About a 'real' death penalty

It is an educated guess the state of Montana is about through using the death penalty as a tool in crime control. I retain mixed thoughts on the subject but will not go into them today. We still have Ronald Smith on death row and that one case has cost fortunes in tax dollars and many years time. A germane column ran here in January 1992. You will find it very interesting:

Ronald Smith, of “Death Row” at the State’s major penal colony is currently being detained in Flathead County’s new Crowbar Motel. He is in jail because he casually tortured and killed two young men for his personal amusement. Smith has homemade crude tattoos to go with his shifty-eyed countenance and this is set off by the personal charm of a sick jackal. Because of these character flaws, and other personality defects … Ronald Smith is not easy to like.

Smith asked to be sentenced to die for his crimes. Judge Keedy said that would be a good idea. Smith later changed his mind and got Keedy’s sentencing overruled by the weep easy appeals court in San Francisco. New judge, Harkin, was appointed to re-sentence Smith. Harkin drove up from Missoula and was eating lunch in a cafe where he remarked to another person about having to “drive clear up here over a guy like that.” i.e. Smith. An eavesdropper heard the remark and told Smith’s attorney. Smith is now appealing for a new judge to sentence him because “Harkin has shown bias.”

Is that what our judicial system has come to? Do judges have to like proven, admitted, convicted, cold-blooded killers? Should Judge Harkin send Smith a valentine to show he really cares?

AND THIS REMINDED ME OF THE FAMOUS JUDICIAL RULING from the 1881 records of the Federal District Court of the Territory of New Mexico. Some of you have read it before, but it’s worth repeating for those who haven’t.

JUDGE’S SENTENCING ORDER IN FEDERAL COURT

(United States of America v. Gonzales)

“Jose Manual Miguel Xavier Gonzales, in a few short weeks, it will be spring. The snows of winter will flee away, the ice will vanish, and the air will become soft and balmy. In short, Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, the annual miracle of the years will awaken and come to pass, but you won’t be there.

“The rivulet will run its soaring course to the sea. The timid desert flowers will put forth their tender shoots, the glorious valleys of this imperial domain will blossom as the rose. Still, you won’t be here to see.

“From every tree top some wild woods songster will carol his mating song, butterflies will sport in the sunshine, the busy bee will hum happy as it pursues its accustomed vocation. The gentle breeze will tease the tassels of the wild grasses and all nature, but Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, you won’t be here to enjoy it because I command the sheriff  … to lead you out to some remote spot, swing you by the neck from a knotting bough of some sturdy oak, and let you hang until you are dead.

“And then, Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, I further command that such officer retire quickly from your dangling corpse, that vultures may descend from the heavens upon your filthy body until nothing shall remain but bare, bleached bones of a cold-blooded, throat-cutting, blood-thirsty, sheep-herding, murdering, son-of-a-bitch.”

Maybe Judge Keedy and Judge Harkin, … were born 110 years too late.

G. George Ostrom is a national award-winning columnist for Hungry Horse News. He lives in Kalispell.