to death in democratic countries.

Federal Court Justice Robert Barnes said the government's move was unfair.

"The decision by the government of Canada to withdraw support for Mr. Smith was made in breach of the duty of procedural fairness, is unlawful and is set aside," Barnes ruled.

He ordered the government "to continue to apply the former policy of supporting clemency on behalf of Canadians facing the death penalty in any foreign state to Mr. Smith."

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the government would study the ruling before commenting.

Canada abolished the death penalty in 1976.

In 1999, Canadian authorities strongly opposed the execution of convicted murderer Stanley Faulder, a Canadian who was put to death in Texas during the administration of then Gov. George W. Bush.

Smith has been sentenced to die three times.

He originally confessed to kidnapping and murdering Mad Man and Running Rabbit after they picked up Smith and two of his friends who were hitchhiking near Browning in August 1982.

Smith said he wanted to steal the men's car and also wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone. He took the men into the woods near Marias Pass and shot them with a sawed-off .22-caliber gun.

Montana's Senate has approved a bill that would abolish the death penalty, and the legislation is now before the state House.