Alberta man's death sentence upheld in U.S.

An appeals court panel in Montana has upheld the death sentence imposed on a Canadian man 28 years ago.

Ronald Smith — from Red Deer, Alta. — was 24 when he killed two men while hitchhiking across Montana in 1982.

Smith originally pleaded guilty and said he wanted to be executed. But he later changed his mind and has been fighting his death sentence by arguing that he had ineffective counsel.

The three-judge panel agreed that Smith's defence lawyer should have done better, but has upheld his sentence.

Smith was sentenced to death by lethal injection in March 1983, seven months after he killed two aboriginal men who offered him a ride.

He marched cousins Harvey Mad Man, 23, and Thomas Running Rabbit, 20, into the woods by the highway and shot them both in the head with a sawed-off .22-calibre rifle.

Montana has carried out just three executions since the 1970s.