ASKING FOR CLEMENCY
Family of Albertan on death row in U.S. say killer is a changed man
The daughter and sister of Albertaborn killer Ronald Smith, the only Canadian on death row in the United States, have spoken for the first time publicly to insist the 54-year-old convict is “a different person” from the young man who committed a horrific double-murder nearly 30 years ago in Montana, and to appeal to Canadians to support Smith’s newly filed bid for clemency from execution.
The two women, both of whom live in Alberta and asked not to have their names published, also expressed dismay at comments this week from Conservative Sen. Pierre-hugues Boisvenu — for which he later apologized — that some jailed killers should be offered a rope to allow them to commit suicide in their cells.
“I think that’s very sad,” Smith’s 36-year-old daughter told Postmedia News. “I know everybody’s entitled to their own opinion. But it’s hard to believe somebody from Parliament would say that.”
Smith’s sister, 48, said her brother remains the “pillar” of her family — “he was always very kind and compassionate and caring” — even though he’s been incarcerated at Montana State Prison, near the state capital of Helena, for more than a quarter of a century.
Both women say they visit Smith once a year or more and maintain regular contact by phone, seeking his advice about family matters and his comfort in difficult times, such as the recent death of Smith’s mother.
The killer’s closest female relatives acknowledged they were encouraged by Smith and his lawyers to publicly convey their support for the clemency request, expected to be reviewed by the state’s parole board in the coming weeks and ultimately decided upon by Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Smith’s sister, who plans to address the parole board personally, said she talked to him years ago about speaking to the news media “to show the changes that he’s made over the last number of years, to humanize him.”
She added: “A few weeks ago, he said: ‘Maybe the time is now.’ ”
Smith’s daughter, the mother of his two teenage grandchildren, said, “being at school has been hard on them. My dad does come up in current events. It’s a struggle.”
But she said she and the children talk frequently by phone with Smith.
“My dad is my sounding board,” she said. “We talk about everything. He helps me a lot.”
Her children “love their granddad,” she said, adding that her son often “talks about when granddad’s going to be home one day.”
Smith has confessed to the August 1982 shooting deaths of thomas Running Rabbit and Harvey Mad Man, two young cousins from Montana’s Blackfoot Indian nation.
With his appeal options now exhausted, Smith recently filed an official request for clemency with the Montana parole board, essentially placing his fate in Schweitzer’s hands.
Canada’s Conservative government — after attempting in 2007 to halt all lobbying on Smith’s behalf by Canadian diplomats — was ordered by the Federal Court in 2009 to back the clemency bid. In December, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird sent a letter to Montana’s parole board confirming that Canada wants Smith’s death sentence commuted, but pointed out that the government “does not sympathize with violent crime,” and that the country’s formal request for clemency “should not be construed as reflecting a judgment on Smith’s conduct.”
Both Smith’s sister and daughter expressed hope that the Canadian government’s support — courtordered or not — might ultimately save his life.