Execution stay keeps victims' family in limbo

One week after the only Canadian on death row in the United States received a stay of execution, his victims' family members are speaking out about the pain he has caused.

Ronald Smith, 53, originally from Red Deer, Alta., was scheduled to be put to death on Jan. 31 for murdering two men in Montana in 1982.

But two conflicting court orders led the Montana Supreme Court to side with a civil suit ruling in which a judge had ordered a stay in the execution order while further legal arguments go on.

For the families of Smith's victims, the decision means that their turmoil continues.

Harvey Madman, 24, and his cousin Thomas Running Rabbit, 20, were considered fun-loving young men from the Blackfeet Nation. They were shot point-blank in the head after stopping to give a ride to three Canadians they had met earlier in the day and thought were friends.

Family searched for weeks

Kevin Madman, Harvey's younger brother, still vividly remembers the day their bodies were found. He and his entire family had been searching for his Harvey for weeks. They found him in bush about five metres off the side of a road.

"It was a really tough day," said Madman. "I could hear my aunt … crying ... and she said, 'You guys found them.'"

When the law caught up with the man who pulled the trigger while high on drugs and alcohol, Smith showed no remorse for his actions, and in fact demanded a death sentence.

'I don't know if I could see somebody put to death.' — Kevin Madman, murdered man's brother

The judge obliged, but Smith changed his mind.

What has unfolded for the past 28 years has been a bizarre legal dance of appeals and counter-appeals, the latest being a challenge to the humanity of Montana's lethal injection system.

That appeal was filed on Smith's behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union, which argues lethal injections are unconstitutionally cruel. The judge that ordered the stay of execution is presiding over this appeal.

The crime has ravaged the Madman family.

"He killed my mother, too," said Madman. "That's what I can say, is that she died of a broken heart. It only took a year for her to pass away [after Harvey's death]."

Camilla Walls, another cousin to the Madman brothers, said the extended family has never fully recovered.

"When the news comes on about the stay … it just brings back the hurt that my family went through," said Walls.

Brother's memory honoured

Smith is said to be relieved by the latest decision, even though a year ago, in his last public interview, he said this about how he would feel if the roles were reversed and one of his own had been murdered: "I'm no different than anybody else when it comes to that. We want revenge. That's what it's about. I understand that."

Revenge is what Walls wants. "Ronald Smith didn't think twice about that when he was leading them into the woods, and knowing what he was going to do to them," she said.

Madman said he believes justice isn't that easy any more.

"I've disliked Ronald Smith … more than half my life … for what he has done to my family," he said. "I don't know if I could see somebody put to death."

Instead, Madman chooses to make sure his children and grandchildren remember who his brother was, and that his memory is honoured.

As for Smith, Madman said he doesn't care what they do to him.

"I would just like to see closure to this case," Madman said. "It's just been really hard on the families. Let them rest, all of them now."