CALGARY — The fate of a Canadian who has been on death row in Montana for the past 42 years has been thrown into more uncertainty as state legislators try again to remove obstacles to resuming executions.
Ronald Smith, 67, is originally from Red Deer, Alta., and has been on death row since 1983, a year after he and another man, high on LSD and alcohol, shot and killed two young Indigenous cousins near East Glacier, Mont.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock ruled that pentobarbital — the drug the state was planning to use — didn't qualify as “ultra-fast-acting” and blocked the state from using it. There hasn’t been an execution in Montana since 2006. Rate said pentobarbital is still not available and administering something like antifreeze, rat poison or cyanide in a sufficient quantity to cause death is the definition of cruel and unusual punishment.
"This was kind of a shot out of the blue after the last many sessions we've had in the legislature where things went untampered with, so to speak," he said. Jackson said his client's mood has since improved after he was granted more digital access to his family.
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