Ronald Smith should not be executed by the state of Montana, says the Herald editorial board.
One slow step forward, and one hastily scurrying step back. That's the best way to describe the state of Montana's
dances with abolishing the death penalty - a move that would affect Ronald Smith, an Albertan who's been on Montana's death row for more than 30 years.
Last week, the Montana legislature got very close to joining the civilized world and abolishing the death penalty, but abolition was
defeated by a single vote. The state's senate has already passed an abolition law, but the house hasn't, and this time, things ended in a 50-50 stalemate. That means the abolition proposal is sunk for this year's legislative session.
Smith is 1 of only 2 inmates on Montana's death row; 74 other inmates were executed over the years. The Red Deer man pleaded guilty in 1983 to 2 counts of homicide and 2 of kidnapping for his role in the deaths of Blackfoot Indian Reservation residents Thomas Running Rabbit, Jr. and Harvey Mad Man, Jr.
Representative David Moore, who sponsored the abolition bill in the house, said he "couldn't imagine a worse fate than being locked up in prison for the rest of my life." Exactly. That's worse than death, and it certainly is a greater deterrent. To have one's freedom taken away forever and to spend the rest of one's days sitting in jail, living with the knowledge of having committed a horrible crime, is much more severe punishment than the oblivion death offers. It's also a far more humane and civilized way of dealing with criminals.
Even U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who is poised to leave his position, said he opposes the death penalty because "there's always the possibility that mistakes will be made." Indeed, there have been numerous highly publicized cases of innocent people being executed in the U.S. for crimes they didn't commit.
In Smith's case, his guilt is not in question. He even requested the death penalty, but then changed his mind, and the intervening years have been basically a series of delays in executing him, including an appeal for clemency to the state's governor in 2013, who didn't act either way on it before leaving office.
"Our system of justice is the best in the world," Holder said. We disagree. The best justice system in the world doesn't stoop to the level of the murderers it imprisons, by killing them. Research has shown that the inevitable years of appeals that follow a death-row inmate's conviction are far more expensive than simply maintaining him for life behind bars.
Smith's roller-coaster death row ride should end and he should spend the remainder of his natural life in prison.
Source: Editorial, Calgary Herald, March 2, 2015
