Tie vote means Montana bill to abolish death penalty fails
Posted February 23, 2015 2:36 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CALGARY (NEWS1130) – A bill to abolish Montana’s death penalty has been scuttled by a tie vote in the lower house of the legislature.
The proposed law called for an end to executions, which would have affected Canadian Ronald Smith, one of two people on death row in the state.
Republican Rep. David Moore, who introduced the bill, had been optimistic it would be passed and would move along to the Montana Senate.
But he says the tie vote in the House of Representatives means the bill is dead.
Similar proposals to abolish the death penalty also stalled in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013.
Smith, who is originally from Red Deer, Alta., has been on death row since 1983 for fatally shooting two cousins while he was high on drugs and alcohol near East Glacier, Mont.
