Ronald Allen Smith v. Jack McCormick Warden, Montana State Prison

Ronald Smith appeals from the U.S. District Court’s summary judgment denying his petition for writ of habeas corpus. Smith, sentenced to death for the murder of two Native American men in Montana, asserts numerous constitutional violations in the sentencing process.

I.

On August 3, 1982, Ronald Smith, then 24 years old, hitched a ride from the town of Red Deer in Alberta, Canada, toward the U.S.-Canadian border. He was accompanied by two other men, Rod Munro, a friend with whom Smith had spent time in jail, and Andre Fontaine, someone Smith had known only a few months. The three young men, lacking stable employment and having served time in Canadian jails, had decided they had no future in Canada and would set off for Mexico. Smith and Munro were heavy drug users; Smith apparently had begun using heroin and hallucinogens as a child, and had been consuming 10 to 20 tablets of LSD a day during the summer of 1982.

Without a car or much money, the three walked across the U.S. border into Montana and hitchhiked south, coming to East Glacier, Montana on August 4. Munro had purchased a large quantity of LSD for the trip; he testified that he and Smith consumed at least 40 “hits” each…

concurring in part, and dissenting in part:

I respectfully dissent from the portion of the court’s opinion set forth in Parts II, III and IV, although I concur in Parts V and VI.

Before turning to the merits of the claims, a few words should be said about the facts of the case.

As the majority notes, Smith, for no good reason whatever, killed two Native American men, who had befriended him and his companions. A part of the reason for these senseless killings was the theft of the victims’ vehicle. More importantly, as Smith admitted at his first sentencing hearing, he killed them because he wanted to see what it would be like to kill someone. Beyond that, he informed the court that he was a violent person, that he felt no remorse, and that he could do it again. He also informed the court that he was not under the influence of drugs or intoxicants when he committed the crimes in question.

Based upon that record, the court sentenced him to death. Then Smith had second thoughts. He decided he was not so bad after all and could be rehabilitated. That resulted in the proceedings since then which have prolonged this matter from March of 1983 to this date, a common delay under our…

914 F.2d 1153 Ronald Allen SMITH, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Jack McCORMICK, * Warden, Montana State Prison, et al., Respondents-Appellees. No. 88-4115. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted Oct. 3, 1989. Decided Sept. 7, 1990. Cliff Gardner, Fiedler Gardner & Derham, San Francisco, Cal., for petitioner-appellant. Betsy Brandborg, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Dorothy McCarter, Asst. Atty. Gen., Helena, Mont., for respondents-appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Montana. Before FLETCHER, FERGUSON, and FERNANDEZ, Circuit Judges. FERGUSON, Circuit Judge: 1 Ronald Smith appeals from the U.S. District Court's summary judgment denying his petition for writ of habeas corpus. Smith, sentenced to death for the murder of two Native American men in Montana, asserts numerous constitutional violations in the sentencing process. I. 2 On August 3, 1982, Ronald Smith, then 24 years old, hitched a ride from the town of Red Deer in Alberta, Canada, toward the U.S.-Canadian border. He was accompanied by two other men, Rod Munro, a friend with whom Smith had spent time in jail, and Andre Fontaine, someone Smith had known only a few…