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

FERGUSON, Circuit Judge:

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.…