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

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…