A high state court has granted the only Canadian on America's death row an indefinite reprieve from execution.
Ronald Allen Smith was scheduled to die by lethal injection Jan. 31, 2011 but the Montana Supreme Court ruled Tuesday a civil case that claims the method of execution constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment" must first be concluded.
"There will be no execution," Montana assistant Attorney General Mark Fowler told QMI Agency. "The stay will be in effect until the lethal injection case has been decided."
Tuesday's reprieve ruling comes after a battle between two judges over whether a civil case should delay a scheduled execution by the state. Fowler could not guess how long the civil case could take to go through trial and possible appeals.
Smith, an Alberta native, has exhausted all appeals against his conviction and death penalty. He pleaded guilty to the 1983 double murder of Thomas Running Rabbit and Harvey Mad Man, young aboriginal cousins from the Blackfeet nation, who were marched into a forest and shot in the back of the head.
Smith's civil case argues his constitutional rights are infringed by the potential for pain and suffering by administration of the lethal injection. It also maintains his rights to privacy and human dignity will be violated.
"While we understand Judge (John) Larson's concerns over the prospect of conflicting orders, the fact is that Mr. Smith's execution has "over the past 15 years" been stayed by various state and federal courts while those courts weighed the propriety of Mr. Smith's conviction and sentence. Such is the path of death penalty cases," reads the judgment.
Despite the ruling, Fowler said the state will continue to pursue the death penalty against Smith.
"There remains a valid conviction and death sentence but the state can not enforce that sentence right now," he said.
Source: Toronto Sun, December 14, 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment