Hearing set for Smith execution

An execution date for a Canadian man convicted of murdering two Browning men in 1982 will be set during a Nov. 3 hearing at the Powell County Courthouse in Deer Lodge.

Ronald Allen Smith, 53, will be transported to the hearing from Montana State Prison, where he is currently on death row.

District Judge John W. Larson on Monday had scheduled the hearing in Philipsburg.

But an amended order issued by Larson on Wednesday switched the location to Deer Lodge after space became available at the courthouse there.

Smith, who was born in Alberta, was sentenced to die for the 1982 murders of Harvey Mad Man, 24, and Thomas Running Rabbit, 20.

The Browning cousins, who had picked up Smith and two other men while they were hitchhiking, were marched into the woods off U.S. 2 near Marias Pass and shot in the head with a sawed-off .22-caliber rifle.

Smith later said he wanted their car and to know what it felt like to kill someone. The bodies of Running Rabbit and Mad Man were not found for several weeks.

Smith pleaded guilty to two counts of deliberate homicide and two counts of aggravated kidnapping in Flathead District Court in February 1983.

He was offered a plea agreement that called for a term of 110 years in prison, but he rejected it in favor of a death sentence.

In 1984, he began fighting the death penalty and has continued the effort ever since.

Since then, Smith has exhausted all of his appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to hear the case, meaning the only way Smith can avoid the death penalty is to appeal to Gov. Brian Schweitzer for clemency.

After an execution date is set, Smith will have 10 days to file a request for clemency with the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole.

Smith is one of two people on death row in Montana and the only Canadian believed to be on death row in the United States. The other Montana inmate on death row is William Jay Gollehon, who was sentenced in 1992 for deliberate homicide.

Reporter Eric Schwartz may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at eschwartz@dailyinterlake.com.