Montana, K-M, 1879-1998, Undated

° that Koble endeavored to prove in his own defense that he was in bed at the time the
murder was committed,
“ "Campbell and Frenzler claim that they were on their way .home from the dance and
happened accidentally upon Koble and Marsh, after the murder, who compelled them to
’ assist in carrying the body to the river. It is not improbable that the body was ac-=
| tually thrown inte the river through a hole in the ice, but finding that it was by
this means impossible to conceal the evidence of their crime, the mrderers concluded
to adopt another course in disposing of the remains. Cambell at this time was em
ployed as teamster, and had charge of one.of the best teams in Benton, and there is
« abundant circumstantial evidence to show that he had been absent with the horses and
' wagon on the night of the murder, He undoubtedly took the body, assisted by Koble,
Marsh and Frenzler, to a point about 12 miles from Benton near the Highwood Road,
where it was afterwards found, At the trial Campbell stated positively that the bogy
= was put through a hole in the ice, but his reasons for not betraying the real dis-
position of the remains are too obvious to require, explanation heres
The evidence for. the prosecution was very conclusive, It consisted of the confess-
ions-of the two accomplices, the testimony of other witnesses, and, circumstances
~whitch, in themselves, were almost sufficient for conviction , The jury found a vere
dict against the four men as principals and accomplices. Koble and Marsh were
sentenced to be hung on Sept. 5 and Campbell and Frenzler were sentenced to life
imprisonment. The subsequent finding of the body, however, induced the Executive
to grant Koble and Marsh a respiteof 30 days to investigate. Inquiry, however, only
served to fasten the guilt still stronger upon the doomed men and the Governor very
wisely declined to interfere further in their behalf, ;
"Koble, at least, was no ordinary crimihal. During his confinement he frequently .

« boasted of other crimes, and admitted on one occasion that he had been tried for
efery offense except. arson and rape, He with Marsh and another prisoner made an
attempt to escape, before the trial, by cutting away the prison door, but was de-
tkcted. He frequently proved to the sheriff that he could remove, any irons that
could be placed upon him, and four days previous to his execution he had taken

_* off Marsh's irons and his own and cut away the floor of the cell sufficiently to

gain his freedom, but was detected in time through the vigilance of Sheriffs Healy
and Talbert, Throughout his confinement and up to the last moment of his life, he
exhibited a cool indiffere ce to his fate, and frequently spoke of the execution in

a light and joking spirit. Marsh was usually quiet and evidently more affected by

his approaching doomd ; gnu

"The execution, as stated above, took place in the prison yard, The death warrants

were read within the jail, and when the Sheriff had concluded, Koble put on his

coat as readily as if he were merely going to dinner. The two men ascended the

scaffold with a firm step and submitted to the usual preliminaries without a tremor,

When asked if they had anything to say, Marsh replied in the fewest words possible to

the effect tt}jatthe was quite innocent of the crime for which he was about to suffer,

Koble, with a pleasant smile illuminating his rather handsome countenance, said that

he wished to deny t e report that he intended to make a confession upon the Gallows,

- or that he had requested a commutation of sentence, He then shook hands with SK&#X*X¥
the Sheriffs and thanked them for their kindness, Marsh also shook hands with the

Sheriffs, bidding them 'goodbye,' When the ropes were adjusted, Koble requested to

havehis drawn ‘pretty tight,' and when this request was complied with, he quietly

said: 'Slap it to me.' All being then in readiness, the trap fell, Koble died with=
out a struggle or the movement of a mscle, and with the exception of a few convul-
sive heaves of the chest, Marsh gate no evidence of suffering, The bodies were

- taken down at the end of half an hour, and after a careful examination, Dr. Wheelock
announced that both necks were broken, No men could meet their fate more bravely,
and certainly none could have died with less appearance of pain." FORIBENTON RECORD,

Fort Benton, Montana, October 10, 1879, Page three, column two, :

Body «discovered by stockmen engaged in round-up, lying on prairie near Highwood.
Road about 15 miles from Bentonin mid-June, 1879. RECORD, June 20, 1879 (3-2)In
same article, states that Farrell had been shot as well as other injuries, |

_Trhal began on )\~21-1879 in District Court and both conyicted on testimony of accom-
sian plices by jury dekiberating 3 hour, RECORD, ,April25, 1879 Conds

KOBLE, Joseph K., and MARSH, Orlando H., hanged at Fort Benton, Montana, on Oct. 6, 1879.

"The execution of Joseph K, Koble and Srlando H, Marsh for the murder of Patrick Farrell
at Fort Benton on the night of February 7, 1879, took place in the jail yard of the
~ County Jail on Monday, Oct. § The details of the crime for which these men finished
their careers on the scaffold and for which their two accomplices, Campbell and |
Frénzler, are now undergoing life sentences in the Territorial Prison at Deer Lodge
were fully given, as far as known, after the discovery of the mrder and during the
trial and conviction of the condemned men, A brief review of the causes which are
supposed to have led to the crime, the manner in which the fearful deed was committed,
and the important facts brought to light while the.prisoners were awaiting the execution
of<sentence, may be of interest to the public at this. time and are certainly worthy
of record for future reference, .
"Koble and Marsh, the mrderers, and Patrick Farrell, the victim, were private soldiers
belonging to Company A, 3rd U. S. Infantry, stationed at Fort Benton, Frenzler, one
of the accomplices, was also a-private soldier in the same company, and Campbell, the
other accomplice, hadrecently been discharged from the,service for disability. A
“plot to desert the service, taking with them a number of Government horses, was .con-
cocted by privates Koble and Marsh, a few other soldiers and one sivilian, Farrell
was not one of the party, but being the friend and confident of Marsh had been in-
trusted with all the particulars of the conspiracy under pledge or promise of secrecye
"Tt appears that the plot was discovered through a letter written by one of the
conspirators to the well known Lizzie Clark, and intrusted for delivery to a dis-
interested person who, instead. of delivering the letter to Lizzie, handed it over to
Coll Moale, the military commander at Benton, The Colonel concealed his knowledge oF
THE intended theft and desertion until the time appointed for carrying out the plot,
when, with other officers, he secreted himself near the corral, intending to make
the arrest in person and capture the thieves while in the act of securing the ponies.
The conspirators, however, failed to appear, and after waiting a reasonable time the
Colonel gave up the hope of capturing them, but took the precaution to order a ser-
geant of the company to keep a close watch upon the corral, and gave him his own wea-
pon, a double barreled shot gun, to assist in making arrests if the opportunity should
present itself, Strange as it may appear, it was owing to the sergeant, having
possession of this gun that Farrell became involved in the affair and to this fact
probably the unfortunate man owed his death, It seems that after receiving his orders
at the quarters of Col, Moale, the sergeant stepped into his own home, on his way to
the corral, and Farrell, who was on visiting terms with the sergeant,'s family, happened
to be in the house at the time and recognized Col,. Moale's gun as the sergeant came
in with it. Farrell at once suspected the errand the sergeant was upon and claimed
-the right to go with him to the corral and assist in making the arrest, to which the
' gergeant consented, and a short time after reaching their post of duty, the thieves
- arrived at the corral and one of them was at once arrested by Farrell... From this, of
course, Koble and Marsh naturally suspected that Farrell had broken his promise and
_« betrayed them, and for this they planeed to take his lifes; but it is nowclaimed that
Barrell never hinted that he hai any knowledge of the intended theft until after Cole
Moale had ordered the sergeant to guard the corral,
"In regard to themanner in which the murder was committed, it is difficult, to give the
particulars, precisely as they occurred, as the statements of the two accomplices and
- also of other witnesses conflict somewhat with facts brought to light wince the trial
“and conviction of the mrderefs; but it ,is now generally believed that Marsh planned
the mrder and induced Koble, Campbell and Frenzler to assist him in its execution,
The two latter, probably took no part in the actual commission of the deed, but Camp=
bell undoubtkdly procured the weapons, assisted the other three in disposing of the
< body, and then attempted to fasten the crime upon innocent parties by placing in
their possession the blood-stained razor and pistal, | , ;
"A ball or party given at the house of Ellen Martin, was attended by Farrell and his
murderers. At some time between twelve and two o'clock on the morning of Feb. 7;
Farrell, somewhat under the influence of liquor, left the party and was returning to
his quarters when Koble and Marsh came upon him, Koble first cut him in jthe neck
with the razor and Marsh finished him by beating him on the head with the pistol,
- Part of the evide ce pointes to the fact that before the muyder Koble had re upned,
to his quarters and Was asleep in bed, .but was awakened arsh, who, induced him
go out and assist in the bloody work; and this appears not unlikely from the fact

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"The newspaper fraternity were also out in force - The INDEPENDENT, STANDARD, JOURNAL,
MINER and SENTINEL. The sheriff did not restrict anybody from seeing the hanging,
He threw the gates wide open after the body was taken down, All that wanted to had
a good view. : There were probably 100 persons. tocdétendance¢cthe in theeenclosure,
"That the prisoner King did not cheat the wt gallows of their victim Friday morning
was no fault of his or his friends, and such certainly would have been the case butfor
the watchfulness of, Jailor Ellis and the guard, At one time a spoon was found in
King's possession, the handle of which he had succeeded in some singular way to
sharpen as keen an @€@6C@L@6G6ECE6CE edge almost as a razor, and with which he evi-
dently intended to end his own life after all hopes of a commutation of sentence was
despaired of, At another time Maggie Devere, in shaking hands, while bidding King
a farewell, slipped 6@&6 six and a half grains of morphine in his hand, but it was
immediately detected by the jailor and guard and promptly taken from ‘ain, Maggie,
it will be remembered, served a sentence of nearly two months for aiding in the
escape of Josie Hopkins, who was out on bail for shooting a man in Elkhorn,.

"This is the second man that has been hung in Boulder inside of a year, and we hope

it will be the last. After the hanging was over, the rope was cut into pieces
about a foot long and taken away as M6 momentoes, lhe gallows worked to a charm.
Everything was in apple-pie order, afid all went home from the jail satisfied that
whatever our sheriff attempts to do, he does it right." JEFFERSON COUNTY SENIINEL,
Boulder, Montana,June 6, 1890 (7-l)). |

™ 4 sd e . i »

61 PACIFIC 99)
LUCEY, Daniel, hanged at Butte, Mont., on 9-11-1900.

"Black=bordered invitations to theexecution, of Daniel Lucey, which is scheduled to take
place in the yard of the.county jail between 8 and 3 o'clock on the llth, have been ordered
printed, but they will not be sent out for a few days. yet. They will read as follows:
"Sheriff's Office, Silver Bow County, Montana, Butte, Mont., Sept. -, 1900-To Mr, -=-=:

You are hereby invited to attend the legal execution of Daniel Lucey for the murder of
Patrick L, Regan on the second day of September, 1898, The execution will take place in
the jail yard in the city of Butte, Montana, on Friday, the - day of September, 1900, be-
tween the hours of 8 ae m. and 3p. m. P. H, Regan, Sheriff of Silver Bow County, Montana,!
"The sheriff has not yet decided whether he will use the trap on which. Harry Roberts was
put to death in 1889, for the mrder of 'Tex' Crawford, or have a new one constructed,

The old one. is stored away in the basement of the court house and may be found impracticable
for use on account of its age. As a rule, thejail yard is full of cord wood, but just now
there is only a portion of one tier and there will be plenty of room for the death machine,"
DAILY INTER MOUNTAIN: Butte, Montana, Saturday, Septe 1, 1900, page 8=2),

"Daniel Ducey was hanged in the yard of the county jail this morning,..no man me$¥ death
with more comosure, Drop fell at 11:11 and in five minutes the heart ceased to beat. Made
no confession and neigher denied nor admitted guilt, JJust before noose placed around neck,
said: ‘Well, Ladies and Gentlemen: The,only statement I have to make is that I was con»
_ victed by the Anaconda Standard through prejudice. JI also blame the county attorney, 1 want
to thank all my friends for the way they have treated me while I have been in here and I
thank the good fathers and sisters for the wonderful things they have done for me, I fore
give all and beg to be forgiven, I am ready and willing to die,' While Lucey was talking
aomwonw on theoutside of the yard, probably on the top of the wall, yelled 'Shut up,' but
Lucey paid no attention to itee...execution was a clean job, The sheriff adjusted the
noose. Under Sheriff Murphy drew plack cap over face and flastened one of body straps while
Depe She Evans fastened another of the straps, The identity of the man who cut the rope whicl
dropped the weight is not known, as it was intended that the one who essayed this role would
be kept secrete ; :
"Father De Siere, Father Harrington, Father Battens and Father McGlynn accompanied on the
march from cell to gallowseeeslt was prihcippay due to the spiritual consolation which Lucey
was given and accepted from the reverend gentlemen and AXRKBKXEXXAK two Sisters of Mercy that
Lucey was enabled to face death coolly, In death march, Lucey carried in his right hard a
small crucifix and the clergymen prayed. Lucey's step was firm but he was a trifle pale.
_He held crucifix tightly, relaxing grasp only after he had been jerked upward. A platform
about 2 feet wide, two and a half feet long and )} inches high had been prepared for him to
_stand upon under the nooce, It was covered by a piece of, matting, When he reached the
platform he hesitated and then stepped upon it, turned about and took a hasty look at the
crowd, raising his head to an apgle of about 20 degrees. The process of strapping his arms
and legs was at once commenced and it was while this work was in progress that he made his
statement, While standing upon the platform the priests prayed for him and he repeated the
prayers after them, When prayer was finished, each of the priests kissed him, black cap ad-=
justed and trap strung, Lucey stpod about 6 inches to one side of center of platform and
when the weight fell his body was jerked towards the west. This probably ccounts for the
fact that his neck was broken,The body shot into air about & 3 feet and then zig zage ed
back to the perpindicular, settling with the feet about 12 inches above the platform, Drs,
P, J, Sheeran and T, J. Murphy kept track of heart beats and at expiration of 5 minutes
annoced neck had been broken and heart ceased to beateess"hen Life was extinct the body was
cut down and turned over to Undertaken Sherman for burial,
"Execution witnessed by several thousand persons, many of whom were perched upon housetops
on top of telegraph poles, the jail yard and in the windows of surrounding residences, Jail
yard also well fill d with residents of this and other cities, Among the outside visitors
were Sheriff Jack Conley of Deer LodgeCounty, Sheriff Jones of Madison County, Sheriff
George T. Young of Park County and Undershgpr Morgan of Deer Lodge, County attorney and
chief deputy and other deputies were present aws was Attorney Thresher who defended Lucey
in last. stages of cases It is not customary for womm to witness execution, but en on
i i b fe) d Lucey to address the crowd as 'Ladies and gentiemen
Bese ee ice “Hodever mers ob Y pro ard but their morbid curiosity prompted them to climb

. ° s + ‘ ine
to roofs of adjoining houses and preempt open windows where availables in ae ener
ing house at northeast corner of enclosure were several 'ladies' in a group

g

necks to get aglimpse. The costumes of two or three of them were of jet black, denoting
that they were 'mowrning' the death of-some relative or friends They laughed and
chatted gaily whilewaiting for the condemned man to be brought forth, Demeanor during
Last few hours was that of self composure. Did not sleep well or long last night.
Retiring after midnight, awakened at ) and got up about 7:30, Two sisters called upon
him and remained until after 10. At 8 o'clock Fathers Desiere and Harrington, called
-and Later on 3 other clergymen. .Lucey attended mass and had confession, At 9 o'clock
breakfast fo toast and fish served, but he ate sparingly. Before breakfast took small
drink of whiskey and called for,water, Guard told him water was bad and gaye glass

of beer which he drank with consknt of clergyman. .

"The execution was witnessed by crowd of, eager,, excited, morbid spectators, SAXKAs
crowding roofs, lined up in a solid mass on the commanding Gagnon dump, swinging on

. telegraph and electric light poles, craning their necks from upper windows, scram-

bling like monkeys from one point of advantage of another, Upon the dump, where the
crowd was the thickest, they threw rocks and obscene ribald jokes and curses at those

on the roofs who obstructed the views There were few women in the crowd, more little
girls, and many- boys who had doubtless, ran away from school the attend the execution, ‘
It was as mich of a public eelebration as a circus parade. As thehour of 11 passed by
a few minutes the crowd, which had been very great, grew more boisterous, and handled
-rough jokes and jests without number, When the prisiner finally came out the favored
few who could seegave thenewsto the mmemet crowd, who commented very little on what was
going on, anxious only to see for themsel¥es, As the drop was sprung, and the body
hung in the death throes, some one cried: 'Goodebye, you old = = = -,' which was accep-
ted as final and the crowd began to climb down roofs and rool down the Gagon dump, rai-
sing a cloud of dust that hid the last of the grewsome sight from their viewee...If
any one arsument more-than another could emphasize the advisability of a strictly pri-
vate execution, or.of some substitute for capital punishment which wuld remove the
sensational element, it would be the sight of the gaping, morbid crowd and the un=
doubted effect which such publicity must have on the mind of the people, especially
the young, . . :

In a stabemen, Mike Shea, an old friend, said:...Lucey is a man who would do almost
anything to afcomplish a purpose and the killing of a man would not stand in his waye
I worked with him in a number of mining camps, He déxerted from the Sixth Cavalry

and went to Cripple Creek. He was a good miner and had- many friends there. We
workeed together in the Independence and Portland mines,...e.afterwards in Bunker Hill
and Sullivan mines in theCouer d'Alene,..He was a quiet man, drank a good deal and

was something of a ladies man, He was addicted to the use of some drug = opium

or morphine, and would lay off several days at a time in order to indulge his craving,!
"The crime was the murder of Patrick L, Regan in Silver Bow Canyon,.13 miles west of
Butte on night of 9=2=1898.e.e.eLucey and his victim had been friends, Tha had worked,
eaten and drank together and were to have shared the perils of trip to Coeur d'Alene
vountryee...eegan had saved several hundred dollars from earnings as a miner of. which
Lucey was awaye, while Lucey had nothing save clothing on his back, Lucey coveted

the money and a few days prior to murder induced him to consent to go to mines in
Coeur d'alene country, Arranged to start on evening train, At Lucey's request, some '
of Regan's wearing apparel stored in Lucey's valise, They missed train and Lucey

sugges ted they walkmto Silver Bow Junction where he knew keeper of boarding and lodg-

ing house where they could spend night and proceed next. day by train. Left together,

At Rocker a stop was made and Lucey sent Regan into a saloon for bottle of whiskey.

fhat was last time they were seen together, Supposed they proceded on foot to Silver

Bow Juction, but doubtless near middle of night when they arrived = too late to secure
lodging which Lucey knew in advance, Lucey prevailed to continue on foot as far as

Gregson Springs, 8 miles further west, where one can find lodging at any time, At 5
‘o'clock on following molming, Lucey seen alone by some men at Gregson walking along
railroad track, approaching station from direction of canyon, In one hand was carry=

ing valise containing Regan s elothing, «Men watched and noticed clothing wet, one le g

of trousers badly torn, face scratched and bleeding, Xemkxkwosakk Went to saloon and

stayed several hours, drinking whiskey and throwing $20 gold piece on counter to pay,
Shortly before train arrived, wnt to station and brought ticket for #naconday, but just

as he started to pay, a man entered room.and said man's body had been found in creek in
canyon and murder suspectad. Without waiting to receive change, he walked out o

station house, ‘leaving walise behind, Cut across country and went to Stuarat, 2 miles
distant, where he stayed a fewhours and then on to Anaconda where he engaged lodging


LUCEY, hanged Butte, Mont., 9-1-1900 - continued

for night. When paper arrived containing account of finding copy of body, asked lodging
house keeper for copy. Read without a word of comment, went to room and lighted lamp after
which he returned and told lodging keeper he was going out but wuld be back and not to
disturb for night. Left and went to Sallatin valley via Helena with Luke Gilligan and

then to Black Hills of South Dakota and thence south into Cripple Creek country of Colorado,
where saloon keeper recognized and caused arreste

"Body of Regan was found about 200 yards from where murder was committed, track walker named
Johnson discovering. Heavy rain had fallen night before and stream swellen enough to float
corpses Sand in water had permeated clothing and made body sink well down, causing it to
lodge against XH obstruction and stay there until the water had subsided and left high above
surface. When taken out of md, features were unrecognizqble, Cornor notified and body re=
moved to Butte by his order, On being washed, skull found to be mashed in several places,
particularly the forehead, which looked as if a jagged 3-cornered stone had penetraked,

and pockets of clothing turned inside out. Relatives of Regan's identified at undertakers,
Search immediately began for Lucey, Within a few feet of railroad track, at east end of the
canyon, was a pool of blood and several bloody stones, whowing where Regan met death,

In grass were some coins dropped by murderer, Footprints and evidence of body being dragged
to creek found.

When arrested in Colorado, Bnder Sheriff Murphy had hard time getting him, Officers were
willing for him to be taken but hobo and criminal element was not and at one time it looked
as if Bubte officer would have to use guns. When returned to Buttk was wearing same
gzlothes as those worn when hekilled Regan. Trill began 6-26-1899 before Judge Claney and
jury composed of Hugh Morrison, W. P, Griffiths, A. J. White, J. W. KaM Phariss, abe Phillips,
Enoch H,. Gilberson, Joseph Roberts, G. S. “olBrook, Ernest Rodgers, Chris Christensen, R, ™%
Sampson and Daniel Johnson and found guilty on July 1. Lucey defended by ZT. Cason and
James M, Hinkle. Contradidted self many times and convicted even though all evidecewas
circumstantial, After conviction, his sister residing in east employed Attorney B, S,
Thresher to appeal.

"Tt is said that he wasresponsible for disappearance of other men but not known that he ever
killed anyone other than Regan, It is said Timothy Leary and Lucey Léft Butte under much
same circumstances as Lucey and Regan in Oct., 1896, their destination being Brithsh Columbia
Lucey returned alone and said Leary who was not seen again had proceeded, Subsequently,

body of many, never identified because of decomposition, found in Silver Bow Canyon, Lucey
always denied killing Leary. |
"while Lucey in jail in Buttk in May, 1898, on charge of obtaining goods under false pre-
tenses, was confronted with other charges, some he admitted and others denied, One was that
he attempted to kill a man with a stone in Madison County and another was a gun play-on

Henry Elling well known Madison County banker, Admitted both, but justified gun play by say=
ing he was simply enforcyng therms of a verbal lease on mining property after he struck pay
dirt, Denied having been arrested in Arizona on charge of mrder, Whileoccupying lower
corrider under main jail, amused himself buklying companions, This stopped when Fdgar Mare
shall, who killed Mrs, Georgia Creech, gave him sound thhashing, Duying fracus, Lucey
attempted to cut Marshall with knife. Men who knew him feared him, some acquaintkences ex-
pressing belief thathe had killed at least twenty men during his lifetime. According to Luc-
ey's story, was born in County Kerry, treland, 2 y ars ago but came to U, S. with parents
when quite young, They settled in Boston where he learned plumbing business, serving app-
renticeship of 3 yearse Became joumneyman and went west, joining regular army and assigned
to ditty in 13th Infantry in whiche he served from 1882 to 1886, then transferred to 6th
cavalry which took part 4n war against Apache Indians in south, After being tn calvary for

2 years, six months, call dd on to do plumbing work in connection with duby as soldier and
deserted, Began career as miner, first work being done in Arizona, Dfifted from cam to
camp and arrived in Butte about 10 years ago, ‘ent by several aliases including Dan
Sullivaneese! DAILY INTER MOUNTAIN, Butte, Montana, Friday, 9-1-1900 (6=3).


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McKenzie files
another appeal

HELENA (AP) — Condemned
murderer Duncan Peder McKenzie
Jr. is seeking review of his case by
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
in hopes of blocking his scheduled
May 10 execution, making it the
third appeals court he has turned to
in less than two weeks.

The Montana attorney general’s
office on Monday released a notice
from McKenzie’s lawyer of his in-
tent to appeal to the 9th Circuit and
his request to a federal district judge
for clearance to proceed.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge
Leland C. Nielsen of San Diego,
Calif., took only a single day’s delib-
eration to reject McKenzie’s latest
appeal.

a

BOZEMAN DAILY CHRONICLE, Tuesday, May 2, 1995 |

dT ISA ‘

Victim’s mother

wants to

HELENA (AP) — Ethe
Harding, whose 23- cuboid
daughter was killed si years
ago by Duncan Mckenzie Jr.
will make sure her voice is
ae when state Board of

ons considers his re
diechomaae , equest
_Harding said Monday she

sitive
thing that I've been able to do
for Lana In (his whole ordeal,”
she said. “It’s just clemency for
a killer who has brutally planned
eal seers and did away with a
3h life.”
cKenzie, 43, was
to death in 1975 for ie porn
vated kidnapping and torture
murder of Lana Harding the
year before. Her body was
found draped over a plow in a
snowy ty road omen. She
ru ten, raped
and choked. ° ;
" a execution has
een deluyed cight times
through appeals in state and fed-

lay—

be heard |

eral courts over the past two |
decades. Two federal ool ap 7
Peals are pending,

Saturday's hearing is re.
quired following th: request for
executive clemency that
McKenzie filed last week with |
the board. Before making a rec-
ommendation to Gav. Marc |

Cot, members will hear from
people supporting and opposing |
McKenzie's request to have his. |

sentence commuted (o Jife in
Prison without parole.

Craig Thoinas, executive di-
rector for the three-member |
board, Said the purpose of the |
hearing Is tinited.

‘It’s not a public debate on
the constituuonality or morality
of the death penalty,” he said. “It |
ca not w be a public forum on |

ppropriateness of the
penalty ie" he death |
€ issue is whether the |
death penalty should be applied
to McKenzie, Thomas added. |

The board wants comments |
about McKenzic’s crime, his |
criminal record, character, reha-
bilitation while in prison, and
physical and mental condition,

e said. {

McKenzie to plead for life Saturday

HELENA (AP) — A federal judge refused
Monday to postpone the May 10 execution of

Duncan McKenzie Jr.. and a hearing on the can-
victed killer's request for clemency from the
gavernor was set for ,

Prisan officials condnued preparing for what
would be Montana’s first execution im 52 years.
One administrator said McKenzie appears re-
signed to his fate. ;

“He seems to be very accepting of reality ...
that this is going to take place,” said Mike Ma
honey, one of two bureau wardens. ;

McKenzie, 43, was sentenced to die in 1975
for the kidnapping and torture murder of Lana
Harding, who taught in a rural school near Con-
rad.

Mooday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge
Charles C, Lavell af Helena will be appealed to
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said
lawyer Ronald Waterman.

That will put two requests from McKenzie to
delay his execution before the San Francisca

court. “4:
Last Friday, Seattle attorney Thnothy Ford

asked the appeals court to block the planned
lethal injection based on a recent U.S. Supreme
Court arder in a similar Texas case.

The Lovelj decision rejected a claim by
McKenzie that he should no; be executed be-
cause his live testimony is oeeded in lawsuits
filed by himself and other maxinnum-security io-
mates over their treatment by guards after a
1991 prison riot.

Lovell concluded he does not have the au-
thority to halt the execution. But even if he did,
the judge said, he would refuse.

McKenzie has no constitutional right to testi-
fy at a vial on his suit and has other means of
presenting his testimony, Lovell said. In fact,
McKenzie was scheduled to provide videotaped
testimeay about the riot aftermath in a deposi-
tion on Tuesday.

Lovell called the claim meritless. “Were it
otherwise, any condemned prisoner could delay
execution interminably by simply filing civil
suits,” he wrote.

The other appeal before the Circuit Court

centers on the contention that executing a man.

who has spent 20 years on death row, as:
McKenzie has, would be the kind of cruel and |
unusual punishment prohibited by the U.S. Con- .
stitution. ;

Attorney Ford noted that the U.S. Supreme
Court last Thursday ordered a Texas execution
delayed so that the federal courts could consid- ©
er that issue. That case involves a man sen-
tenced to death 17 years ago.

Although McKenzie’s two-decade delay in
the execution is a result of a series of appeals in
state and federal courts, Ford said, McKenzie is
aot to blame. The fault rests with state courts
and prosecutors who committed errors and then
prolonged them by mistaken nulings and objec-
tions, he said.

Ford said McKenzie’s wait to die has be
form of torture. “Mr. McKenzie’s 21 yeat. «. ,
punitive incarceration facing execution, com-/
bined with the eight occasions on which he has:
had to watch the approach of a specific date and |~
dime for his demise, amounts to sach cruelty ...,”'
he told the court.

: Monday, April 10, 1995

Ethel Harding
moves forward
with purpose

By SUSAN GALLAGHER
Associated Press Writer

ELENA — Sen. Ethel

Harding was immersed in

state budget deliberations
last month when a judge set the
execution of the man who killed
ner daughter 21 years ago.

These events reveal volumes
about Harding's life.

People who know the legislator
‘rom Polson say she has moved on
with a sense of purpose while
carrying the lifelong gnef of losing
a child to crime.

“The strength she has shown has
seen remarkable,” said Jean
Turnage, Montana Supreme Court
chief justice and Harding’s
>redecessor as a senator from the
Polson area.

Says Harding, “You can’t run
out. You've got to face life, and'do
what you can.”

She is a three-term Republican
legislator and chairwoman of the
Senate State Administration
Committee. She also isa
businesswoman, the mother of a
son, and the grandmother of four
children. Her husband, Warren,
died in 1989. Daughter Lana, a
rural teacher, was kidnapped and
murdered near Conrad in 1974.
She was 23.

Duncan McKenzie is scheduled
co die by lethal injection on May 10
for the murder. His execution has
been put off eight timesas appeals
moved through the state and
federal courts over two decades,
and now there is another appeal.
McKenzie this month asked the

dismissed.

execution.

represents me.”

There’s a certain, wry
amusement in watching
murderer Duncan McKenzie file
his latest appeal of his death
sentence: that the 21 years that
the legal system has spared his

Jor -i, 177s

yey t Fels Tribe

state Supreme Court to remove his.
death sentence and give him life in
prison without parole. The
attorney general wants the appeal

Harding supports capital
punishment in the McKenzie case -
and some others. She said she does
not intend to witness the

“That is the state’s business,”
said Harding said. ‘“The state

In the Legislature, her
statements occasionally seem to

seesaa ty ise

Cait

AP photo

Sen. Ethel Harding, R-Lake County, listens to debate in the
Senate chamber recently.

reflect some of what she has been
through, but Harding also says she
doesn’t want to overswing the
pendulum on issues of crime and
safety.

In the closing hours of the
Senate budget debate, she asked
senators to restore the governor's
plan for new security at the Swan
River prison boot camp. An
employee there was beaten into a
coma on Jan. 29, and an inmate is
accused.

The people who live close by
want to feel safe, Harding told the

End cruel punishment

life have constituted “cruel and
unusual’’ punishment,
forbidden under the Bill of
Rights.

By that reasoning, he should
be executed on schedule May 17
to end this ongoing cruelty.

; Great Falls Tribune

Legislator presses on in face of tragedy

senators. But the state budget
prepared by tne Legislature does
not include the Doot-camp money
sougnt by Gov. Marc Racicot.

A resojugon introduced dy
Harding and passed by the
Legislature urges Congress (0
divide the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals into two Circults.

Critics of the existing setup say it
has more cases than it can handle,
and appeals are drawn out over too
many years. Harding said appellate
delays are hard on families left to
reassemble their lives after major
crimes.

Harding, 67, was born in Fishtail.
She became an election judge in
Broadview at 21 and later was (he
scnool district clerk there. Alter
her children entered scnool, sne
worked in the shenft’s office at
Polson and later became chief
deputy in the court clerk s office.
Then she was elected Lake County
clerk and recorder, a posinion sne
held for 18 years.

She said she Is in the middle
politically — ‘“! don’twant to
overtax, but! want to take care OF
the people who need Co be taken
care of.” Some legislative
observers place her with the
conservatives.

“She is a very radonal person,”
said Turnage, who was Lake
County attorney when Harding
joined the sheriff's department.
“She is not extreme in any way.”

Harding said life 1s good now
but getting there took ume.

“I don't know how long It was
before | felt it was a good
morning,” she said. “I don’t know
how long.”

She said her religious faith nas
sustained her, and she has done
some work with young people,
encouraging them to make the
most of their lives and to chensh
each day.

“None of us are guaranteed (hat
we'll be here tomorrow,” she salc.

}

McKENZIE, Duncan, Jey white, LI MISP (P ondera) Hay 1% 1999

McKenzie needed to testify, lawyer says

Execution said to
intefere with
pending lawsuits

By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer

HELENA — A new and unusual
effort is under way to block the May
10 execution of murderer Duncan
McKenzie Jr.

A Helena lawyer has asked a fed-
eral magistrate to keep McKenzie
alive to participate in lawsuits filed
ov McKenzie and other maximum-
security inmates over the bloody
1991 prison riot.

The state cannot be allowed to kill
a material witness in the suits, attor-
ney Ronald Waterman told U.S.
Magistrate Bart Erickson of Miss-
oula in a request for a stay of the

execution. The petition was filed
Friday.

Meanwhile, a U.S. district judge in
San Diego, Calif., had yet to decide
Tuesday whether to give McKenzie
permission to appeal a recent ruling
to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals inSan Francisco.

The Montana attorney general’s
office has asked Judge Leland Niel-
sen to deny the request, just as he
rejected

Lawyer weighs McKenzie's lat-

. est appeal last
chances with = Week. In a doc-
Racicot / 6B ument filed late

Monday with
Nielsen, Assis-
tant Attorney General Pamela Col-
lins said, ‘‘This third petition by
McKenzie is nothing more than a
tactic to attempt to delay the execu-
tion. ... None of the claims by
McKenzie warrant consideration on
the merits.”

In his request for a delay in the
execution, Waterman said McKen-
zie’s live testimony is needed to
ensure his

riot-related ‘claims
against the.
state “receive a
full and fair
consideration
before a_ civil
jury’”’ as re-
quired by the
constitution.

Waterman is
representing
McKenzie and
16 other in-
mates housed in the maximum-
security building when the Sept. 21,
1991, riot erupted in that cellblock.

The inmates claim their civil
rights were violated when prison
guards allegedly beat and tortured
them in the hours and days after the
four-hour riot was quelled. Five in-
mates being held in protective cus-

McKenzie

tody were killed by fellow pnsoners
during the riot.

McKenzie’s testimony is needed
to buttress that of other inmates
about events during and after the
riot, he said. Permitting the execu-
tion will prevent McKenzie from
providing rebuttal testimony against
state claims and will allow the state
to destroy adverse evidence and tes-
timony, Waterman added.

McKenzie’s execution is neither
required nor essential, he told Eri-
ckson.

“There is no pressing need why
Peder Duncan McKenzie’s execu-
tion cannot and should not be fur-
ther stayed until the final conclusion
of the present (riot) litigation,” he
said.

McKenzie, 43, was sentenced to
die for the 1974 kidnapping and
torture murder of Conrad-area
school teacher Lana Harding, 23.
Appeals have delayed his execution
for two decades.

McKenzie lawyer thinks Racicot
may be a good bet for clemency

HELENA (AP) — Gov. Marc
Racicot’s background as a prosecu-
tor may be an advantage if con-
demned killer Duncan McKenzie Jr.
asks for clemency, the death-row
inmate's lawyer said Tuesday,

Timothy Ford of Seattle said
Racicot has built a reputation on
putting criminals behind bars and
“doesn’t have anything to prove to
anybody” by refusing to commute
McKenzie’s death sentence.

“He's not a guy who has to show
how tough a governor he is,” Ford
told The Associated Press. “He'll
make a decision in a thoughtful and
wise way rather than be responsive
to what public reaction might be.”

McKenzie is scheduled to die by
lethal injection May 10. He was
convicted of murder and kidnapping
in the 1974 death of Conrad-area
schoolteacher Lana Harding.

Ford is pursuing federal court ap-
peals and he will not say whether a
request for clemency is part of any
last-minute strategy. He said he was
not aware until recently that Mon-
tana law does not require a con-

demned person to exhaust judicial
remedies before asking for leniency
from the governor.

Ford believes Racicot’s experi-
ence in prosecuting crimes will give
him a valuable ..
perspective on
McKenzie’s case.
Racicot is a
former attorney
general and was
head of county
Prosecutor ser-
vices in the state
Justice Depart-
ment before that.

The governor
has handled cases involving much
more heinous crimes than any com-
mitted by McKenzie, and that may
give him a view of this case that
someone else may not have, he said.

Racicot has declined to say what
he might decide if asked to save
McKenzie from death.

But, if McKenzie seeks clemency
with less than two weeks before his
scheduled execution, a delay is all
but certain.

Racicot

The last time a death-row inmate
made such a request was in 1988
when David Keith asked that his
death sentence be commuted to life
in prison without parole.

Scheduled to die Dec. 1, he filed
the request with the Board of Par-
dons on Nov. 22. Then-Gov, Ted
Schwinden agreed to postpone the
execution until Jan. 20, 1989.

The delay gave the board time to
investigate Keith's record, conduct a
public hearing and make a recom-
mendation to Schwinden — a pro-
cess required by law.

The board had its hearing Dec. 19
and recommended clemency the
same day. Schwinden accepted the
recommendation 10 days later.

Craig Thomas, executive director
for the Board of Pardons, said 30
days to process a clemency petition
would be normal. The length of time
would depend on how long the
board's staff would need to gather
information on an inmate's back-
8round, behavior and condition
even before a hearing is held, he
said.

Deserves to die

This Duncan McKenzie execution circus
is enough to make a person sick. In the first
place, “Murdering” McKenzie has no rights,
so why he was given a choice of which way
he wanted to die is beyond me.

Secondly, it doesn’t matter how long he
has been at MSP — he needs to die.

Those of us who knew Lana know that she
loved life, did not want to die, and would not
have chosen the kind of execution she got.
So why should McKenzie have a choice?

My vote — hang him. If he’s decapitated,
so what. He's stil] dead!

WANDA SMITH, P.O. Box 12, Sand Coulee

WET,

APE!
ZE, 99S

ALL: GREAT Feces CHonTaWa) TRI GUE

j

ae » cS ae
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» tai ‘ oo tat
* Pe vors

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aes

Four outs
left for
McKenzie

By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer

HELENA ‘— Convicted killer Dun-
can McKenzie Jr. formally asked the
governor Thursday to postpone his
May 10 execution, giving him four
possible avenues of elude the death
penalty he has avoided for 20 years.

McKenzie wants an 18-day delay
partly to give the state Board of
Pardons more time to consider his
request for clemency. The board has
scheduled a daylong hearing on the
petition Saturday, after which it will
make a recommendation to Gov.
Marc Racicot.

Racicot has
not said
whether he will
grant McKenzie

the delay or “8. ee oil
agree to clem- saver
ency by com- McKenzie
muting his execution

death sentence

to life in prison

without parole.
McKenzie’s

@ Letter writers
oppose, support

original request execution /10A
for a delay was_ { McKenzie
mistakenly sent says he saved
to the nga of guards’ lives
Pardons earlier . ;
this week. A re- during riot / 10A
vised petition Mf Vigils will
was submitted oppose death
to Racicot mid- penalty/10A
day Thursday. ij Editorial, 8A
McKenzie, 43, sees

was convicted

and sentenced in 1975 for the kid-
napping and torture murder of Lana
Harding, a 23-year-old Conrad-area
teacher.

In addition to the respite and
clemency requests, McKenzie has
two appeals before the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-
judge panel will hear lawyers for
McKenzie and the state argue one of
the cases Saturday in Pasadena.

In that case, McKenzie claims that
his two-decade wait on death row
has become the kind of cruel and
unusual punishment banned by the
U.S. Constitution.

But the state’s lawyers contend
McKenzie is to blame for most of his
time under the shadow of execution
since he has repeatedly stalled his
death sentence with appeals.

The second federal appeal in-

See MCKENZIE, 10A

McKenzie:
Hearing Saturday

FROM IA

volves lawsuits filed against the
state by McKenzie and other maxi-
mum-security inmates in the after-
math of the 1991 prison riot that left
five prisoners dead. The suits allege
civil rights violations by guards fol-
lowing the riot.

McKenzie has said he must be
allowed to live so he can testify in
person during trials in those suits.
The state has replied that his video-
taped testimony will suffice.

Meanwhile, the Board of Pardons
prepared for Saturday’s hearing that
is expected to bring McKenzie face
to face with the family of his victim.

The first two hours of the hearing
will be held in the prison where
McKenzie and the attorney gen-
eral’s office will have their witnesses
for and against clemency testify.

The remainder of the hearing will
be held in the Powell County Court-
house in Deer Lodge for the general
public to testify.

Ward Shanahan, a Helena lawyer
who filed the clemency request for
McKenzie, has objected to that pro-
cedure and said his client is no
security risk. McKenzie should be
allowed to attend the entire hearing
so his attorneys can confer with him
during testimony, Shanahan said.

Ethel Harding, the victim’s
mother and state senator from Pol-
son, will be among the witnesses at
the hearing inside the prison.
McKenzie’s stepmother, prison staff
and fellow maximum-security in-
mates will testify for the man.

Craig Thomas, executive director
for the board, said Thursday the
three members will meet publicly
after the hearing to discuss the
clemency request and make their
decision.

Letters to Racicot run
2-1 in favor of execution

By The Associated Press
And Tribune Staff

HELENA — A former student of
Lana Harding is one of more than
100 people who have written Gov.
Marc Racicot with advice on how
to handle a clemency request by
convicted murderer Duncan
McKenzie.

“Words can heal with time, peo-
ple can forget the sharpness of
the pain they once felt, but time
should not erase the need for
justice,” wrote Maureen Trawick,
who now lives in Lacey, Wash.
“Justice, hopefully, will be an ev-
erlasting principle in our lives. If
justice fails, what quality of life
will we have?”

Trawick was one of five pupils
at the Pioneer School northeast of
Conrad in 1974, She remembers
Harding as a special teacher who
“helped to make an ugly duckling
feel good about herself.”

Racicot’s mail is running 2-to-1
in favor of McKenzie being exe-
cuted for the crime.

Meanwhile, letter-writing cam-
paigns were reported in Great
Falls and Conrad. More than 50
letters from Europe and other
locations, primarily from mem-
bers of Amnesty International ex-
pressing similar sentiments, were

sent to the Great Falls Tribune.

“I feel obliged to express my
opposition to this execution and
most seriously to urge you to
reconsider this case, taking into
account the unusual long time
which Duncan McKenzie has
spent on death row,” wrote Pi-
rkko Tamminen of Helsinki, Fin-

land.

The Tribune generally does not
print letters to the editor that
appear to be mass mailings, par-
ticularly those from outside the
readership area, according to
Gary Moseman, managing editor.

In Conrad, where feelings
against McKenzie run high, Pon-
dera County Attorney Chris
Christensen asked residents this
week to write letters and deliver
them to his office. They will be
forwarded in time for McKenzie’s
clemency hearing Saturday.

Christensen said letters sup-
porting the death penalty are
needed to offset the deluge of
mail from outside Montana that
supports clemency.

Back in Helena, some of the
comments received by the gover-
nor’s office were sharply worded.

“Duncan McKenzie should die
— slowly, horribly out on the
frozen prairie as his victim did,”
wrote Lori Micken of Livingston.

“As I read and reflect on the
efforts of Duncan McKenzie to
extend his life, I keep circling
back to Lana Harding and what a
downright shame it is that 20
years of children have not been
illuminated by her light,” wrote
Michelle Robinson of Butte.

Others urged Racicot to com-
mute McKenzie’s death sentence
to life in prison.

“I oppose the death penalty in
principle because of the immoral-
ity of deliberate killing, the cheap-
ening of human life that it engen-
ders and the continuing possibil-
ity of executing innocent people,”
wrote Eric Stimson of Helena.


B

“Friday, April 28,1995.

MONTA

NA

Great Falls Tribune

Classified

Q
Ce 2

Pages 4-10B

Obituaries..........00000.... 2B
Statistics oo cee. 2B >

Questions or news tips? Call City Editor Linda Caricaburu, 791-1491 or 1-800-438-6600.

Federal magistrate won't halt execution

Says McKenzie’s
depositions enough

By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer

HELENA — A federal magistrate
refused Thursday to block the May
10 execution of convicted killer
Duncan McKenzie Jr., marking the
latest legal development in a case
that has continued for two decades.

The decision by U.S. Magistrate
Bart Erickson of Missoula will be
appealed to U.S. District Judge
Charles C. Lovell of Helena and, if
necessary, to the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals, McKenzie lawyer
Ronald Waterman said.

The court already has agreed to
hear another appeal from McKenzie
challenging the setting of the latest
execution date and the execution
itself,

McKenzie was sentenced to die in
1975 for the kidnapping, torturing
and murdering Conrad-area teacher
Lana Harding.

Erickson’s ruling rejected
McKenzie’s argument that he must
participate in lawsuits he and other
maximum-security inmates have
filed against the state over a 1991
riot at the prison.

In the suits, the prisoners claim
their civil rights were violated when
they were beaten and tortured fol-
lowing the riot in the maximum-
security building. Five inmates were
killed by rampaging prisoners dur-
ing the uprising on Sept. 21, 1991.

McKenzie contended he must be
available to give live testimony in
the suits about what happened dur-
ing and after the riot. The state
should not be allowed to kill a mate-
rial witness who can provide ad-
verse testimony against the state,
the inmate said.

Erickson disagreed. A person in

“McKenzie’s personal presence and live
testimony at his own and related suits is not
constitutionally required nor is it necessary to
preserve the integrity of the judicial process.”

prison loses many rights, including
the right to personally attend civil
court proceedings, he said.

He noted that McKenzie already
has provided testimony through two
depositions, and another one is
planned for May 2 at the prison.

“McKenzie’s_ personal presence
and live testimony at his own and
related suits is not constitutionally
required nor is it necessary to pre-
Serve the integrity of the judicial
process. ...,” Erickson wrote.

By videotaping his deposition, as
is planned next week, McKenzie’s

— Federal magistrate Bart Erickson

testimony can be preserved for the
jury after he is dead, Erickson said.

Federal law forbids the killing of a
person in order to prevent him from
testifying in court, but that is not the
case with McKenzie, he said.
McKenzie is scheduled to die for
committing a crime and not as a
means of stopping his testimony,
Erickson concluded.

In a case with possible impact on
McKenzie, Erickson recommended
a challenge to the death penalty filed
by another condemned man be
thrown out. Judge Lovell will decide

next month whether to accept that
recommendation.

The challenge was filed in Febru-
ary 1994 by Terry Langford, who
faces execution for the double kid-
napping and murder of an Ovando
couple in 1988. He had asked that a
ruling be applied to all death-row
inmates, including McKenzie.

Langford contended voter ap-
proval of the death penalty in 1972
was unconstitutional and a violation
of his civil rights. He said the Consti-
tutional Convention that year went
beyond its power in putting the issue
to a vote.as a ballot measure sepa-
rate from the new constitution.

Erickson noted identical claims by
Langford already have been rejected
by the Montana Supreme Court in
1991 and by Lovell four months ago.

Lovell’s ruling in January on the
same issue has been appealed to the
Circuit Court. If Lovell accepts Eri-
ckson’s recommendation on_ this
civil rights claim, that also could be
taken to the appeals court.

4. 4G - GE
Kaley Tif

McKenzie denied

By MICHAEL MOORE
The Missoulian

U.S. Magistrate Bart Erickson on Thursday
denied convicted murderer Duncan McKenzie’s re-
quest to postpone his execution so he can testify in
lawsuits filed by maximum-security inmates in the
wake of the deadly 1991 riot at Montana State
Prison.

McKenzie and his attorney claimed McKenzie’s
due process rights would be denied if he is not able
to attend his civil case. Attorneys representing
other inmates claimed that McKenzie is a material
witness in their cases and should be able to testify.

McKenzie also argued that there is no pressing
need to move ahead with his execution until the
civil cases are resolved, because the execution al-
ready has been delayed for 20 years.

McKenzie, 43, was convicted of aggravated kid-
napping and murder by torture in the 1974 killing of
Lana Harding, who taught at a small school north
of Conrad. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection
on May 10, but his attorney in the criminal case is
appealing the execution to the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals in Helena.

The request to Erickson could only have led to a
postponement of McKenzie’s execution. But the
magistrate ruled that because McKenzie is a pris-
oner, he does not have the same rights as other citi-
zens, including the usual right to be present at a
civil case he filed.

“Plaintiff McKenzie’s personal presence and live
testimony at his own and related suits is not consti-
tutionally required. ...,”” Erickson wrote in his
seven-page order.

Nor can McKenzie, who already has given two
depositions in his civil case and is scheduled for a
third, claim a violation of his equal-protection
rights simply because other inmates might be al-
lowed to testify in their cases, Erickson ruled.

“That other inmates are involved in this litiga-
tion and may, in the trial judge’s discretion, be al-
lowed to attend at their civil trials does not amount
to a denial of equal protection as to Plaintiff
McKenzie, as his nonappearance will not be due to
disparate treatment by the court, but rather due to
his demise,’’ Erickson wrote.

McKenzie’s attorney, Ronald Waterman of Hel-
ena, said the case will be appealed to U.S. District
Judge Charles Lovell in Helena and, if necessary,
to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Appeals called a moc

otate lawyer blasts attempts
to block McKenzie’s execution

By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer

HELENA — Convicted killer Dun-
can McKenzie Jr. makes a mockery
of the justice system by claiming he
has spent too much time on death
row to be executed after the 20-year

wait, a state lawyer has told a fed-
eral court.

Assistant Attorney General
Pamela Collins urged the 9th U.S.

Circuit Court of Appeals not to block
the May 10 execution because
McKenzie himself has been respon-

sible for delaying over the last two
decades.

“Through McKenzie’s own ac-
tions, every possible issue and claim
relating to that sentence and judg-
ment have been exhaustively re-
viewed and discussed,” she wrote in
a document filed Tuesday with the

court.

“McKenzie instigated the delay
and now seeks even more delay in
order to discuss the fact of delay,”
Collins said. “Sanctioning such a
claim would, indeed, bring the law
through the looking glass and into
Alice’s Wonderland.”

Her written argument was the lat-
est development in the fast-paced

legal battle over the pending execu-
tion.

McKenzie, 43, was sentenced to
die in 1975 for the kidnapping and
torture murder of Lana Harding, a
teacher at a country school near
Conrad. He is scheduled to die by
lethal injection in one week.

McKenzie, who would be the first

McKenzie must pay

I just got done reading another article
about Duncan McKenzie.

I don’t know why people don’t want this
man to die, It is not our fault that he keeps
appealing. No matter how much time
goes by he still needs to pay for what he
has done. He needs to face the fact that
it’s over. And for once in his life be a man
and do what needs to be done.

Scott Creighton was quoted as saying,
“Even if we can’t stop McKenzie’s
execution, the problem is, once you first
start doing it, it becomes easier and easier
to execute people.” Well, he doesn’t know
how true that statement is. When
someone kills someone it becomes easier
to do the next time and until the law stops
rewarding these people with a lifetime of
three meals a day, T.V., computers, and
even an education, they are going to keep
on killing.

There always needs to be a first in
everything. Well, now it is Duncan’s turn
to be first. Someone needs to make a
stand and say enough is enough and
payday is today!

LINDA KELLER, 234 Ist St. So., Shelby

person executed in Montana since
1943, has asked that his sentence be
commuted to life in prison without
parole. A public hearing on that
clemency request is scheduled for
Saturday in Deer Lodge before the
State Board of Pardons.

The board will make a recommen-
dation to Gov. Marc Racicot, who
must decide whether to grant clem-
ency.

Meanwhile, the Circuit Court has
said it may let lawyers for McKenzie
and the state argue his latest appeal

in person Saturday in Pasadena,
Calif.

McKenzie claims that executing
him after such a long wait on death
row is the kind of cruel and unusual

kery of the system

punishment forbidden by the U.S.
Constitution.

In a similar Texas case last week,
the U.S. Supreme Court ordered an
execution put on hold while that
legal issue is considered by the fed-
eral courts,

Collins said McKenzie’s repeated
challenges to state court rulings —
not the state — are to blame for
almost two thirds of the delay since
he was sentenced to death.

“He should not be allowed to
make a mockery of the criminal
justice system by continually seek-
ing delay and then arguing his con-
Stitutional rights are violated by

such a delay,” she wrote to the
court. ,

m $*xp Sweoung *HTZNTMOW

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6A — Great Falls Tribune
Thursday, May 11, 1995

THE MCKENZIE EXECUTION

State attorney: Ruling could speed other executions

By MIKE DENNISON
Tribune Capitol Bureau

HELENA — The federal appeals
court ruling that blocked con-
demned murderer Duncan McKen-
zie’s final appeal this week is ‘“ex-
tremely significant,” and could lead
to speedier resolution of other
death-penalty cases, the state attor-
ney handling the case said Wed-
nesday.

“It is a signal to (prisoners) that if
they raise claims at the lastminute
.. that haven’t been raised previ-
ously, the court is going to be very

reluctant to grant that sort of relief,”
said Pam Collins, an assistant attor-
ney general for Montana. “They are
going to consider it a manipulation
of the system.”

An 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday
rejected McKenzie’s appeal, and the
U.S. Supreme Court refused to stay
the execution late Tuesday night.

About one hour later — early
Wednesday morning — McKenzie
became the first Montana inmate to
be executed in 52 years. He had
been convicted 20 years ago for the
1974 kidnapping and torture murder

MONTANA

of schoolteacher Lana Harding, near
Conrad.

McKenzie’s appeal said it would
be ‘‘cruel and unusual punishment”
to execute him so long after he had
been sentenced, and raised at least
one other issue that hadn’t been
argued in earlier appeals.

The Circuit Court panel said it
would be a “mockery of justice” if
delays caused by unsuccessful ap-
peals could be converted into
grounds for a successful appeal.

Prosecutors in at least two other
states — Oklahoma and Texas —
called the Montana attorney gen-

eral’s office Wednesday to request
information on the McKenzie case
and rulings. In both states, death-
row inmates have made similar
claims to attempt to overturn their
death sentence, a Montana Justice
Department spokeswoman said.

Collins said the ruling makes
sense, for if condemned prisoners
are allowed to raise new issues in
appeals indefinitely, executions
could be delayed forever: “The sys-
tem will just break down if you allow
that.”

Tim Ford, a Seattle lawyer who
has been handling McKenzie’s ap-

peals for several years, could not be
reached for comment Wednesday.

Bob Egelko, an Associated Press
reporter who covers the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court from San Francisco,
said the ruling is consistent with a
1990 decision by the appeals court
in an Arizona case, where an inmate
claimed cruel and unusual punish-
ment because of lengthy incarcera-
tion on death row. Egelko also noted
that McKenzie drew a ‘‘very conser-
vative” panel of judges to hear his
case.

“That was just kind of bad luck,
for McKenzie,” he said Wednesday.

In each death row case before the
9th Circuit, an 11-judge panel is
chosen at random from the 28 cir-
cuit court judges. A three-judge
panel rules initially on the appeal,
and the 11-judge panel will review
that decision if a majority of the full
circuit orders such a review.

McKenzie’s panel included nine
judges appointed by Republican
presidents and two appointed by
Democrats, Egelko said. The 11-
judge panel always includes the cir-
cuit’s chief judge, J. Clifford Wall-
ace, a conservative Nixon appointee.

assesses
hau a LT

McKenzie says he saved guards

HELENA (AP) — Duncan
McKenzie Jr., facing execution next
week for a 1974 murder, has testi-
fied that he helped save the lives of
five guards during a prison riot 312
years ago.

When one of the rioting
maximum-security inmates wanted
to kill the unarmed guards barri-
caded in a shower stall during the
uprising, McKenzie said he and two
other prisoners interceded.

He recalled telling Steve Seelye,
“If you want to kill those cops,
you’re going to
have to go
through me.”

McKenzie’s
statement came
during video-
taped testimony
taken at the
prison this week.
Ronald Water-
: man, McKenzie’s
McKenzie lawyer, allowed
The Associated Press to view the
tapes.

If the scheduled May 10 execution
occurs, the taped testimony will be
used in trials resulting from riot-
related lawsuits filed by McKenzie

and other maximum-security in- .

mates against the state.

In the suits, the prisoners claim
their treatment after the riot violated
their civil rights.

During his lengthy testimony
taped at the prison Tuesday, the
heavyset McKenzie appeared a little
tense and sometimes laughed ner-
vously. His short hair was neatly
combed, he wore glasses and stared
at Waterman almost constantly.

He was articulate, gestured often
with his meaty arms and displayed a
keen memory for details during and
after the riot.

McKenzie was not charged with

The public is invited to a “Vigil
for Life’? supporting the Montana
bishops’ statement of opposition
to the death penalty. The service,
7 p.m. Sunday in St. Ann’s Cathe-
dral in Great Falls, is one of
several being held in Montana.

Bishop Anthony M. Milone of
the Diocese of Great Falls-
Billings and Bishop Alex J. Bru-
nett of the Diocese of Helena
issued a statement last month
saying “the Catholic Church
mourns with those who suffer
pain or loss from these crimes

Prayer vipils oppose death penalty

and offers its full support to vic-
tims and their families,” but seeks
non-violent ways of protecting so-
ciety from perpetrators.

The Montana Catholic Confer-
ence is joining with the bishops to
encourage the broadest possible
public participation in prayer ser-
vices highlighting the inherent
dignity of every human person.
Such prayer is being scheduled in —
Havre, Lame Deer, Helena, Dut-
ton, Missoula, Butte, the Montana
State Prison and other locations,
a news release said.

committing crimes during the riot.

He described his role as spectator
to the carnage and destruction that
occurred. He said he had no hint the
riot was coming on Sunday morn-
ing, Sept. 22, 1991.

For at least the first 45 minutes of
the four-hour riot, he remained
locked in his cell. It was another half
hour before someone opened the
doors leading to his cellblock,
McKenzie said.

He heard a lot of shouting and
banging, but said he could not iden-
tify the marauding inmates at first
because they had towels or ban-
danas wrapped around their faces.

McKenzie recalled watching the
successful effort to burn through
safety glass surrounding a cubicle
holding controls for the cell doors.
He said the fire set off sprinklers
that soon flooded the floor with 3-4
inches of water.

He remembered hearing some say
five inmates being held in protective
custody were dead. He walked to

that cellblock and “saw shadowy
forms on the lower level that I as-
sumed were bodies.”

McKenzie said Seelye ‘was all
head up to go over and kill the
guards” who had locked themselves
in the shower and pressed a mat-
tress against the door for protection.

He and two other inmates talked
about the reaction of prison officials
if that happened. “I told Gary Cox
and Bobby Close that you know as
well as I do that if those cops are
killed, they’re going to come in
shooting and there’s going to be a
whole lot of people dying,” McKen-
zie testified.

The three men agreed. Seelye and
his followers didn’t press the issue, .
McKenzie said.

“When they lost the support of
Gary Cox, (and) Bob Close and
(they) knew at least one of the
death-row guys wasn’t going to help
them and was going to oppose them,
they decided that it wasn’t worth the
effort,” he said.


Prison has been goo

KALISPELL (AP) — Ronald Smith has made
impressive personal improvements and adjusted
well to prison life in the 13 years since he
murdered two young men who gave him a ride, a
clinical forensic psychologist testified Wed-
nesday.

Smith is “one of the most impressive capital
cases I’ve worked on in my 15 years of work,” Dr.
Ann Evans of Los Angeles said.

Smith, 37, sat quietly through the third day’s
testimony in his fourth sentencing for the 1982
murders of cousins Harvey Mad Man Jr., 23, and
Thomas Running Rabbit, 20, of Browning.

He was sentenced to die three times before, but
each sentence was overturned. Prosecutors are

again asking for the death sentence.

Missoula District Judge John Larson will make
his decision only after reviewing the testimony
and the massive case file, a process expected to
take weeks.

Criminals seldom rehabilitate themselves in
prison, but Smith has “made something of his
life’ by completing high school and taking col-
lege classes, remaining free of drugs and alcohol,
and learning to control his emotions and under-
stand himself, Evans said.

She and other defense witnesses have por-
trayed Smith, of Red Deer, Alberta, as a product
of an abusive childhood.

Evans and an earlier witness, clinical social

d for Smith, psychologist testifies

worker Shawn Trontel of Kalispell, discussed
how Smith’s childhood affected his personality,
and how it was consistent with his behavior. They
pointed to turmoil, tension and violence in the
family.

“He chose to cope in the only way he could,
with alcohol and drugs to numb himself,” said

Evans.

She said the murders made sense only in the
light of what had gone on in Smith’s life over a
long period of time. “He was unable to be
cognizant of what was happening to him. ... He
had to have been in an abnormal state, because
there was no history of violence in the past.”

McKenzie asks
for 18-day ‘respite’

By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer
HELENA — Duncan Peder

. McKenzie Jr., scheduled to die by
lethal injection May 10, has asked
that his execution be delayed until
May 28.

Although the request for such a
postponement, or respite, has to be
made to the governor, it was instead
sent to the state Board of Pardons on
Tuesday. The letter was forwarded
to the governor’s office Wednesday,
but Gov. Marc Racicot did not re-
spond.

He said the request was not for-
mally submitted to him and, until
that happens, he will not consider
the petition.

Ward Shanahan, a Helena lawyer
who sought the delay for McKenzie,
could not be reached for comment.

In his letter, he said one reason for
the delay is to give the Board of
Pardons more time to consider
McKenzie’s request for clemency.
The board has scheduled a public
hearing Saturday on the application
to have McKenzie’s death sentence
commuted to life in prison without
parole.

McKenzie, 43, was sentenced to
die in 1975 for the kidnapping and
torture murder of Conrad-area
teacher Lana Harding. Court ap-
peals have repeatedly delayed the
execution over the past two decades.

State law gives the governor au-
thority to order a delay in an execu-
tion when a clemency petition has
been filed.

Shanahan said the Board of Par-
dons needs more time to investigate
McKenzie’s case and issue its rec-
ommendation on clemency to Raci-
cot. He also raised questions about
the lack of a prison warden when

the law gives that person duties in
carrying out an execution.

The administration has said Rick
Day, director of the Department of
Corrections and Human Services,
also is the warden.

Saturday’s clemency hearing will
be conducted in two phases.

The first session will begin at 11
a.m. in the prison because correc-
tions officials have refused to allow
McKenzie to attend a hearing held
outside the institution.

McKenzie, his lawyers and his
other supporters advocating clem-
ency will testify for the first hour.
Then Attorney General Joe Mazurek
and his witnesses opposed to clem-
ency will testify for an hour.

The board will recess until 2 p.m.
and reconvene at the Powell County
Courthouse in nearby Deer Lodge
for the remainder of the hearing to
take comments from the general
public.

Attendance at the prison hearing
will be limited because the room
used by the board is so small.

Thomas said a decision will be
made sometime before the hearing
starts whether the board’s delibera-
tions after the hearing will be done
in public or in secret.

Meanwhile, a federal judge Wed-
nesday rejected a request by another
death-row inmate to block McKen-
zie’s execution.

Terry Langford had argued that
he needs McKenzie alive to testify
on his behalf at any new trial on
murder charges stemming from the
1991 prison riot. Langford, sen-
tenced to die for the kidnapping and
murders of an Ovando couple in
1988, was convicted of helping to
kill one of five inmates murdered
during the riot in the maximum-
security building.

Quit coddling criminals

Jam writing this letter in regard to the
punishment of the Oklahoma City
bombers.

In a truly just culture, the perpetr
and all those found guilty shconpitne.
with them to inflict this heinous crime
upon humanity would be restrained
publicly and every family who had a loved
one killed or injured would be given the
opportunity to club them until they died as
gruesome a death as their victims.
Instead, lam sure our criminal coddling
Justice system will spend millions of
dollars providing security for the
perpetrators, lawyers at public expense to
defend them, money to sequester juries
and housing, until the almost endless
appeals process is exhausted. This money
would be better spent to build a memorial
park for the city where the ravaged shell of
para P. Murrah building now stands,
and to construct a new da
federal building. eens eae

The toll this mass murder has taken
upon American society is extreme.
Survivors, families of the dead and
injured, medical personnel, firefighters
and other rescue workers and their loved
ones will suffer psychological
consequences for years to come, no matter
how mentally healthy they were before
April 19, 1995. You cannot risk your life
crawling into an unstable, rubble-strewn
wreck of a building only to find
dismembered limbs and blown-apart

children without incurring a devastating
amount of stress.

Please write to President Clinton and
your elected representatives in
Washington, D.C., urging swift justice to
be done and, if you can possibly afford it
please make a contribution to the
American Red Cross and Salvation Army
who are always there first to help in all
disasters and national emergencies.

DENISE B. DERK, R.N., 1009 4th West
Hill Drive


ene

n

McKENZIE, Duncan, Jr., white, LI MTSP (Pondera) May 10, 1995

The Cincinnati Post, Wednesday, May 10, 1995

Montana executes
schoolteacher’s killer

Associated Press

DEER LODGE, Mont. —
With country music playing on
his headphones, a man was exe-
cuted by injection today 20 years
after being convicted of murder-
ing a schoolteacher.

Duncan McKenzie Jr. was the

‘first person to be executed since
1943 in Montana, a state that was

legendary for dispensing swift

frontier justice. ;
Corrections officials said

McKenzie, 43, was cooperative

and even joked with staff as the

execution neared. After a last
meal of steak, french fries, Salad,
milk and orange sherbet, he was
taken to the execution chamber
at 11:40 p.m., listening to an al-
bum by singer Marty Robbins.

Asked if he had any last
words, McKenzie shook his
head. The lethal drugs were in-
jected with the headphones still
on his ears.

After McKenzie stopped
breathing, the music was audible
in the silence of the chamber.

A spokesman for Gov. Marc
Racicot said officials granted
one of McKenzie’s last requests,
to be allowed to listen to music
during his execution. The prison
provided the tape player; the
tape was McKenzie’s.

McKenzie maintained his in-
nocence in the 1974 kidnapping
and murder of 23-year-old Lana
Harding, the teacher in a one-
room rural school near the town

eo 8

The Associated Press

Duncan McKenzie Jr., shown at a
Montana State Prison clemency
hearing Saturday, was executed
by injection early today.

of Conrad in Montana’s wheat
country.

McKenzie, then 22, was fresh
out of prison after a three-year
sentence for assaulting a wom-
an. He had just bought an old
truck, and was heard boasting
that he “broke in” his vehicles
by having sex in them.

He said he preferred teachers,
and told a co-worker he had one
in mind.

Hours later, Miss Harding

was attacked in her living quar-
ters next to the school. Her body
was found in a snowy field. She
had been raped, choked and
beaten. A rope was tied around
her neck, and the right side of
her head was smashed open.

McKenzie’s truck was seen
heading toward the field the
night of the murder. His bloody
gloves were found nearby. Blood
was found in the bed of his
truck, along with purple fibers
that matched Miss Harding’s
Sweater.

Brain tissue and blood match-
ing Miss Harding’s were found
on an auto part in the back of
the truck.

McKenzie had avoided eight
scheduled executions in his two
decades on death row.

Pleading for mercy in a meet-
ing Monday with the governor,
McKenzie said he felt sorry for
the Harding family. But he ad-
ded: “I can’t come to you and
beg forgiveness for something
that I didn’t do.”

The last person put to death
in Montana was Philip Coleman,
who was hanged Sept. 10, 1943,
for murdering a railroad fore-
man who had hired him days
earlier.

McKenzie was the 20th per-
son executed in the United
States this year, and the 277th
Since the 1976 Supreme Court
decision allowing states to re-
sume Capital punishment.

Case reflects controversy
over capital punishment

By SUSAN GALLAGHER
Associated Press Writer

HELENA — The death-penalty
debate is coming out of its slumber
in Montana as the state moves
toward its first execution in 52
years.

Duncan McKenzie will die by
lethal injection early Wednesday
unless he prevails in last-ditch
court appeals or the execution is
blocked by Gov. Marc Racicot.

The prospect that the 43-year-
old inmate might finally die for the
1974 kidnapping and torture mur-
der of Lana Harding, a teacher
near Conrad, is recharging argu-
ments for and against capital pun-
ishment.

The Roman Catholic Church is
leading the push against the death
penalty, and is joined by some
other churches
plus groups
such as the
American Civil
Liberties
Union. A
woman whose
daughter was
abducted in
Montana and fia
murdered
more than 20 McKenzie
years ago plans to travel from
Michigan for a vigil against the
death sentence.

Supporters of the penalty, in-
cluding Lana Harding’s family, are
speaking out.

Racicot gets mail from both
sides, :

“It’s time to cook him,” said
Herb Maier of Missoula, one of
several dozen letter writers.
“Don’t give in to these bleeding
heart, compassionate clergy or
anybody else.”

“By executing his sentence, we
only join the violence and disdain
for life,” wrote Gerald Mueller and

Carol Mitchell, also of Missoula.

Racicot has no comment on the
mail. “This is not a referendum,”
said Andrew Malcolm, his commu-
nications director.

The arguments are the same
ones that swirl around the death-
penalty debate nationally: crime
deterrence or lack of it; humani-
tarianism; the balance between
crime and punishment; personal
responsibility; the cost of impris-
onment and more.

After eight postponements over
the last two decades while
McKenzie’s appeals played out,
the execution must not be delayed
again, said Ethel Harding, Lana’s
mother. The grief over her death
will never end, Harding said, but it
is important that McKenzie take
responsibility for his crime and
close the chapter he has kept open
for so long.

LaVonne Hohn emphathizes.

Her daughter, 34-year-old
Donna Meagher, was abducted
from the family’s Helena-area tav-
ern last year and beaten to death,
her body left along the highway
west of town.

The two men convicted in the
kidnapping, robbery and murder
got life in prison Monday after
prosecutors did not request the
death penalty. Hohn said she un-
derstands why execution was not
sought, but the decision is difficult
to accept.

“I figure if someone takes an-
other life, they in turn should lose
their own life,” she said. “In the
old days, things would have been
different, but now with our new
laws, they protect the criminal.”

The Rev. Jerry Lowney, a Catho-
lic priest and Carroll College soci-
ology professor, is a leading oppo-
nent of capital punishment in
Montana. He was a key figure in
supporting clemency for con-
demned inmate David Keith in
1988. Ted Schwinden granted it
just days before his term as gover-
nor expired.

Lowney said the prospect of
McKenzie’s execution is particu-
larly troubling because the man
has a history of
mental illness.
3 It is very un-
likely he would
get the death
penalty if sen-
tenced today,
Lowney said.

He also be-
: =a lieves McKen-

zie got the
Lana Harding death sentence
to ensure he was in prison for life,
not because the state intended him
to die. When McKenzie was sen-
tenced, Montana did not have a
provision for life in prison without
parole, Lowney said.

Opponents of capital punish-
ment intend to hold prayer ser-
vices or vigils around the state. A
vigil is planned Tuesday night at
the prison grounds in Deer Lodge
as the execution hour approaches.

Supporters of the death penalty
also might show up, but prison
officials said none has announced
plans. Separate gathering places, a
couple of miles from the prison
itself, have been designated.

“We're hoping it will be peace-
ful,” said prison spokeswoman
Linda Moodry.

Board: No mercy recommended

FROM IA

has had on the Harding family.

“I have no doubt that the impact
this case has had on my life and the
Hardings — it’s like a wave in a pool,
it’s expanded out,” he said.

Clad in an orange jumpsuit and
wearing handcuffs and a leg chain, a
slump-shouldered McKenzie sat im-
passively while others testified for
and against his clemency.

When members of the Harding
family spoke, he stared toward the
floor and did not look at them.

Ethel Harding said McKenzie
stole her daughter's future and has
mocked the justice system with 20

told the board.

“Hopefully you can understand a
mother’s cry, which is still asking
‘Why?’ and finding no reasonable
answer,” she said.

Veronica Bearcub, whose sister
Barbara was attacked and nearly
killed by Mckenzie in 1970 near
Harlem, recalled the injuries leaving
her sister disabled for 10 years be-
fore she died.

“There are two words I'd like to
say to McKenzie,” she said, wiping
away tears. “Forgiving and forget-
ting. The first one I did, the second
one I can’t.”

Shirley McKenzie professed her

vide a chance to prove it.

“I do believe in the death penalty
when you know the person has ad-
mitted it and there is absolutely no
doubt,” she said. “There is no justice
in the state of Montana for McKen-
zie.”

During a break in the hearing,
Shirley McKenzie signed an agree-
ment that she will handle funeral
arrangements after her son’s execu-
tion.

Attorney General Joe Mazurek
said the evidence of McKenzie’s
guilt is overwhelming and no court
has ever thrown out the conviction
or sentence.

“Today, he is asking us to forget

We will all be murderers

In a matter of days, we will all be
participating in the murder of
Duncan McKenzie, a man convicted
of murder and sentenced to death.

Undoubtedly, his crime is
abhorrent and detestable and he
must be held accountable.

We cannot tolerate violence and
the destruction of human life, and
the state is responsible to protect its
citizenry from people who threaten
it. We expect people to respect the
life of fellow human beings and to
live in a civil manner. When they fail
to meet this standard, the state must
Step in to restore peace.

Do we have these, if not higher,
standards for ourselves? Apparently
not. In fact, we have descended
morally and responsibly below the
very man we have convicted by
endorsing and accepting his
murder. As supposedly rational,
sane, educated, and compassionate
citizens, we have premeditated,
planned and intend to carry out the
murder of a man.

That he is guilty is not the issue.
That fact has been firmly
established. Of concern is the
manner in which we respond. Our
own guilt or innocence rests upon
the action we take.

In choosing to execute McKenzie,
we incur upon ourselves the very
judgment we have passed on him:
guilt of murder. Who will pay the
penalty for OUR crime? Will it not
be those who know killing him is
wrong and, yet, remain silent? They,
in fact, will pay the price as they
walk around with his blood on their
hands and consciences.

I, however, refuse to sit back and

say nothing. I refuse to be held
accountable and responsible for this
man’s death. It is wrong and I will
not remain silent. At this point in
time, McKenzie is the only one
guilty, but in a matter of days it will
be every citizen of the state of
Montana. I will not join McKenzie in
HIS guilt by participating, however
passively it may be, in his death.

Iam ashamed to be a “Montanan”
when it comes to this issue and am
infuriated that I am inadvertently
involved in the planned, deliberate
murder of this man. I submit this
letter to publicly express my dissent
and disappointment toward the state
of Montana, its leaders, and its
citizenry for allowing this atrocity to
occur.

LIBBY VAN SLYKE, Billings

McKenzie should die

This letter concerns the clemency
hearing for Duncan McKenzie.

This man has been found guilty of
the taking of an innocent life. The
victim’s only fault in this matter was
that she was a —
young, pretty
and defenseless
woman.

Duncan 20
McKenzie killed FRX
herbecauseshe [*
was defenseless. § j '
After all, what ia
could possibly
happen to him?
If caught, he still
had to be convicted. If convicted, he
still had to be sentenced. What
would the worst sentence be? I
believe, in Mr. McKenzie’s mind, the
worst sentence would be prison with
parole in less than 20 years. After
all, there hadn’t been an execution
in this state in decades and it
seemed at the time that no one
stayed in prison for more than a few
years, let alone life.

McKenzie

I believe that the previous system

of lenient justice has not worked to
protect innocent and honest people.
I believe the best way to protect
innocent people is to educate the
potential wrongdoer that the people
will no longer stand for it. The
recent Republican landslide in the
last national election happened
partly because people were trying to
send a clear and definitive signal
that we are tired of letting people get
away with murder.

Let us give defenseless people like
Lana Harding some defense. Let us
give our people the right to walk
their streets at day and night
knowing that if violence should be
done to them that the felons would
be truly punished.

This man does not hold any
regard for anyone else’s life or
happiness or feelings. The cruel
torture and rape and sadistic killing
of his victim provesthis. —

Mr. McKenzie was legally proven
guilty of murder. Let us carry out the
legal execution of his sentence. His
actions have proven that he deserves
to die.

ROGER STINSON, Star Route 405,
Brady

Grant clemency

As a member of Amnesty
International and as a native
Montanan, I’m writing to urge you
to grant clemency to Duncan
McKenzie.

You may be sure that I have little
sympathy for Mr. McKenzie and
have no trouble envisioning him as a
maximum security prisoner for the
rest of his life. However, one of the
most unfortunate effects of evil is its
tendency to beget more evil:
exacting a death for a death. As
members of a civilized society, we
must not let the deed of a murderer
allow our government, through
imposition of the death penalty, to
become an executioner.

I have lived in Montana all my life.

I was born in 1951, which means
that I have lived in a state that has
not executed anyone in my lifetime.
Iam proud of my state for that
tradition, among many others that
testify to its uniqueness.

Again, I urge you to grant
clemency to Mr. McKenzie and to
oppose use of the death penalty in
Montana.

JENNIFER O’LOUGHLIN, Box
1415, Dillon

Close McKenzie book

“Life seems to be cheap and blood
flows freely, not only “across the
pond,” but in America’s heartland...
yet Duncan McKenzie lives on! Not
for any predictable good he may
eventually do, and not for remorse
or repentance. Simply because he
enjoys breathing, eating and toying
with his computer.

No, Duncan has it made, thanks to
lawyers who have milked the system
nearly dry at their fellow citizens’
expense.

Ask the good folks in Pondera
County how much it cost them in the
first nightmarish months of legal
shenanigans. No question about his
guilt, although he has so insulated
himself against the truth that he has
the gall to deny it.

In spite of what the good brothers
of the cloth suggest, Duncan chose
to reject his “in the image of God”
rights when he elected to act asa
son of Satan.

Nobody, including the lawyers,
has denied the fact that Lana
Harding intended to be only a part
of the hope for common good in
society. McKenzie destroyed that
hope, that life, that dream.

I believe we should stop wasting
time and tax dollars and close not
only the chapter, but the book, on
Duncan Peder McKenzie now.

4
FRANCIS O. HATLER, 515 2nd Ave.
«5.W.

du. FoF “VD

Board: Let McKenzie die

Racicot urged to deny
request for clemency

Duncan Peder McKenzie; in orange coveralls,
Pardons at the Montana State Prison In Deer L
lawyer, Ron Waterman, left.

By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer

DEER LODGE — Convicted killer
Duncan Peder McKenzie Jr., sched-

uled to die by lethal injection, does
not deserve mercy, the state Board
of Pardons unanimously decided
Saturday.

' With only 15 minutes of discus-
sion after a five-hour clemency hear-
ing, the board recommended Gov.
Marc Racicot reject McKenzie’s re-
quest to have his death sentence
commuted to life in prison without
parole.

Racicot is expected to be make his
decision Monday.

Patrick Fleming, board member
from Butte, said McKenzie’s clem-
ency petition found no favor be-
cause he offered no reasons to spare
his life.

“I didn’t find an individual who
was contrite,” he said. “I did not find
an individual who was rehabilitated.
: I did not find an individual that I

@ thought was safe and prepared to do

anything other than accept his fate.
3; “I'd hoped I would hear some
i justification in his defense. I'd

Elsewhere

mother, sounded tired and relieved
after the board’s action. “It’s the
only way it can happen because of
the type of crime it was,” she said.

Harding said she was confident
Racicot would make his decision
based on the law, regardless of what
anybody else thinks.

Those arguing for clemency said
others committing equally horrible
crimes have not been sentenced to
death in Montana and McKenzie has
been well-behaved in prison. They
said the long delay has been cruel
and unusual punishment and life in
prison is a suit-

- ‘some explana- [MSide:

fense. I'd hoped [fl Execution procedures, foes argued that
step by step /4A capital punish-

that I would
hear some con-

fense. I did not.”

’ The other two
board members,

proper? / 4A

able alternative
to death.
Death penalty

ment is morally

trition for the of- - J |s capital punishment wrong and no de-

terrent to crime.
Opponents of

John Thomas of
Helena and Julene Kennerly of
Browning, agreed.

“It is because I value life that I can
see no other destiny than to not
recommend clemency,” Kennerly
said. “This crime was brutal, it was
unmerciful.”

Ron Waterman and Ward Shan-
ahan, attorneys for McKenzie, de-
clined to comment after the board’s
decision.

McKenzie, 43, is scheduled to die
Wednesday for the 1975 kidnapping
and torture murder of Lana Har-
ding, a 23-year-old Conrad-area
teacher. His death sentence has

ybeen.-delayed for two decades by
ppeals in state and federal courts.
“\:Ethel-. Harding, the victim’s

clemency said
McKenzie has
never admitted his guilt or shown
any remorse, has not been a model
prisoner and has his own repeated
court appeals to blame for the long
wait on death row.

McKenzie’s testimony highlighted
the first part of the hearing held
inside the prison.

“I’m asking the board to allow me
the opportunity to continue to live
here inside the prison for the rest of
my life,” he said.

McKenzie said he would use his
prison years to help other, younger
inmates avoid the pitfalls in his life.

His only reference to the crime
was when asked about the effect it

See BOARD, 4A


4A — Great Falls Tribune
Sunday, May 7, 1995

THE McKENZIE CASE

Detailed

State officials
making ready
for Wednesday

By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer

DEER LODGE — When Wed-
nesday, May 10, is only minutes old,
the 20-year death vigil of convicted
killer Duncan McKenzie Jr. is sched-
uled to end:

Barring any court-ordered delay
or executive clemency, his execu-
tion by lethal injection will take
place that night in a 12-by-50 trailer
that has been used only as a store-
room since it was placed behind the
maximum-security building at the
State prison in 1987.

McKenzie, 43, was sentenced to
die in 1975 for the torture-murder
and aggravated kidnapping of Con-
rad-area teacher Lana Harding.

The procedure for carrying out
Montana’s death penalty — the first
since 1943 — is dictated by state law
and, in more detail, by a lengthy
document called the Technical Man-
ual.

Corrections officials have refused
to make public the manual, saying
its release would jeopardize security
by disclosing prison staff assign-
ments and guard movements before
and during the execution.

But The Associated Press ob-
tained a portion of the manual, and
corrections officials have supplied
some information about the execu-
tion and the days before.

In this final week before the exe-
cution, McKenzie is allowed the
usual three visitors and is permitted
daily meetings and unlimited phone
calls only with his attorneys.

On his final day, Tuesday,
McKenzie will eat lunch. Later, he
will choose his final meal from a
menu provided by the prison’s food
service manager,

Sometime between 6 p.m. and 9
P.m., McKenzie will be moved to a
special holding cell a few feet from
the execution chamber. His only

visitors will be approved clergy and
his lawyers. The only phone calls he
can have are with his attorneys.

Prison officials already have
picked the executioner and an alter-
nate. State law requires the selec-
tion process and identities be kept
secret, but the Technical Manual
says they must be volunteers and do
not have to be prison employees.

State law says the executioner
does not have to be a doctor or
nurse, but must be trained in admin-
istering the injection.

Other people will set up the intra-

venous system that delivers the
deadly drugs into McKenzie’s arm.
Although those identities do not
have to be kept secret, officials
refuse to name them.

Officials also refuse to reveal the
time of the execution, saying that
would be another threat to security
of the prison. However, the death
sentence is expected to be carried
out shortly after midnight.

The law requires 12 witnesses.
Four will be reporters, five will be
chosen by Department of Correc-
tions and Human Services Director

plans dictate execution

Rick Day, and McKenzie can select
three.

Day said has not yet made his
choices, but they will include mem-
bers of the victim's family and Wal-
ter Hammermeister, who was Pon-
dera County sheriff when Harding
was murdered.

McKenzie has not named his wit-
nesses. If and when he does, offi-
cials said those names might also
remain a secret,

In the hours before the execution,
the syringes carrying the lethal
Crugs will be prepared. Three sets of

the five syringes will be ready in
case something is dropped or mal-
functions.

Outside, any demonstrators will
be kept about 2% miles away from
the prison. Increased security will
be in place — officials won't provide
details — and any unauthorized per-
son on prison property that night
will be arrested.

Inside, inmates in the high- and
low-security compounds will not be
locked into their cells unless prob-
lems require such a lockdown.

Just before the execution, the wit-

nesses will be escorted to the trailer.
They will sit on one side of a 3-foot
high partition. On the other side,
barely three feet from the front row
of witnesses, is the gurney where
McKenzie will die.

A wall with a small smoked-glass
window will guard the identity of
the executioner and conceal the two
intravenous Setups, one a backup to
the other.

IV. tubes will extend from a small
portal below the window. A needle
at the end of each tube will be
inserted into both of McKenzie’s
arms that will be Strapped to boards
extending at a right angle on each
side of the gurney.

One LV. is a backup in case the
other fails.

A_ harmless saline solution will
begin to flow through the tubes.
McKenzie will be given an opportu-
nity to speak.

The execution will start when a
Syringe containing two grams of
sodium pentothal will be inj2cted
into the I.V. line. That is more than
three times the normal dose used to
prepare a surgery patient for anes-
thesia and should render McKenzie
unconscious in one minute.

Next, two syringes containing a
total of 100 milligrams of Pavulon, a
muscle paralyzer, will be emptied
into the line. That is more than nine
times the normal dose and should
stop McKenzie’s breathing in less
than 60 seconds.

Finally, two syringes of potassium
chloride containing 10 times the
usual dosage will be injected to stop
McKenzie’s heart almost instantly.

A doctor will pronounce McKen-
zie dead and the vigil will be fin-
ished.


Killer’s
appeal
rejected

State continues to plan

for May 10 execution

By BILL HEISEL JR.
Associated Press Writer

HELENA — The state Supreme
Court Tuesday denied a request by
convicted murderer Duncan
McKenzie Jr. that he spend the rest
of his life ih prison Instead of dying
by lethal injection on May 10.

The court, however, has yet to
issue a written opinion about why it
granted a state piel to righ heed

leaving lawyers on bo
pen : ‘sides wonder-
ome ing how to pro-
ceed. ‘

y

‘has lived on
death row at the
Montana State
Prison since he
was convicted
in 1975 of the
kidnapping and

Cs Pe murder of. Con-
rad-aréea school teacher Lana Hard-
ing a yeat earller.

“McKenzie, 41,’

~ McKenzie's attorney, Tim Ford of
Seattle, said he wants to see the
court’s opinion before deciding
whether to appeal to a higher court
or take other legal action.

. Either way, he said, he will con-
tinue fighting the execution, con-
tending it is a cruel punishment that
sefves no purpose at this late date.
He also said the state forced
McKenzie to decide how he would

be éxecuted without explaining how

5: lethal injection would be admin-
Stered.

Our opinion is the execution Is

-vold, and the case should be ended,”
‘Ford said, adding that he does not
‘believe it is necessary to ask for a

delay in the execution. “My primary
concern is getting a court to deter-

‘mine whether Montana can do any

of this stuff, and so far they are just
fhaking it up as they go along.”

* The attorney general's office also
fs awaiting its next move.

, “All we can say is we're proceed-
ing in accordance with the previous
order, which fis the May 10 execu-

See EXECUTION, 2A

WED, APR. 12, (WS
GREAT FALLS

TR

Bu we

Crowrawa)

Tribune photo
Convicted murderer Duncan
Peder McKenzie on his way
to a court appearance last
month in Great Falls.

McKenzie
files two

appeals of
execution

:By MICHAEL W. BABCOCK
‘Tribune Staff Writer

: ‘Duncan McKenzie’s attorneys
have seized upon a veteran U.S.

Supreme Court justice’s sugges- |

tion that delays in execution
should nullify capital punishment

and are asking a state judge to.

reconsider McKenzie’s May 10
execution date.

(Mow TAWA)

. Thursday, Aptil 1:

' . Stevens,

Ina companion filing in Helena
Tuesday, McKenzie has asked the

jee teens Supreme Court to
change his
~ “We feel sentence to
ae life in prison
pretty without pa-

_ strongly there role.
isnobasisfor McKenzie,

appealhere, Who was sen-
tenced to die

Hehashad in 1975. for
20 years to the aggra-
raise every —_—_vated kidnap.

A ping an

“conceivable murder of ru-
issue.” ral school

teacher Lana
Harding, was
given the
May execu-
tion date last
wack by state district court Judge
Thomas McKittrick of Great Falls.

‘2D Wednesday, McKenzie’s
lawyers filed a motion for recon-
Sideration in state district court in
Great Falls in which they say
‘McKenzie’s case is. exactly the
‘lid of situation Justice John Paul
Stevens referred to last week
Fehten he questioned whether exe-
“putibn orders should stand for-
ever.

‘= Pamela Collins,
<<. assistant state
‘5’ attorney general
‘ARO bch A to BE Rab

the court’s oldest
member, wrote what amounted to
a‘two-page essay accompanying
an order from the full court that
turned down the appeal of Texas
killer Clarence Allen Lackey, who
has been on death row for 17

years. McKenzie has been on

death row for 20 years.

“Like McKenzie, Lackey argues
that.executing him now, after all
his years on death row, would
amount to cruel and unusual pun-
ishment.

Stevens wrote that prolonged
stays on death row may obliterate
the two main considerations sup-
porting capital punishment — its
being considered permissible by
those who wrote the Constitution

See EXECUTION, 6A

GREAT FALLS TRIQUNE

(evi

i a ee oe te ot),

Execution: New approach in appeals

FROM IA
and the social purposes of retribu-
tion and deterrence.

Stevens wrote that the issue was
worth considering by the Supreme
Court after lower courts had ex-
amined the issue.

“On the day the court issued the
death warrant, (Stevens) issued an
opinion underscoring the substan-
tiality of one of the constitutional
issues McKenzie has raised,”
McKenzie’s motion says. “(That
is) the cruelty and unusualness of
an execution after an extraordi-
nary period of delay, such has
occurred in this case.”

In the appeal filed in Helena,
McKenzie asked to have his sen-
tence changed to life in prison
without parole.

McKenzie has suffered enough
being locked up waiting to die for
20 years, defense lawyer Gregory
Jackson of Helena said in docu-
ments filed with the court Tues-
day.

Executing McKenzie would be
“punishment of unprecedented
cruelty” and serve no purpose SO
long after the crime, he said.

Assistant Attorney General
Pamela Collins declined to specu-
late Wednesday on whether the
appeal would delay the execution.

“We feel pretty strongly there is
no basis for appeal here,” she said.
“He (McKenzie) has had 20 years
to raise every conceivable issue.

“Our office will do everything
we can to see that the court’s
sentence handed down 20 years
ago is carried out, finally,” Collins
added.

In the appeal, McKenzie’s law-
yer said his client has been locked
up longer than any other prisoner
ever executed in the nation. He has
suffered “a tremendous amount of
psychological anguish and pain”
because of the long imprisonment
and repeated execution dates, the
court was told.

The resulting stress and anxiety
“have taken an extreme toll on Mr.
McKenzie’s_ spiritual well-being
and mental health,” attorney
Jackson said. “Added to the ex-
traordinary extended pain inher-
ent in this decades-long wait for
death is the fact that a death sen-
tence carried out after such a time
cannot help but be not only cruel
but purposeless.”

Another reason to convert the
death sentence is that McKenzie
has proven himself a well-behaved
inmate and that should be consid-
ered by the court, Jackson said.

Those convicted in a dozen simi-
lar cases of kidnapping and mur-
der have not been sentenced to
death, and McKenzie should not

be singled out for different treat-.

ment, he added.

“Mr. McKenzie’s sentence thus
appears to be excessive and dis-
proportionate to those imposed in
similar cases,” the justices were
told. , ct

McKenzie’s motion filed in state
district court in Great Falls also
claims:

e McKittrick has no jurisdiction

_in the case. Several judges have

presided over the McKenzie case,
but McKenzie claims retired Judge
R.D. McPhillips never issued an

order calling for a subsequent
judge after retired District Judge
H. William Coder had the case.

e The death warrant authorizes
an unlawful execution. He says
Rick Day, director of the Depart-
ment of Corrections and Human
Services is designated as being
responsible for the execution
while state law in effect when
McKenzie was sentenced called
for the county sheriff to perform
the execution.

e He is suffering additional
punishment because he has been
essentially ‘locked down” at
Montana State Prison by having
communication with other in-
mates shut off.

Linda Moodry, public informa-
tion officer at Montana State
Prison in Deer Lodge, said
McKenzie is not on lockdown sta-
tus but that he now goes to the day
room and exercise yard by him-
self. Before he was allowed to
accompany other inmates.

“As he gets closer to the execu-
tion, we will keep a closer eye on
him,” Moodry said.

The May 10 execution date is the
ninth for McKenzie. Each time so
far, dates have been postponed
while McKenzie appealed. Earlier
this year, the U.S. Supreme Court
refused to hear McKenzie’s ap-
peal. Within minutes of McKitt-
rick’s order on March 27, McKen-
zie’s attorneys had filed a notice of
their intent to appeal.

At the hearing, McKenzie chose
to die by lethal injection rather
than hanging after McKittrick per-
sisted in getting McKenzie to
choose his method of execution.

Family copes

GREAT FALLS (AP) — The Hardings were a
small family and Lana was the light of their
lives. So when her young, bright flame was
snuffed out 20 years ago, darkness settled over
their Lake County home.

“I thought my life had ended,” Ethel Harding
said recently, “but I had a son and a husband
and supportive family and friends.”

Now, two decades later, and with Warren
Harding having died of cancer in 1985, Ethel and
son Greg are left alone to talk about their losses. .

How frustrating it is for them that Duncan
McKenzie, the man convicted of murdering Lana,
is still alive and appealing his death sentence.

“It’s very difficult to think in terms of any-
thing drastic happening to (your children),”
Ethel Harding said. “At the time I couldn’t un-
derstand it and I hated him, of course, and then
I had to get past that. You can’t let what some-
one else does destroy you. We all got over that
and past it because it was his problem.”

Like her daughter, Ethel Harding is a devout
Christian, and she says that was her strength
when Lana was killed.

“If it hadn't been for knowing we have eterni-

BOZEMAN DAILY CHRONICLE, Sunday, February 13, 1994

with murder,

“| knew she wasn't suffering
anymore. It was the rest of us
trying to get through this.”

_ —Ethel Harding, whose daughter was

murdered 20 years ago

ty and knowing where she is, I don’t know how
people would face that,” Ethel Harding said. “I

~ knew she wasn’t suffering anymore. It was the.

rest of us trying to get through this.”

Greg Harding, younger than his sister by 18
months, has lost patience with the judicial sys-
tem. “I had an opportunity to look right into his
heart through his eyes,” said Harding, who op-
erates a concrete business in Pablo. “He’s a
cold-blooded guy.”

“The jury that tried him wanted him execut-
ed and the judge that gave the sentence wanted
him executed and all the people who found him
guilty wanted him executed.”

Lana Harding was murdered the evening of
Jan. 21, 1974, a Monday. A search for her began

court delays

Tuesday after a young farmer noticed children
milling aimlessly at the school near Ledger,
where she taught.

Pondera County’s sheriff at the time, Walter
Hammermeister, arrested McKenzie the same
day, Jan. 22. Lana Harding's body was found
draped over a farm implement in a snowy field.

A year later, at a trial in Great Falls, McKen-
zie was convicted of murder by torture and of
aggravated kidnapping. He was sentenced to
hang but has appealed, and at 41, he has out-
lived many of the key people in the case.

“He'll never outlive the people around Con-
rad who were so upset at the time,” Ethel Hard-
ing said. “I'm sure that there are enough people
around the state that he will never walk the
streets again.” :

Greg Harding says it’s a wonder McKenzie
wasn’t lynched.

“I can remember at the time of this happen-
ing that there was an uprising, almost a vigilante
group that, at the wishes of my parents, would
have rioted on that little country jailhouse and
would have executed him the day her body was
found,” Greg said.

FAQONTANR

“¥

a

D TOVOTE AT PRIMARY ELECT!

DLUME XXV—NUMBER 42 , FORSYTH, MONTANA,

Pa ANEL 30 JU

JOGE JONES SETS DATES FOR
RIALS OF ALFRED LANE
HHARGED WITH MURDOE
JARRY THEADE AND DOR. F. G
OTH WITH THEFT OF TEAM
DF HORSES

ANE 10 BE TRIED FIRST

term at «
th for a two crim
on the slendar, fifty jur-
being drawn Saturday by the
rt officials :
wCounty Attorney Sam Crawford ap |
ed/in behalf of the state in both!
es. Attorney Donald Campbell ap.’
ed for Dr. Foth and F. FP. Haynes!
appointed by the court to repre-
t Alfred Lane the two men who}

to be tried

The fir-t case on the calendar is
of Alfred Lane who is charged |
th the murder of Harry Theade a!
cher of the Hathaway district on}
might of April 26th in Lane's |
h house, where he had gone to
nsact some busine: Following

the dis: varance of Theade a search!

made by neighbors with the re-|

It that his body was found in a cel-|

under the Lane house with sever
bullet holes in it

According to reports Lane remained

bour he place for several days but

pt ar the home of neighbor-, and

i

hen he discovered a poxse of men
bout the neighborhood

Dearest! in the dense

remained in hiding for fiv >
Band sseceasfully «

bh He finally «aie out and

to Captain Sam Roberts and has
e been confined in the county jail

Bwaitine ‘rial

narian Ahe is
Bie moat charge of
ad larceny Neged to have sto.
Ba team of horses belonging to EF
Cobb of this and who has «
rn uth of here The theft is al
ed have occured on or about:
ril 5, 1919 and although # diligent |
ch was made by the officers it
only recently that the team wax|
pated ut Ingomar in the possession |
@ liveryman of that place. |

; foot of its maximum heighth which oc-

; | a
RORS DRAWN anise oso

4 AOR TRIAL CRIMINAL CASES "ss2srsz.2rccou| WIL MOTT

ee LEAGUE ORGANIZER OF BiL-

| LINGS WHO SHAPES COURSE ELOP
«« YELLOWSTONE | OF FUTURE ACTIVITIES. MOREHNK DEY’ .
ee CIATION ADVISED fs
LAKE HE] At a meeting held in the county OEPARTMENT: HOnSEY
court house here last week with mem CAN MAKE IMMER a
bers of what is known as the Central] SY WAIVING RIGHB
THAT OF 1918 Labor Lexgue orgeaization and the! GA® AND MINE
Nonpartisan League present it was
decided to place a county ticket in the
SECRETARY LOCKE OF YELLOw.| field at the coming election. Owing FIRST RIGHT lg
STONE IRRIGATION Agsocia.|to the Meeting being held dehind

TION MADE INSPECTION TRIP| closed doors the information obtain: , 10 0%
TO GRAND CANYON AND LAKE/| Able is merely hearsay. °

TO ESTIMATE DAMAGE TO NAT] 1 ig reported that R. A. Haste, of aioe tm 06
URAL SCENERY WHEN DAM is Billings who has been an active Non- be delayed in making” t
BUILT. -Partisan league organizer, took | gceount of the ‘discoveill et di 4;
es charge of the meeting and outlined Montana, but to make; te re
The water level of Lake Yellowstone | the necessity of the two organtza-| ner f they must egy. sions

in now five feet higher than it 85 | tions joining forces in thé coming to of], gas and min
September 15 last, and within one election.

Only fourteen delegates with the
Proper credentials were present at
the meeting to assist in the selection

curred in 1918 according to Jerome
G. Locke who has just returned from

an inspection trip to the Grand Can-
uns 4 of candidates who will enter the prt- state did not come

yon and the lake.
The purpose of the trip was to maries on the Democratic j ticket. blessing was evidenc:

ascertain just what damage may be John Meyer an employe of th¢ North steaders learned that
done to any of the natural scenery ern Pacific was chosen as @ candidate make ¢inal proof on
when a dam !s constructed at Yellow-| fF TePresentative; John Woods for after the“governmment
stone lake. According to Mr. Locke | SBeriff; Howard Hauser for assessor; | rigid examination to
such a dam will raise the level of the|  T- Pemberton and W. H. Hardy for) there was any likelih
lake not’ to exceed seven feet above | O™™Méssioners. It ts said that an en- ing oil or gas beneath

the present high water mark. There tire ticket will be placed in the field. Stetheetentions “hk

| ix a variation of about six feet in t better finance them

lake level between the flood seson NEW OIL COM- making final proof
in the spring and the low water per-| money on thir land prof
jod in the summer go that to raise! delay which field
the Jake seven feet will provide io
vente miners tow at waee’ oe! PANY FORMED
soerdiuuars con off that passe. | !
tb vugh the lake and ix sufficient to | Y BUTTE MEN Fi
irrigate about seven hundred thous-! department of the tr
and acres of land : beearenamicomnd of getting some
Other than half a dozen hot springs | Concern Headed by J. E. Woodard to! steaders.
of which there are countless hundreds Develop Ingomar Dome ~The effort waa x
in all parts of the k. the rating of Structure.
; ee cessful as the
we lake level will sumberge nothing | —_ hy
eveept the Fish Cone at the Thumb Several prominent Butte men are Ene Teyintnate se
Since there are three other craters! instrumental in the development of
almost identical with = the Present) a new oil enterprise which, dt ts sald,
Fish Cone, all at higher levels,-the| bids fair to become one of'the most
raixing of the lake will convert one important in the Treasure state, says
nd possobly two of these into Fish the Roundup Record. @ company
| Cones and the net loss from a scenic) known as the Rocky Mountain Roy.
standpoint will be nothing. alties company, has its holdings in
The quantity of timber to be sub the Ingomar dome, a structure that
merged will be negligible and the ad-! looks particularly promising, near the
ditional area to be covered by the! main line of the Milwaukee railroad
lake will be only one or two per cent. at Ingomar, in the eastern part of the
stgte. J. E. Woodard, president of

ILL, INSPECT THE NATIONAL — jasrafshowasees|
PARKS OF MONTANA THIS MONTH sz ss sses"s %

GRESSIONAL COMMITTEE OF
ENTY ONE MEMBERS WILL
'SIT STATE LATER PART OF
ULY To INSPECT NATIONAL
ARKS AND FEDERAL RECLA.-
AION PROJECTS.
ee
yord has been received that the
ropriations Committee of the low-
jouse of the National Congress is
nakean inspection of the National
PAS and of the Federal Reclamation
ts In Montana during the latter
of July,
AS committee, consisting of twen-
he members, is headed by its
rman Congressman Good, of Iowa,
Includes Uncle Joe Cannon
ther wives and families of the
Bders of the party are included in
yParty has not been learned
Pcording to the itinerary received
the party will arrive at Yellow-
the western entrance of the
On the morning of July 19. They
Make an inspection of Yellow-
Park, of the Shoshone Reclama.
B Oroject in Wyoming and of the
ley project near Billings. They
leave Billings for Glacier Ne
I Park on the morning of July 25.
n8 are being formulated by the
Owstone Irrigation Association in
peration- with the various cham-
°f commerce from Livingston to
v to meet the distinguished par

Butte and Sam Stephenson of Great
dicen thlenisutniS acetone ttidnaens

WITH HARDING'S OPPONENT hyping mqutbets af the nee
PICKED, REPUBLICANS ROLL Altho the existence of the Ingomar
UP SLEEVES PREPARED FOR | dome structure has been known fot
CAMPING PLUNGE| s0me little time, its discovery has

deep kept rather sub-rosa by the ac | {
ad tive members of the Rocky Mountain

Chicago, wey: 6—With Senator Royalties ’ who hese
Harding’s opponent picked Republi- secured practicatly, all ‘of. the, ch 4
can leaders who gathered here today| gcreage in the
from coast to coast rolled up their] The first news of the
sleeves and prepared to launch a cam- M
paign which, they declared, would ai
take the Democrats by surprise and “wut
gain a start of days if not weéks be-
fore Governor Cox's Democratic tor,
ces can take the field.

Satisfied With Choice. * poRsy ya! oe Ay we, "e et

‘Republican leaders professed they DING, whit
were well satisfied with thé Demo
cratic choice. Captain Victor Heints
of Cincinnati, predicted Senator Hard-
ing would sweep Ohip. Chairman
Win Hays arrived at noon and follow-
ing an fhformal luncheon, the cam-
paign leaders beggn consideration of
plans for the coming fight.

Besides Hays the leaders here fn.
elude Clarence Miller, secretary of the
national committee; Vidor Heints,
central regional director; Ray Ben
Jamin of the Pacific coast region}
Fred Carroll, director at Denver for
the Rocky Mountain states; Harry M.
Dougherty, Senator Harding’s cam-

paign SUAS Ae Ty HA Be saris


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Ge -haaine eter an eeree ae ral in i
Paci Mie MM gts POR Bch. ac amam Be eae: FS TB at TERN TUR nee see eee
EERE ae he ; s 3 E Oe i's

Piss

es eo

WEE Fe: 2a ate ;
Peasy CE GEOEAN OK Ae PRET

Hite


uc Wi

ME XXV—NUMBEK 49
is

HANG FOR THE

satan) P Wii ae
x

MURDER OF HARRY THEA

ee :
. DE b.
| Me ere
: ee
[ggnTENCE OF DEATH eee but ft discloses that you were willing PIC j
gy Juoce JONES AT COURT! to fasten thie murder upon others if NIC IN THE BEAUTY

(OM FRIDAY. DAY C™ EXE. you couig have obtained perso ho 2 it ch PORT.
| _BUTTES SUNDAY AUG, 1} ore garam

cuTION SET FOR FRIDAY, 8EP- would have believed your story. Not
a
Pads epee

TEMBER 3RD. ! only does it disclose that you were
: E ; Willing to fasten the crime on others,
; but were willing to become the wreck-
$ |
RE ysNEUNNOVED BY SENTENCE: «rt some: 2s srr cay
' this case the court is unable to find
any single clrcumstagee that would Petor Havens ‘
move the discretion of the court to votitul pame
make the punishment a term of im-
prisonment. In an analysis of the
jury’s verdict the court has deter-
mined that the jury that passed upon
‘ ear that
er . a a 7 ™\! your case and returned & vertict of
dae eolhg Gvéi the veserd guilty were perfectly willing that the
or
dite tial Judge Jones sated chat] (ot penalty should be tmgoned
ee could find no extenuating circum- And, no legal pa shown
that would warrant a life sen- th ria iia
gtances aks mniininn Aiken Ke ud why in © judgment and sentence of
had anything to say in bis behalf why Seskeont wae pees on on
omence amp not = a palo tence of this court that you, Alfred
replied pothi . Lane, be adjudged guilty of the crime
gel for a wate or defense: Gk8 Bothy | oc ender im the first degree in ac-
fag to offer cordance with the verdict of the jury
Bay she sentence of Judge Jones was as! os i. ints cause and that you be
- follows: punished by hanging by the neck un-
July, Ford, 1000.1 1g aead:: dead, dends: ant! ay
Gentence of Alfred Lane by the) 1.1. ery on your soul. .
Hoo. Geo. P. Jones, Judge of the Fif- Further, you are commanded and :
teenth Judicial! District of the State remanded to the Sheriff of Rosebud which
Montene, in aad for the county Of! cosaty, Montana) te. ‘earcy the* baie
Rosebud tence into exeoution. The Court will i EE Tv tac j
By the Court: Mr. Alfred Lane, 30) 4s saagment to that effect. Apves! to the Minnesota supreme | tack ypon the”
pei meyetand up. You are sévised |” 1 14 tne tunher orderof the Court | court is expected on debalf of Town- and ‘judge for yo
at this time Mr. Lane that you stand] |... Friday the 3rd day of Septem-| ley and Gilbert. y :

Wihout the slightest trace of emo
Alfred Lane Friday afternoon at
1:30 o'clock heard Judge Jones pro-
é his sentence to bang for the
of Harry Theade, a Hathaway

wih the crime of murder in the first
degree alleged to have been com-| GREAT WESTERN BUYS
! ee ks +) dsughter sand
(@e wid Defendant, Alfred Lane ata) son of Forsyth mawe a deal with the | CANDIDATES THROW HATS 0
deliteraty, wilfully, unlawfully, fel-! Great Western Sugar company for the| POLITICAL ARENA” FOR ae
Ez

2 earged by oer ncgeeny nga ber, 1920 be fixed as the day of exe a Bs
». this Court on th day of May cution. \ wk OAS
REPUBLICANS OUT “5 1) nocuentr, tie,
interview;
d on or about the 26th day ot | SUGAR BEET ACREAGE; FOR COUNTY OFFICES ‘Peter. Har
1979 at the County of Rosebud | Pore harmed
Sm the Stace of Montana, in that yo Hysham, July 28.--L. T. Cheistian-
onboesty, premeditatediy and of ma! sale of 1,000 acres of farm land near| NATIONS AT PRIMARY _
Kee'atforethougbt. kill and murder one the eastern line of Treasure county. bs Prac START CAMPAIQN | dr
VOTES. / Asks ‘

Pad

an

& F

LET TE

Harry Theade.

You are further advised that upon
that scharge you were duly arrainged
before this court upon May 5th, 1920
and stated that you had coungel for
Your defense, and entered a plea on
the 8th day of May 1920, which plea
was a plea of Not Guilty. Thereafter
you came into this court and stated
that you had no counsel and the court
appointed counsel for your defense,
Mr. F. F. Haynes, a practising attor-
hey before the courts of the Btate of
Montana. That thereafter and on the
1th day of July, 1920, the case was
duly called for trial, and a jury em-
Paneled from the body of this county
to try your cause. After the evidence
Was submitted, and the jury had been
Properly instructed upon the law apd
Cousidered the cause, they returned
into this court with a verdict of gull
ty of murder in the first degree, as
charged in the information and the
Mixing of the punishment they left to

the Court and this aot
bel
by. the Coat ing the time

MS. Crewtort: omy
7 has no vd County Attor-

The land in question is partly trri-
gated, about 600 acres under the Yel-
lowstone project, and the balance a
dry farm and grazing land, all locat-
ed in the Yellowstone valley near
Finch

Sugar company suvveyors are now
at work under the direction of Mr.
Maier, agricukurist for the company.
The price is said to be $100 an acre
for the irrigated land, and $6 and §7
an acre for the dry land.

This is the fret purchase of land in
Treasure county by (he. Greag West-
ern Sugar company and denotes a poll

der a high. state of cultivation and
made the farme models fot otherg to
follow. iar if!

EDITORS START

The political arena has deve Mr, Hanson:
into a very busy place during the:past tinged |

c vi

CONVENTION IN. fsezse

club ff entertaining the. visitotts::“4:

3 t the
oon woe Oats ot ae the
Helena Independent ¢

.| ald at the second perfo

Pan show at the Mariow the
the members who come fi
the state ‘where the 1
has already been


McKenzie vital

to riot trials

4-Ab-

Lawyer pleads don’t kill witness

By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer

A new and unusual effort is
under way to block the May 10
execution of murderer Duncan
McKenzie Jr.

A Helena lawyer has asked a
federal magistrate to keep
McKenzie alive to participate in
lawsuits filed by McKenzie and
other maximum-security inmates
over the bloody 1991 prison riot.

The state cannot be allowed to
kill a material witness in the
suits, attorney Ronald Waterman
told U.S. Magistrate Bart. Erick-
son of Missoula in a request for a
stay of the execution. The peti-
tion was filed Friday.

Meanwhile, a U.S. district
judge in San Diego, Calif, had
yet to decide Tuesday whether to
give McKenzie permission to ap-
peal a recent ruling to the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Montana attorney gener-
al’s office has asked Judge Le-
land Nielsen to deny the request,
just as he rejected McKenzie’s
latest appeal last week. .

In a document filed late Mon-
day with Nielsen, Assistant At-
torney General Pamela Collins.
said,
McKenzie is nothing more than a
tactic to attempt to delay the ex-
ecution. ... None of the claims by
McKenzie warrant consideration
on the merits.”’

In his request for a delay in the
execution, Waterman said
McKenzie’s live testimony is
needed to ensure his riot-related
claims against the state ‘‘receive
a full and fair consideration be-
fore a civil jury” as required by
the constitution.

Waterman is _ representing

“This third petition by.

McKenzie and 16 other inmates
housed in the maximum-security
building when the Sept. 21, 1991,
riot erupted in that cellblock.

The inmates claim their civil
rights were violated when prison
guards allegedly beat and _ tor-
tured them in the hours and days
after the four-hour riot was
quelled. Five inmates being held
in protective custody were killed
by fellow prisoners during the
riot.

If McKenzie is executed, he
will be denied an opportunity to
testify in person, and that will
give his allegations less weight
than those of other witnesses, at-
torney Waterman argued.

McKenzie’s testimony is
needed to buttress that of other
inmates about events during and
after the riot, he said. Permitting

the execution will prevent
McKenzie from providing rebut-
tal testimony against state

claims and will allow the state to
destroy adverse evidence and
testimony, Waterman added.

McKenzie’s execution is nei-
ther required nor essential, he
told Erickson. -

TRUSUOM E

fp @/) GD

school teacher Lana Hard-

ing. Appeals ave postponed

© 8 execution eight times.
Assietant Attorney Genera]

She sald she doubted that the
courts will accept another appeal

from McKenzic, although it ig pos
Bible,

“He hae gone through the entire
) process two times, and

times they have been reject.

ed,” she said.

McKenzie's attorney, Timothy
Ford of Scat, wag traveling Tues.
day and was not immediately avail.
able to comment.

OZiC Way 2) and worked at
A Seed Company nes: Ledger when
Lana Harding failed lo show up to
teach at the Pioneer School on Jan.
22, 1974. Her budy was found the

He then dragged her to his truck,
choked her with a Tope and struck

across the tonyue of 4 Rrain drilt
Defense attoracyy never disput.

ed that McKenzie had killed Hard.

ing, but the argued Ihe lacked the

mental condition necessary ly (yy4))

intent, which Prosecutors must es-
Ush to prove murder.


McKenzie's last

U -_
AL ~ Ab-

GS

option clemency

BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer

Gov. Marc Racicot’s back-
ground as a prosecutor may be
an advantage if condemned killer
Duncan McKenzie Jr. asks for
clemency, the death-row _ in-
mate’s lawyer ee Tuesday.

Timothy Ford of Seattle said
Racicot has built a reputation on
putting criminals behind bars
and “doesn’t have anything to
prove to anybody”’ by refusing to
commute McKenzie’s death sen-
tence.

‘‘He’s not a guy who has to
show how tough a governor he
is,’ Ford told The Associated
Press. ‘‘He’ll make a decision in
a thoughtful and wise way rather
than be responsive to what public
reaction might be.”’

McKenzie is scheduled to die
by lethal injection May 10. He
was convicted of murder and kid-
napping in the 1974 death of Con-
rad-area schoolteacher Lana
Harding.

Ford is pursuing federal court
appeals and he will not say
whether a request for clemency
is part of any last-minute strate-
gy. He said he was not aware
until recently that Montana law
does not require a condemned
person to exhaust judicial reme-
dies before asking for leniency
from the governor.

Ford believes Racicot’s experi-
ence in prosecuting crimes will
give him a valuable perspective
on McKenzie’s case. Racicot is a
former attorney general and was
head of county prosecutor serv-
ices in the state Justice Depart-
ment before that.

The governor has handled
cases involving much more hei-
nous crimes than any committed
by McKenzie, and that may give
him a view of this case that
someone else may not have, he
said.

Racicot has declined to say
what he might decide if asked to
save McKenzie from death.

The last time a death-row in-
mate made such a request was in

1988 when David Keith asked that
his death sentence be commuted
to life in prison without parole.

Scheduled to die Dec. 1, he
filed the request with the Board
of Pardons on Nov. 22. Then-Gov.
Ted Schwinden agreed to post-
pone the execution until Jan. 20,
1989.

The delay gave the board time
to investigate Keith’s record,
conduct a_ public hearing and
make a _ recommendation _ to
Schwinden — a process required
by law.

The board had its hearing Dec.
19 and recommended clemency
the same day. Schwinden ac-
cepted the recommendation 10
days later.

TR(BOW € |
Alepgot Fete VI7

t fx ) 775-

Montana Death Row Stay Denied
AP 9 May 95 9:04 EDT v0240

Copyright 1995 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The information contained in this news report may not be published,
broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority
of the Associated Press.

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- A federal appeals court denied a stay of
execution for a Montana man who has been on death row for 20 years.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 Monday against
another delay in the execution of Duncan P. McKenzie, 43, convicted of
the torture-murder of a rural Montana schoolteacher in 1974. McKenzie
is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday.

McKenzie had previously won eight stays of execution. His lawyer
says McKenzie has been on death row longer than any other inmate in the
country and argued that the delay constituted crue] and unusual
punishment in violation of the Constitution.

But the appeals court rejected that argument and voted instead to
have an 11-—judge panel. review the case today.

The panel could vote to uphold Monday’s ruling or grant McKenzie
another stay of execution. If McKenzie wins a delay, Montana
prosecutors were expected to ask the Y.S. Supreme Court to throw out
the emergency measure.

Montana has nat executed a prisoner since 1943.

Monrawa

Great Falls Tribune

Who else lives

on death row? |

By The Associated Press
HELENA

Duncan

McKenzie, convicted of kidnap-:

ping and murder in the 1974

murder of Conrad-areas school '

teacher Lana Harding, is one of
seven inmates at the Montana
State Prison under the death
sentence.

The others are Douglas
Turner and William Gollehon,
convicted of beating another
prisoner to death; Lester and
Vern Killsontop, brothers con-
victed of murdering a Miles
City man; David T. Dawson,
who strangled three members
of a Billings family; and Terry
Langford, convicted of the exe-
cution-style murders of an Ova-
ndo couple.

Another longtime denizen of
death row, Ronald A. Smith, is
technically not facing execu-
tion at this time. An appeals
court has ordered him to be
resentenced on his conviction
for murdering two men near
Browning.

The last execution in Mon-
tana was on Sept. 10, 1943,
when Philip “Slim” Coleman
was hanged in the Missoula
County jail. He had confessed
to murdering a Lathrop
woman.

i a

Wednesday, January 18, 1995
McKenzie timeline

Jan. 21, 1974: Lana Harding is |
abducted from her teacherage in |
rural Pondera County.

Jan. 22, 1974: Harding is discov-
ered missing from her Pioneer
School teacherage and that evening
McKenzie is arrested at his home.

Jan. 23, 1974: Harding’s partially
clad body is found draped over the
tongue of a farm implement in a
snowy field not far from the Pio-
neer School where she taught.

Jan. 31, 1975: McKenzie is con-

victed of aggravated kidnapping |

and deliberate homicide.

March 5, 1975: McKenzie is sen-
tenced to be hanged.

1976: McKenzie’s conviction and
sentence are confirmed by the
Montana Supreme Court.

1977: The U.S. Supreme Court

reverses the state Supreme Court.

(1978: The Montana Supreme
Court affirms its decision.

(1979: The U.S. Supreme Court
again reverses and sends the case
back to the Montana Supreme
Court.

1980: On the third appeal, the
state Supreme Court again reaf-
firms the death penalty and the U.S.
Supreme Court denies McKenzie’s
request to review his appeal again.

1981: McKenzie begins state
post-conviction appeals and the
state Supreme Court for the fourth
time denies him relief.

1981: McKenzie also begins fed-
eral proceedings. One of the issues |

involves a possible plea agreement
in which McKenzie would plead
guilty in exchange for a 50-year
prison sentence. The plea agree-
ment never came to be. McKenzie
contends the prosecution withdrew
the offer even though the judge had
agreed to accept it.

1985: Judge James Battin denies
McKenzie's appeal that had been
based on the plea agreement issue.

1987: Battin denies a second ap-
peal in which McKenzie claimed
that at a meeting between a prose-
cutor and the judge, McKenzie's
sentence was discussed even
though his attorney was not
present. It is that issue that was
subject of the appeal denied Tues-
day by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1988: McKenzie’s death sentence
is upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals.

1990: The appeals court orders a
new hearing into the conversation
that took place between the prose-
cutor and the judge before McKen-
zie was sentenced.

1992: A federal district court
judge rules against McKenzie and
says instead the prosecutor and the
judge only discussed the prosecu-
tor’s pay for the case.

Jan. 23, 1994: McKenzie spends
year 20 on death row. He's outlived
many in the case and tells the
Tribune he did not kill Lana Hard-
ing and he doesn’t know who did.


A8&—The Montana Standard, Butte, Sunday, January 1, 1995

Death row

Lester Kills On Top, Vern Kills On
Top, Terry Allen Langford, Duncan
P. Mec: fenzie, Ronald A. Smith,
Dov: i. D. Turner — are housed in
sic: single-inmate cells in the
maximum-security unit of the Mon-
tana State Prison.

A tiny strip of .,indow at the top
of each cell provides their only sun-
light. They leave their cells for only
one hour a day.

After all, prison is prison.

Duncan McKenzie, 43, the oldest
condemned inmate, has been await-
ing execution since April Fool’s Day
of 1975. McKenzie has been on death
row longer than any inmate in the
United States.

But McKenzie certainly can't rest

‘easy, thinking that the death pen-

alty will never rear its head again
in Montana. His appeals are coming
to an end.

Appeals have postponed
McKenzie’s execution eight times,
but in October the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals refused to hear his
latest request. If he chooses to con-
tinue his fight against the noose or
the needle, his next step is to con-
vince the U.S. Supreme Court to
hear his case — which doesn’t seem
likely.

“The primary reason we haven't
had an execution in Montana is the

iA is, i

—wpprnal_ pranaty—6a ke Nay—di-
rector:of. the Montana Department:

ot Corrections and Human Services. °
“With ?Duncan ; McKenzie, * we're

“talking 20 years. ‘It's obviously Lael

a long time.*
: “That’s his last and final appeal.

We anticipate that will result in an

execution in the next year,” Day

‘added.
> “It definitely will have an impact

on the inmates,” Day said. ‘‘But it’s

‘something that's been expected. A

death is something: that’s always

difficult to deal with, but it comes -

-with the turf.2"°

3 ll Lambertson, the unit manager
of the maximum-security unit at the
prison, said McKenzie is aware he
is coming to the end of the process.
“He gets panicky on occasion,’

Lambertson . --said.. . “There's .. a .
chance he might be executed in the

next six months.”

: Montana’s eight condemned pris- —

oners generally don’t cause ‘trouble
in prison, ~Lambertson .., said.
“They’re trying to.maintain: good
behavior,” he said. “‘Mosc of these
guys have real good peer rela-
tions.”

“In 1988," David ‘Keith came as
close to ne aaa as. anyone has
since 1943. -:

“We came yaey close,” Day said.
“I believe it was less than 30 days.”

- Keith's death sentence was com-

muted to life i in prison by then-Gov, .

Ted Schwinden.

-Executions ~ cannot ~ take’. place i

overnight,“ Day said,. ‘It’s: quite a
timely process,” he, said. Decisions

have to be made:on such‘ issues as.

selection of an-executioner, who will
be - present :for: the’: execution; ‘the
last meal and what will be done
with the prisoner’s property.

“They start quite a: at in ad-
vance,” Day said. a,

Surveys stiow that more than 80
percent of Americans. consider the
death penaity an appropriate pun-
ishment for certain crimes, said

Karol Scott, regional coordinator of ..

Amnesty International's. death pen-
alty abolition workJ;”

crimie,¥.Seott said. ry Sy thirik . they

Continued from Page A1

live according to what the television
says. People are more frightened
than before. It’s kind of a ‘make my
day’ kind of thing.”

Scott Chrichton, executive direc-
tor of the Montana chapter of the
American Civil Liberties Union,
said that across the nation, the
death penalty is unfair. ‘‘It's ap-
plied randomly at best,”’ Chrichton
argued. “It’s imposed upon those
whose victims are white and on of-
fenders who are people of color.”’

Of the more than 200 people exe-
cuted since the Supreme Court's
1976 ruling, 84 percent were convict-
ed of killing whites.

Chrichton and the ACLU argue
that the United States is one of the
few industrialized nations that still
sanctions state executions. ‘‘We’re
almost alone at this point in terms
of industrial nations saying that by
killing people we can demonstrate
that killing people is wrong. The re-
sult is the same,” Chrichton said.

During the last state legislative
session, a bill was proposed that
would eliminate hanging as an op-
tion for death row inmates. “‘We op-
posed that bill,” Chrichton said of
his organization. ‘“‘We were saying,
‘Don’t kid yourself. Killing is kill-
ing.’

“Every time we stand up and

*with : the Irags’ and irans. of ithe:

‘world.

Bi, Chrichton said the appeals pro-

‘cess involved in capital punishment.
. cases’ is “expensive — costing” the
state’ millions of dollars per year.

“Society: would be much better
served to sentence people to life ...
without parole,” he said. ‘‘Appeals‘
are much more irene pan a
life sentence.” : ,

Chrichton also argued that Death
Row-inmates are handed celebrity
on a platter. ‘‘A lot of these psycho-

.. pathic’ characters want the glory

and the limelight, ” he said. “The
death penalty gives them the glory
of becoming a celebrity.”

Several states do not have the
death penalty, and do not have.
higher crime rates than those that
do, Chrichton, said.

Chrichton acknowledged there is
no easy answer for how vicious
criminals should be treated.

“On the-one hand we’re saying
(murder) is: criminal, it’s uncon-
scionable,” he said. “But on the
other we say, ‘We’ll take an eye for

an eye.’ It’s just not the dominant

attitude of civilized nations.”
Scott:said the emotional aspects

' of the argument against the: death

penalty are just as nwa as the
legal. ee .
“When: -gomeone is’ executed, “it

becomes:a circus,’ she said. “(On-
luokers) are yelling obscenities like,

“Wry baby,:fry.’ ‘That's a human

reaction: to want to kill somebody

_ after they killed your child. ...

“But what we need is. real “truth
in sentencing'-— ‘real life imprison-"
ment. People ‘who spend life in
prison become stabilizers,

“By executing someone, we re-
victimize another family.’’.

Chrichton agreed that. truth in ~
‘sentencing and true life sentences
are the best alternative to. the death
penalty... -

“I'm not diminishing the pain and
suffering of.any victims,” Chrichton

” said. “For le Joo for simple
SSI ,think? they’re “really? Tired of © a king 4

‘answers, (the death penalty) is A
‘simple solution.”

{

Execution
date next

for killer

McKenzie
Court rejects appeal

By TOM LACEKY
Associated Press Writer

HELENA — State prosecutors
will soon ask a judge to set an-
other execution date for kidnap-
killer Duncan McKenzie — and
this may be the last time. The U.S.
Supreme Court refused again
Tuesday to hear his appeal.

The high court made no com-
ment in rejecting the appeal.

“It’s time for the appeals pro-
cess to end, and it’s time for the
original judgment of the court
imposing the death sentence —
which was imposed 20 years ago
— to finally take place,” said
Assistant Attorney General
Pamela Collins.

McKenzie, now 41, faces death
for the 1974 torture murder of
Conrad-area school teacher Lana
Harding. He was convicted of
kidnapping and murder and was
sentenced in April 1975, but ap-
peals have postponed his execu-

on eight
times.
Collins

said the state
will ask the
district court
in Great
Falls, proba-
bly within a
week, to set a
new execu-
tion date.

McKenzie

|

“I anticipate a fairly brief hear-
ing,” she said. “McKenzie will
have the option this time to

choose between hanging and le- |

thal injection as a means of |

death.”

She said she doubts the courts |

will accept another appeal, al-
though it is possible. ‘He has

gone through the entire process,

two times, and both times they

_ have been rejected,” she said.

' prosecutors must

McKenzie’s attorney was trav-
eling and unavailable for com-
ment Tuesday.

McKenzie was 21 and worked
at a seed company near Ledger
when Lana Harding, then 23,
failed to show up to teach at the

Pioneer School on Jan. 22, 1974. ,

Her body was found the next day

in a snowy field. She had been |

raped and beaten to death.

Authorities alleged McKenzie ~

broke into the teacher’s quarters
in the remote one-room school
and raped and beat Harding.

He then dragged her to his
truck, choked her with a rope and
struck her in the head with an
exhaust manifold.

Defense attorneys at trial did
not dispute that McKenzie had
killed Harding, but they argued
he lacked the mental condition
necessary to form intent, which
establish to
prove murder.

McKenzie maintains he did not

_ kill the young teacher.

“I’d never seen her and never
met her in my life,” he told the
Great Falls Tribune in a tele-
phone interview last year.

At the time he was arrested,
McKenzie was on parole for the
brutal beating of a woman in
Blaine County four years earlier.

pre


Appe

rn. © Boe Oren! en ae
; ‘

eals postpone

inmate executions

By Aulica Rutland
Standard Staff Writer

DEER LODGE — In Montana,
death row isn’t a place. It’s a state

of mind.

The Montana State Prison has no
designated death row . cellblock.
There’s no Dantesque sign above
the door urging abandonment of
hope.

Ee, ‘But the eight
condemned
_ men
‘prison ~- know
where ~— they
are. No one
~ needs a sign to
tell him that
he’s
going to see
the streets of
‘his hometown,
or hear the
laughter of

DAY

playground. ;

But in Montana, others question
whether the death penalty is even a
threat to these men.

i's been St-years

SiNCe MONTYINA’s

in the ~

never -

children at a_

a ~"- last execution. Murderer
Philip “Slim” Coleman was hanged

_ on Sept. 10, 1943, in Missoula.

In 1976 the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled that states could resume the
use of the death penalty, but Mon-

- tana’s gallows and death chamber

(the two options to condemned in-

- mates) remain in pieces and va-

cant.
The gallows were taken down

' FRR acicot on . A 7 ;

death penalty ©

_years ago. Leaving them up seemed

cruel and unusual punishment for
the inmates.

But the average, mobile-home-
like trailer that sits next to the
Maximum-security unit of the
prison has an ominous aura. That
trailer may someday be used for
the lethal injection of one or more

_ of the eight men accused and found
_ guilty of some of the most heinous

crimes in the state.
-The condemned inmates — David
T. Dawson, William J. Gollehon,


M&Kenzie

FROM IB

prisons, it is probably kinder to kill
someone rather than to keep them
alive,” Renz said of the punishment
Issue. “Deterrence and retribution
— people have argued over that stuff
for years, but fora practical matter,
capital punishment doesn’t serve as
much of a deterrent.

_ “The strongest thing you can say
in favor of the death penalty is
retribution,” Renz said. “But if that
were valid, we would have the vic-
tims’ survivors doing the execu-
tion.”

Patrick Cotter, another UM Law
School professor who was a prose-
cutor in New York City as an assis-
tant U.S. Attorney, agrees the death
penalty does little to deter crime the
way it is used now.

“Concerning deterrence, if they
knew it was ‘don’t do this or we'll
execute you 20 years later,’ that’s a
lot less of a deterrent,” Cotter said.
“The punitive aspect gets lost and
diluted.

“The idea of vengeance says soci-
ety and survivors have a legitimate
right to an eye for an eye,” Cotter
said. “The question is, 20 years later
does that mean anything?

Montana Attorney General Joe
Mazurek refuses to enter the debate
over whether capital punishment is
right or wrong, effective or ineffec-
tive. He said it’s inappropriate for
the person in charge of responding
to a petitioner’s actions to discuss
the merits of the death penalty.

“It is the law as enacted by the
Legislature. It has been upheld by
the Montana Supreme Court and the
United States Supreme Court. It is
my job to see that those laws are
carried out and what we are trying
to do is ensure that a court judgment
is carried out.”

Mazurek said that if McKenzie is.
executed, it might help restore pub-
lic confidence.

“One of the greatest frustrations
the public has is with judicial system
is that it would take 20 years for an
order of the court to be carried out,”
Mazurek said. It may restore some
confidence that the death penalty
will be carried out.

“The ultimate irony is that after
having caused 20 years of delay,
with the process of having taken so
long, McKenzie and his lawyers ar-
gue the death penalty serves no
purpose,” Mazurek said.

For years, it was generally be-
lieved that it would be hard to ac-
complish an execution in the 9th
Circuit, the federal appeals circuit
which covers Montana, because of
the liberal nature of its judges.

But an observer of capital cases,
Great Falls attorney Bob James, says
courts across the nation — including
the 9th Circuit — are becoming
more conservative.

“Since 1977, there is a far more
conservative feeling in the judi-

TUE S,
APRIL 2S,
(99S

Great Falls Tribune ©

_ Who’s on death row

Lodge. They are:

murder by torture in the 1974
another prisoner to death;
Miles City man;

family;

Ovando couple.

There are eight inmates on death row at Montana State Prison in Deer
e Duncan McKenzie, convicted of aggravated kidnapping and

© Douglas Turner and William Gollehon, convicted of beating

e Lester and Vern Killsontop, brothers convicted of murdering a
e David T. Dawson, who strangled three members of a Billings

e@ Terry Langford, convicted of the execution-style murders of an

e@ Ronald A. Smith, recently was resentenced on his conviction for
murdering two men near Browning.

Coleman and Bernard Fitzpatrick.

west of Missoula.

: , A
Two men commonly believed to be on death row but who won
reprieves and received life in prison sentences instead are Dewey

The last execution in Montana was on Sept. 10, 1943, when Philip
“Slim” Coleman was hanged in the Missoula County Jail. He had
confessed to murdering a woman in the small community of Lathrop

8

ciary,” James said. ‘(Presidents)
Reagan and Bush appointed so
many judges relative to Carter and
Clinton. That changes the political
leanings of the judges.”

Last week, 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski of Los
Angeles said he favors the death
penalty, but is concerned that the
legal system is inadequate to cope.

“We have constructed a machine
that is extremely expensive, chokes
our legal institutions and visits re-
peated trauma on victims’ families,”
Kozinski told the Washington Post.

Capital punishment also has been
criticized by retired U.S. Supreme
Court Justices Lewis F. Powell Jr.
and Harry A. Blackmun.

Cotter says Powell was particu-
larly troubled by death penalty
cases.

“Some ‘of those early cases were
pretty horrible cases,” Cotter said.
“A lot of these older judges have
seen where defendants got very bad
legal representation, where prose-
cutors over-reached or where the
cops weren’t doing a very good case.

“The McKenzie case doesn’t fall
into the outrageous category,” Cot-
ter said. “It has been looked at a lot.
There is not, a significant question
about his‘actual guilt. There were
not too many outrageous events in
the process of getting him to the
death penalty.

“The trial seemed to go fairly well.
He’s gotten his appeals and he has
had good legal representation,” Cot-
ter said. “What is unusual is the 20
years on death row. That is the kind
of thing that is going to catch the
judge’s eye.”

Chamber / from page !
recep cently been cleaned and yet not Rick Day. It would carry news of a
used for a very long time. last-minute reprieve from the gov-
- The inside walls and the win- mor, relay an 11th-hour stay by a
flows are covered with wood panel court or send notice that the execu-
fng. The floor has brown and yel tion has been carried out.
ens eee De ee ee
works chatec seh of the trailer
is the largest. It contains 16 witness
chairs in four e prran
side of a center
bigh wooden pe a copaaee

<a

room. Extending from either side
of the gumey is a board to which
each of McKenzie’s arms will be
strapped before the intravenous
needles are inserted, one in each
arm. The second I.V. is a backup.
Two large body straps will bind
his torso to the gurney. Ankle
straps will hald his legs in place.
The head of the gurney butts
against a wall separating the com-
demued from the executioner’s
chamber, which occupies the wnat
end of the trailer. The wall ae a
one-way winless er
gurney for the executiones to

oo

aod, below that, a small portal
through which the I.V. tubes will

pass.

The wall hokis two clocks, each
set to the same time. The clocks
tick off each seoond. One is a back-
up for the other.

The execution chamber is bare-
ly 30 from a special holding
cell where McKenzie will spend the
aa hours of his life. He will be

from his usual cell 3-6
i) the execution.
OTe aac told apecilcil

|

Closeup-vh crime

4

McKenzie stokes capital punishment debate

Getting tough
or inhumane?

By MICHAEL W. BABCOCK
Tribune Staff Writer

As Duncan McKenzie’s May 10
execution date draws near, the de-
bate over the effectiveness of capi-
tal punishment has grown more
intense.

On one hand are those who feel
that get-tough policies are the only
way to stem violent crime. On the
other are those
who argue that

Second Of | the death pen-

alty is either

two parts inhumane or
nomen «= ineffective.

“People gen-

erally wish that killers and people
convicted of certain other crimes
would go away (and) disappear,”
said McKenzie’s attorney, Timothy
Ford of Seattle. ““You ask people if
they are in favor of capital punish-
ment and that is how they respond.

“The fact is that when you get
down to actually trying to do it, you
find the system does not work well.
It is not fair,’” he said.

McKenzie’s case is prominent in
the debate because at 20 years, his
is considered the longest term on

Tribune file photo

Duncan McKenzie in the Montana State Prison in 1994.

death row in the nation. In that
time, he has had eight execution
dates come and go as he wrestled
his way through the appeals pro-
cess.

Capital punishment is generally
seen to have three purposes: pun-
ishment, deterrence and retribu-

tion.

University of Montana Law
School Professor Jeff Renz, an op-
ponent of capital punishment, sees
problems with all three.

“Considering the state of our

See McKENZIE, 3B

Execution would be fast, paralyzing

Early on May 10, Duncan Peder
McKenzie is scheduled to be taken
to a modular room — located a few
yards from the cell where he has
spent the last 20 years — and
receive a lethal dose of barbitu-
rates and paralyzing drugs.

It would be the first execution in
Montana in more than 50 years and
despite McKenzie’s continued gap-
peals, preparations for his execu-
tion are continuing.

McKenzie chose to die by lethal
injection and state law says that
will be an ultra-fast acting barbitu-
rate in combination with a paralyz-
ing drug.

The actual executioner will be
selected by the Department of Cor-
rections and will remain anony-
mous. The person need not be a
doctor, registered nurse, licensed
practical nurse or anyone regis-
tered under the laws of any state.

Montana State Prison spokes-
woman Linda Moodry said Mon-
tana’s policy on execution by injec-
tion was based on those in Wash-
ington and Utah where such execu-.
tions have already been done and
on information from the national
Institute of Corrections, a quasi-

_ federal agency that helps in correc-

tions issues around the nation.

Moodry said the Department of
Corrections is following a 45-day

MONTANA

schedule which includes review
and training for the various duties
and requirements to carry out an
execution.

Reporters who want to witness
the execution had until midnight
Friday to apply to the prison. By
midafternoon, 34 applications had
been received. Of those, 18 were
from newspapers and eight each
were from radio and television.

Up to 12 people may witness the
execution. Three of those can be
invited by McKenzie himself.
:Three Montana reporters and one
out-of-state reporter will be se-
lected by a lottery to cover the
execution.

The remaining five witnesses
will be chosen by Rick Day, direc-
tor of Corrections and Human Ser-
vices. Moodry said those people
will be chosen from a group who
have applied by letter to witness
the execution.

“Others will be allowed to wit-
ness the execution including Rick .
Day, the bureau warden and my-
self,”” Moodry said.

The execution of McKenzie is
scheduled to occur a few minutes
after midnight on the morning of
May 10. It will occur in a 12-feet by
50-feet modular room behind the
maximum security unit of the
prison.

— By Michael W. Babcock


Prison prepares trailer
for execution chamber

DEER LODGE (AP) — For
Duncan McKeazie, death will be a
short walk from his home for the
past 20 years.

A plain beige trailer, faded by
years in the sun, waits for him be
hind the maximum-security build-
ing at the Montana State Prison.

The execution chamber door
McKenzie will use shortly after
midnight oo May 10 is barely eight
feet from the back door of the
building and perhaps 100 steps
his cell.

12-by-50 trailer has two oth-
ntrances — one at the oorth-

Judge won't halt execu-
tion; clemency hearing
Saturday

Victim’s mother: Hearing
chance to do something
for daughter

Stories on Page 7

nesses and corrections officials
who will watch McKenzie die by
lethal injection.
_ The trailer has a musty, antisep- a AP
tc smell — like something thathas A Montana lal on pene Sevedey demonstrates the

nie a did Duncan py oda

DalcM CHR OMNCL ©
Dat 0 (1 as
(AVI I>

sd

re

oe

Execution closes
bitter chapter in

Conrad’s history

By MARK DOWNEY
Tribune Staff Writer

CONRAD — Coming into the
Home Cafe at 6:30 Wednesday
morning, Harris Hofstad spied his
friends sitting in a booth drinking
coffee.

“So, we have one less citizen this
morning,” he said, slipping into a
chair and nodding to the waitress
for coffee. Acknowledgment came
from around the table.

Rich Munson who works at the
Cenex station came next, swinging
in to join the daily coffee and con-
versation club here that Mayor Tom
Hammerbacker calls “the commit-
tee.”

“I see Duncan McKenzie paid his
penalty,” Munson pronounced.

And so it went through the morn-
ing, people taking up the seats left
open by others. Almost without fail,
each had something to say about the
news.

The state’s execution shortly after
midnight of killer Duncan McKenzie
Jr. — Montana's
first in 52 years
— is the talk of
the town. Conrad
is just a short dis-
tance from the
site where
McKenzie tor-
tured and mur-
dered a_ rural
school teacher.

“It’s certainly
been the topic of
conversation over coffee these
days,” said a waitress at the cafe.

After eight delays to his execution
and 21 years of waiting, the news of
McKenzie’s death shortly after mid-
night Wednesday was welcomed.

“Nobody forgot,” Hammerbacker
said of the 1974 torture murder of
Lana Harding and the community’s
“wound” that has stayed open as

resolved.”

“It was an
ongoing thing. It
was just agonizing

that it never got

— Boh Lettenga of Conrad

Inside:

m@ Six men remain on

Montana’s death row / 6A

@ Appeals court ruling

could speed process for

future executions / 6A

i Murderer quiet at the

end, witness says / 7A

Wi The long legal battle of

Duncan McKenzie Jr. / 7A

i Judicial system works.
/ Editorial, 8A

—EEE

long as McKenzie was alive.

Over the years, McKenzie evoked
deep, unbridled hatred among some
people here. Some in this small
town had seen photographs of the
strangled school teacher’s body.
Many know the details of her death,
some too horrific
for publication.

“He was an an-
imal,’ Dick Gar-
man said of
McKenzie before
uttering a de-
scriptive exple-
tive.

Such emotion
took a macabre
turn Tuesday
night at Conrad’s
Lariat Bar. Bartender Michelle Hut-
ton held a going-away party for
McKenzie, replete with free snacks,
free pool, $3 pitchers of beer, black
balloons and a black cake with let-
tering that read “Better Late Than
Never.”

“Everybody was saying I was mor-

See CONRAD, 7A

Mon TRWA

FROM IA
bid,” said Hutton. “But 1 said why? It
should be a celebration.”

About 20 people attended, she
said. They cheered at 12:30 a.m.
when it was announced on televi-
sion that McKenzie had died.

In the wake of the execution sev-
eral new issues have emerged. Glen
Baker back at the Home Cafe won-
dered whether the schedule for exe-
cuting Montana’s seven remaining
death row inmates would speed up
now. He also said his respect has
grown for Gov. Marc Racicot in light
of his handling of McKenzie’s clem-
ency request.

Several of the men sipping coffee
at the cafe asked if anyone knew
how much money taxpayers had
spent on McKenzie’s incarceration
and lawyers. Some bitterly de-
nounced the judicial system that
was used to prolong McKenzie’s
execution for 21 years.

Bob Lettenga said he believed it
took too long to resolve McKenzie’s
case. However, “it’s very easy for

Conrad: Execution aftermath

L| Enlarged
area

Také Uda/Tribune

(ee
the public to be critical,” he said.
“But the system is designed to pro-
tect (innocent) people.”

At least, it’s finally finished, said
Hammerbacker. “It was an ongoing
thing. It was just agonizing that it
never got resolved,” he said. “Now it
has.”

Witnesses go through counseling session

DEER LODGE (AP) — The 26
people who watched Duncan
McKenzie Jr. die by lethal injection
Wednesday were required to un-
dergo a post-execution therapy ses-
sion to help them deal with any
emotional aftershocks.

The list of people in the trailer
used as an execution chamber in-
cluded Corrections Department offi-
cials, prison guards, 12 official wit-
nesses, the anonymous executioner,
Powell County Coroner John Pohle,

an unidentified doctor and assistant,
and Andrew Malcolm, communica-
tions director for Gov. Marc Racicot.

The dozen official witnesses in-
cluded four members of the family
of Lana Harding, the rural school-
teacher murdered by McKenzie 21
years ago, and Walter Hammer-
meister, who was Pondera County
sheriff when the crime was commit-
ted.

The other witnesses were two
members of McKenzie’s legal team
and five reporters.

CREAT FARCCS
TR i6uve

S-il~9S

THe RS.

@

PThurscay May 11,1995 ©

Two ou is too

long for justice

The issue: Montana taxpayers need to know how
much McKenzie’s judicial dance with death has cost.
Our opinion: Then let's talk about ways to make
this system more responsive.

Justice works, albeit slowly.

Two decades ago, Duncan
McKenzie was sentenced to die
for the brutal torture-murder of
Lana Harding, a rural Conrad
school teacher.

During 20 years of fighting
the death penalty in courts,
McKenzie managed to evade
seven of the eight execution
dates. He finally died early
Wednesday by lethal injection.

This demonstrates the care
our society takes before killing
another human being. All courts
exhaustively went over the
record to be assured of the guilt
McKenzie denied until his dying
day. All had an opportunity to
delay again the execution, and
all declined.

Gov. Marc Racicot met
personally with McKenzie this
week to hear his plea for
clemency. In a tough three-page
letter, Racicot denied it. “My
decision is the product of the
most agonizing and searing
analysis and self-examination I
have personally and
professionally encountered,”
said Racicot.

Recently, one of our letter
writers said of killers like
McKenzie: “Hang ’em high,
bury ’em deep, and forget they
ever existed.”

The family of McKenzie’s
victim, Lana Harding, will
awaken today for the first time
to a world without McKenzie.
They have waited two decades
for this killer’s execution, and
they are justified in feeling that
their daughter finally lies in
peace today.

But there’s a lesson here for
the rest of us, one we shouldn’t

forget.

We need an accounting of the
legal fees paid in McKenzie’s
judicial dance with death.
Starting after his first
conviction, how much did the
state spend to bring McKenzie
to the execution chamber on
Wednesday? And how much did
taxpayers spend on appeals by
court-appointed attorneys to
keep McKenzie clear of the
gallows for two decades?

Then, as a state, let’s talk
about whether this was money
wisely spent. Even McKenzie
contended at the end that the
delay constituted cruel and
unusual punishment.

In that, he may have been
right. It clearly was an ordeal
for the Hardings. And taxpayers
were undoubtedly clipped
big-time.

Is there a way to limit the
number of appeals? Can we cut
off state funding for public
defenders after a single run
though the U.S. Supreme
Court? Can we impose a year’s
moratorium on a death sentence
to permit appeals, then require
legally that it be imposed?

Please, Attorney General Joe
Mazurek, tally up what this
legal exercise has cost us, and
then let’s begin talking about
some ways to make our system
of justice more responsive.

ALE MCKENZIE EXECUTION

Great Fails Tribune 7A
Thursday, May 11, 1995

A murderer dies, and the music plays on

Helena reporter
tells somber tale
of execution

EDITOR'S NOTE: Bob Anez, chief
statehouse correspondent for The
Associated Press in Montana, was
one of flve media witnesses to the
execution of Duncan McKenzie Jr.
Here Is his account.

DEER LODGE — Inthe pure
silence of death, all that could be
heard was the music.

Duncan McKenzie Jr. died in the
middle of the night listening to a
song by country singer Marty
Robbins on a cassette player. The
tinny sound from the headphones
sliced through the stillness of the
execution chamber and seemed to
echo off the walls.

I was sitting about eight feet from
McKenzie’s supine body on the
gurney. I couldn't hear the words of
the songs as I watched him die. I
couldn't see his eyes.

I saw a man goto sleep — forever.

The execution was a somber and
very tranquil experience. There
were no loud noises, no harsh
voices, no sudden movements.
McKenzie simply stopped breathing
at 12:10 a.m. and was declared dead
12 minutes later.

It was 20 years and 67 days after
he was first told he must die for
killing Lana Harding.

Witnesses searched

Before the 12 official witnesses
were taken to the execution
chamber, we were thoroughly
searched by hand and with a metal
detector. We had to take off our
shoes. The bottoms of our feet were
checked.

We were told we could not speak
once inside the execution chamber.
We had to sign an agreement that
we would behave and not bring
anything illegal into the prison. We
could not bring photographic or
recording devices.

The five reporters were given
notebooks and pens to record the
event and we were shuttled toward
the prison about the same time
McKenzie was being marched the
35 steps from a holding cell to the
execution chamber. He already was
listening to the music.

The prison was bathed in the eerie
light from mercury vapor lamps
perched on high poles. We went
through two gates and arrived at the
execution chamber, a common
beige trailer behind the
maximum-security building.

It was 11:47 p.m. :

We were fold McKenzie had not
yet been connected to the
intravenous tubes that would carry
the deadly drugs into his arm. We
waited for about 13 minutes.

The long narrow cells windows on
the side of the maximum-security
building facing the execution
chamber were covered from outside.
Inmates inside would not see any of
the activities.

The air was still damp from an
early evening shower as we walked
up the four steps into the chamber.

McKenzie strapped down

McKenzie lay motionless ona
gurney with each arm extended and
strapped down at the wrist. Each
ankle was bound and two large

: Straps held his legs in place.

McKenzie's head lay ona pillow
against a wall at the far end of the
chamber. The wall concealed the
executioner. I.V. tubes snaked out of
a portal in the wall and fed into
needles in each of McKenzie’s arms.

The 272-pound McKenzie's large

Re.

BOB ANEZ

Associated Press Writer

stomach rose and fell slowly. He
wore a blue tunic-style shirt, jeans
and black Nikes. His eyes were
covered by amber-hued sunglasses.

As the witnesses filed in and sat
down, McKenzie twice turned his
head slightly to the right as if to
catch a glimpse of the cause for the
muffled noise.

It was 12:04 a.m. when everyone
was in place. McKenzie, the coroner
and doctors were on one side ofa
three-foot high partition. Two
prison guards kept watch over the
witnesses, while corrections
Officials stayed in a room at the east
end of the trailer.

The witnesses included Ron
Waterman, one of McKenzie's
lawyers, and Michelle O’Neill, who
works for Tim Ford, a Seattle
attorney who finally ran out of ways
of saving Mckenzie after 18 years of
trying.

Waterman and O'Neill clutched
each other throughout the
15-minute execution.

On the other side of the room
were members of Lana Harding's
family: brother Greg Harding, aunt
Sandi Hendrickson and two other
aunts. Hendrickson locked her arm
through Harding's as they watched
McKenzie die.

No last words

At 12:06 a.m., Corrections
Director Rick Day approached the
gurney, stood on McKenzie’s left
side and looked down at the
condemned man. His voice cut
through the quiet.

“Duncan Peder McKenzie, now is
the time for you to make a last
statement if you wish. Do you
wish?” .

McKenzie turned his head to the
right and back again. He had
nothing to say.

Day went to the back of the
chamber and notified the
executioner: “It is time to execute
the order of the court. Please
proceed.”

Deadly drugs start to flow

The lethal mixture of drugs began
to flow. It was 12:07 a.m.

First a sedative, then something to
stop his breathing. McKenzie’s
breathing deepened as his stomach
rose and fell. It was the only
movement in the room. The only
sound was the music.

McKenzie made six snoring
sounds, followed by a deeper
guttural noise. -

His stomach became still at 12:08
am. +

He appeared to take a final breath
at 12:10 a.m.

Three minutes later, the last of the
final drug to instantly stop the heart
was injected and one of two clocks
on the wall stopped at 12:13 a.m.

A hand from the executioner’s
chamber pushed what appeared to
be a stethoscope and blood pressure
device through the portal. It satona
shelf next to McKenzie's head.

Then we waited in a smothering
silence.

The doctor stood after three
minutes and walked to McKenzie.
He pulled up the shirt and listened
fora heartbeat. He checked fora

ra. 8:15 p.m. — Death penal
( ) Opponents gather outside Im-
: maculate Conception Roman

Catholic Church in Deer Lodge to
prepare for a vigil.

from his cell on death row to
a special holding ceil a few feet from
the execution chamber.
9 p.m. — Demonstrators begin
a candlelight vigil at the edge
of the prison ranch, about two
miles from the execution chamber.

appeal; Justice John Paul
Stevens is the only justice to say he
would grant a stay of ;axecution.

11:40 p.m. — McKenzie, ©

listening to country music on

headphones, is ‘taken from the
holding cell to the execution chamber

and Strapped to a gumey. is’.

9 p.m. — McKenzie, having
finished his last meal, is moved

The final hours of Duncan

12:04 a.m. — The victim's
family enters the execution
chamber.

12:05 a.m. on All witnesses
: are seated.

11:07 p.m..— U:S. Supreme :
Court rejects Mc:Kenzie’s last C) Bice a.m. — Corrections

Director Rick Day asks
McKenzie if he has any last

_ Statement; McKenzie shakes his

head no.

y \ 12:07 a.m. — Day instructs
executioner: “It's time to
execute the order of the court.

~7 Please proceed.” Almost immediately,
; ‘| McKenzie begins to snore six times

12:02 a.m. — Media witnesses: 9

enter the execution chamber. ©

from a sedative that precedes the
lethal drugs. v°

McKenzie

7 12:16 a.m. —A doctor checks
McKenzie's pulse, but says

12:08 a.m. — McKenzie's
breathing appears to stop.
12:10 a.m. — McKenzie
appears to take a final breath.

(S 12:13 a.m. — Injection of
lethal drugs into the
intravenous tubes that lead into
McKenzie’s veins is completed

Fae 12:15 a.m. — At the
demonstration site, opponents

of the death penalty pray as
they assume the execution has |
begun. Supporters of the execution
converse briefly and prepare to leave.

nothing and sits down again.
Five more minutes elapse in silence.

12:22 a.m. — The doctor
checks again and says: “I now
=F pronounce him dead.”

12:23 a.m. — Day phones the |
vemor and says, “Govemor, |
-<7 the execution is completed.”

Text by Associated Press

pulse on McKenzie's meck and
looked into his eyes.

Then he sat down. We waited
again, our eyes fixed on the still
body on the gurney. The tips of
McKenzie’s fingers had turned a
shade of blue. ‘

One, two, three, four, five minutes
passed. The doctor checked
McKenzie again, turned and faced
the witnesses and said, “I now
pronounce him dead.”

It was 12:22 a.m.

Then, a voice from the back of the

Take UdaTribune

chamber. It was Day talking on the
phone: “Governor, the execution is
completed.”

As we filed out of the execution
chamber, still heard above the
shuffling of feet was the music. It
played on with no one to listen.


Who’s next on death row?

By MIKE DENNISON
Tribune Capitol Bureau

HELENA — Of the six people
remaining on Montana’s death row,
only Terry A. Langford appears re-
motely close to being executed. The
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is
considering his appeal of a 1989
death sentence for the murder of an
Ovando couple.

The other five death-row inmates
at Deer Lodge still have appeals
pending before state courts and may
pursue their appeals further in fed-
eral court if they choose. Execution
for any of them is likely years away.

Here is a summary of their cases,
in the order of their imminence to
execution:

Terry A. Langford

The 28-year-old Langford, a
drifter from North Carolina, was
sentenced to
death in 1989 for
murdering Ned
and Celene
Blackwood at
| their home near
Ovando the year
before. Langford
had been wan-
dering in the
hills near the
Blackwood
home before he broke into their
garage, tied them up and shot them.

Langford originally asked for the
death penalty, but later changed his
mind and began the appeals pro-
cess. His state court appeals have
been exhausted, and his appeal is
before the 9th U.S. Circuit of Ap-
peals.

Lester and Vern Kills On Top

The two brothers from Busby
were sentenced to death in 1988 for
the kidnapping, torture and murder
of John M. Etchemendy Jr. of Miles
City the previous year. Lester, 33,
and Vern, 36, and two others were
accused of abducting Etchemendy
outside a Miles City bar, beating him
repeatedly as they drove south to
Wyoming, and eventually killing
him.

The brothers’ appeal for “post-
conviction relief’ is before the
Montana Supreme Court.

David T. Dawson

The 37-year-old Dawson was sen-
tenced to death in 1987 for kidnap-
ping and mur-
“™ dering three
members of a
Billings family
the year before.
He broke into
their Billings
motel room, took
them back to his
j motel room, and

eventually
; drugged and
strangled David and Monica Rods-
tein and their 11-year-old son, And-
rew. The Rodsteins’ 15-year-old
daughter was spared.

Dawson’s appeal for post-
conviction relief is before a state
district judge in Billings. He also has

an action pending in U.S. District
Court.

Dawson

&RERT
FALLS
TRIBUNE.

THueS.

MAS 11 199S

I EE a ee es

Gollehon Turner

William Gollehon
and Douglas Turner

Gollehon, 30, and Turner, 23,
were sentenced to death in 1992 for
beating to death Gerald Pileggi, a
fellow state prison inmate, in 1990.
They beat Pileggi with a baseball bat
in the prison yard at Deer Lodge.

Gollehon had been serving a
prison term for killing a Billings
woman in 1985; Turner was in
prison for life for murdering three
members of a Glendive family in
1987, when he was just 16. Turner
and Gollehon also have been con-
victed of helping murder five in-
mates during a 1991 riot at the state
prison.

Turner is scheduled to be exe-
cuted May 28 and Gollehon has a
June 11 execution date, but both
dates likely will be postponed. Each
defendant has asked for post-
conviction relief, and those appeals
are before a state district judge.

Ronald A. Smith

Smith, 37, of Red Deer, Alberta,
has been sentenced to die three
y Separate times

cution-style slay-
ing of two
Browning men,
Harvey Mad
Man Jr. and
»| Thomas Run-
J ning Rabbit Jr.,
‘ " but is not on
Smith death row at this
time.

The three death sentences have
been overturned, and a state district
judge in Kalispell is considering
whether to sentence Smith to death
once again. A hearing on the sen-
tence was held earlier this month.

Smith and two fellow Canadians
met Mad Man and Running Rabbit
in an East Glacier Park bar, and the
Browning men later gave the trio a
ride heading west on U.S. Highway
2. Smith ordered the victims to stop
the car near Essex, marched them
into the woods and shot them.

Smith can restart the appeal pro-

cess if he again is sentenced to
death.


McKenzie down to final

Condemned man meets Racicot to
plead for mercy as execution nears

By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer

DEER LODGE — Duncan
McKenzie Jr., facing death by lethal
injection early Wednesday morning,
maintained his innocence Monday
in asking Gov. Marc Racicot to spare
his life.

But even as he pleaded for clem-
ency, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals rejected McKenzie’s re-
maining attempt to block the execu-

Hi Court rejects appeals / 1B
How execution will be
carried out / 1B

tion. The court’s decision set the
stage for a final-hours appeal to the
U.S. Supreme Court.

The appellate court ruled 2-1 in
rejecting McKenzie’s claim that his
execution after 20 vears on death

row is cruel and unusual punish-
ment prohibited by the U.S. Consti-
tution.

The court said that McKenzie
could have raised the claim 10 years
ago, and that an execution delayed
for defense appeals does not violate
the Constitution.

“We are not confronted with a
situation where the state of Montana
has set up a scheme to prolong the
period of incarceration, or resched-
uled the execution repeatedly in or-

der to torture McKenzie,” the court
said.

“The delay has been caused by the
fact that McKenzie has availed him-
self of proce-
dures our law
provides to en-
sure that execu-
tions are Car-
ried out only in
appropriate
circum-
stances.”

McKenzie,
43, was con-
victed in the
1974 aggravated kidnapping and
torture murder of Lana Harding, a
teacher at a one-room school near
Conrad. He was convicted in 1975

See MCKENZIE, 8A

McKenzie


Court denies McKenzie appeals

Still anead: U.S.
Supreme Court

The Associated Press

HELENA ~— A federal court panel
on Monday rejected the last remain-
ing appeal of convicted killer Dun-
can McKenzie Jr., in a decision that
could send the case to the U.S.
Supreme Court today for the sev-
enth time

McKenzie is scheduled to die by
lethal injection early Wednesday
morning.

In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge
panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals rejected McKenzie's
claim that his 20-year wait on death
row is the kind of cruel and unusual
punishment banned by the U.S.
Constitution.

Today, nearly half of the court’s
25 judges will examine the decision
and decide whether the execution
should proceed as scheduled.

McKenzie's execution has been
delayed by two decades of appeals
to state and federal courts. He was
sentenced to die for the 1974 kid-
napping and torture murder of Con-
rad-area teacher Lana Harding.

Ron Waterman, a lawyer for
McKenzie, declined to comment on
Monday's court decision, other than
to say, ‘‘As with any step along the
line that doesn't come your way, it is
a disappointment.”

Attorney General Joe Mazurek
said the ruling was an important
hurdle to clear, but a court-ordered
delay was still a possibility.

“The state is still on track in
carrying out the order of execution
which the sentencing judge issued
in 1975,” he said, “We are proceed-
ing to enforce what we believe is a
valid conviction and judgment.”

The Circuit Court's majority opin-
ion by Judge Alex Kozinski rejected
the claim of excessive delay on two

grounds. The court said McKenzie
could have raised the issue 10
years ago and that a delay, caused
by time needed to decide defense
appeals, is not unconstitutional.

“We are not confronted with a
situation where the state of Mon-
tana has set up a scheme to pro-
long the period of incarceration, or
rescheduled the execution repeat-
edly in order to torture McKenzie,”
wrote Kozinski, joined by Judge
Robert Beezer.

“The delay has been caused by
the fact McKenzie has availed him-

See COURT, 2B

g

Source: AP

Tuesday, May 9, 1995

Court: Disagreement

FROM IB

he added.

self of procedures our law provides
to ensure that executions are carried
out only in appropriate circum-
stances.”

He said courts have been liberal in
granting stays of execution to con-
sider arguments in a death penalty
appeal, but might follow a different
policy if such delays became a rea-
son to set aside a death sentence.

“Sustaining a claim such as
McKenzie's would, we fear, wreak
havoc with the orderly administra-
tion of the death penalty in this
country by placing a substantial pre-
mium on speed rather than accu-
racy,” Kozinski wrote.

He said he did not intend to ‘‘mini-
mize ... the anguish that is suffered
by death-row inmates who repeat-
edly face the near-certain probabil-
ity of death.”

But he said prisoners were always
free to abandon their federal court
appeals. To the extent they choose
to delay execution in the hope of
overturning their sentence, “that is a
choice they make for themselves,”

That observation brought an an-
gry reply from dissenting Judge
William Norris, who said the major-
ity “gives new meaning to the notion
of ‘mockery of justice.’ ”

“The extraordinary delay in carry-
ing out his death sentence is not of
McKenzie’s making,” Norris said,

He said it was primarily the result
of two actions by the trial judge — a
jury instruction on intent to kill, and
a private meeting with the prosecu-
tor, undisclosed for nearly 10 years
— that were the subject of previous
appeals,

McKenzie's current claim of cruel
and unusual punishment is “sub-
stantial, important, and deserving of
careful and thoughtful consider-
ation” during a stay of execution,
Norris wrote.

“The years McKenzie has spent
on death row appear to be unprece-
dented. This delay, coupled with the
allegedly harsh and punitive con-
finement conditions on death row,
arguably satisfies the state's interest
in exacting retribution.”

Montana's execution chamber at Deer Lodge

In 1979 the state gave convicts with death sentences the option of choosing lethal injection instead of hanging, which was used in all 70 previous

|.V. tubes are
attached to

prisoner's arm.

ie Asecond I.V. is
oe ‘ attached in case
something goes
wrong with the

first.

eaieiity

Hospitals and railroads

Re the hospital merger: I have been a
patient in both facilities. Both are very good.
Of all the pros and cons, I've never heard
much about need. I hope Oklahoma City had

more than one hospital. Great Falls
hospitals serve quite a large area.

Our trouble on the Hi-Line started in

1970. This was the time that the Great

“Northern was allowed to merge with the
Northern Pacific and become Burlington
Northern. I worked in a grain elevator
(Tiber). Our service began to deteriorate,
but it wasn’t until 1980, when the Stieger

Railroad Act passed, decontrolling

executions carried out in Montana, Here | the Deer Lodge facility that Duncan McKenzie, by his own choice, will be the first to use:
Telephone, with backups, set to speed =) i" Observation area gs i oo,
dial povemar. attorney general or Nike ’ equipped with 16 chairs pnp ga Executioner’s Executioner s
corrections department director in case... Witnesses’ «”.’ for 12 witnesses and 4 time of death one-way window
of last-minute reprieve =|. oo entrance * corrections officers oe y
<i ‘ a — ar? ao |}
: , B v7 F 4
. A |
. \ ,
| \, be) Genet

|

a

| |

ne

; H i) re

| | | i | | Ses 4

| | | i . ; re}

Cutaway,

| ve

< Executioners Portal for Executioner’s

hn Ay gurney IV. tubes entrance

A lethal dosage

4) The prisoner is allowed to speak while

a harmless saline solution begins to
flow into the |.V. tubes.

(2) An anonymous executioner begins
injecting two grams of sodium pen-
tothol, which is used for anesthesia,
into the |.V. line, rendering the inmate
unconscious.

3) One hundred milligrams of Pavulon,
a muscle paralyzer, are injected into
the |.V. Breathing should stop in 60
seconds.

4] Two syringes of potassium chloride
are released into line, causing imme-
diate heart stoppage.

Také Uda/Tribune

The BN made money, so much money that
they out-bid the Union Pacific in taking over
the Santa Fe. They are truly “efficiency
experts,” but look around Great Falls, Havre
and towns along the Hi-Line. Our
communities are really hurting.

Duncan McKenzie deserves to die. But
with all the coverage you have given him, he
almost becomes a hero. Everybody in the
country that is against capital punishment
will be in Deer Lodge. They say capital
punishment doesn’t deter crime. I say it
does. A few years ago, a man was murdered
near Lincoln. His killer was caught and sent
to Deer Lodge and later paroled. He killed
two women in Washington.

V.R. ELLIOTT, Box 417, Chester

railroads, that our service really hit bottom.


Change in jury law
stalls in committee

SACRAMENTO (AP) — A pro-
posed constitutional amendment
to allow juries to convict defen-
dants with 10-2 votes stalled Tues-
day in an Assembly committee.

The proposal by Assemblyman
Richard Rainey, R-Walnut Creek,
received an initial 3-1 vote in the
eight-member Public Safety Com-
mittee. The issue could be resur-
rected for a future vote. :

‘Currently, a unanimous verdict
of a 12-member jury is required
for a conviction or acquittal in a
criminal case. Rainey’s proposal
would allow a 10-2 verdict, except
in death penalty cases. _

If approved by two-thirds votes
of each house, the proposal would
also have to be approved by voters.

Rainey and the district attor-
neys supporting the bill said it
would reduce the number of hung
juries. Witnesses from Louisiana,
Oregon and England, all of which
allow 10-2 verdicts, said the plan
works well in those places. _ ;

Opponents included California
Attorneys for Criminal Justice, the
American Civil Liberties Union
and the Public Defenders Associa-
tion. They said the proposal could
result in the conviction of inno-
cent people.

Gautte- coun $/h0 fas

WX, NV)

Killer executed in Montana after 20-year fight

Associated Press
DEER LODGE, Mont. —
With country music playing on
his headphones, a man was exe-
cuted by injection today 20 years

after being convicted of murder-

ing a schoolteacher.

Killer faces execution
in Montana today

DEER LODGE, Mont. — A
man who raped and murdered
a schoolteacher awaited lethal
injection early Wednesday in
the first execution in 52 years
in a state that was legendary for
dispensing swift frontier
Justice.

Duncan McKenzie Jr., 43,
was to be put to death shortly
after midnight, barring inter-
vention by the U.S. Supreme
Court.

Gov. Marc Racicot, a former
attorney general, refused Tues-
day to grant clemency. Ninety
minutes later, the 9th U.S. Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals denied a
request for a stay of execution.

Me

Duncan McKenzie Jr. was the
first person to be executed since
1943 in Montana, a state that
was legendary for dispensing
swift frontier justice.

Corrections officials said
McKenzie, 43, was cooperative
and even joked with staff as the
execution neared. After a last

_meal of steak, french fries, salad,

milk and orange sherbert, he was

. taken to the execution chamber

at 11:40 pm., listening to an
album by singer Marty Robbins.

Asked if he had any last
words, McKenzie shook his head.
The lethal drugs were injected
with the headphones still on his
ears.

After McKenzie stopped
breathing, the music was audible
in the silence of the chamber.

A spokesman for Gov. Marc
Racicot said officials granted one
of McKenzie’s last requests, to be
allowed to listen to music during
his execution. The prison provid-
ed the tape player, and the tape
was McKenzie’s.

McKenzie maintained his
innocence in the 1974 kidnap-
ping and murder of 23-year-old

Lana Harding, the teacher in a
one-room rural school near the
town of Conrad in Montana’s
wheat country.

McKenzie, then 22, was fresh
out of prison after a three-year
sentence for assaulting a woman.
He had just bought an old truck,
and was heard boasting that he
“broke in” his vehicles by having
sex in them.

He said he preferred teachers,
and told a co-worker he had one
in mind.

Hours later, Harding was
attacked in her living quarters
next to the school. Her body was
found in a snowy field. She had
been raped, choked and beaten. A
rope was tied around her neck,
and the right side of her head
was smashed open.

McKenzie’s truck was seen
heading toward the field the
night of the murder. His bloody
gloves were found nearby. Blood
was found in the bed of his truck,
along with purple fibers that
matched MHarding’s sweater.
Brain tissue and blood matching
Harding's were found on an auto

art in the back of the truck.

yt Slo /45

FROM LA

and sentenced to die. Appeals in state and
federal courts delayed the execution for two
decades.

In his face-to-face plea for clemency from
Racicot, McKenzie would not admit he killed
Harding. He had asserted his innocence over
the years.

“I can’t come to you and beg forgiveness
for something that I didn’t do,” McKenzie
told Racicot during the 35-minute meeting at
Montana State Prison.

The meeting was requested by McKenzie
earlier in the day, and Racicot drove to Deer
Lodge to talk with the condemned man. The
Board of Pardons recommended on Sat-
urday that Racicot reject McKenzie’s request
to have his sen-

‘McKenzie: Time running sho

Harding murder in 1974 as part of a pro-
posed agreement with prosecutors, but not
because he committed the crime. McKenzie
said he did so because his stepfather per-
suaded him that a 50-year prison term would
be less hard on his ailing mother than would
having her son receive the death penalty.

The plea bargain fell through when. op-
posed by Harding’s family.

McKenzie showed emotion only once —
when mentioning that one of his daughters
plans to be married later this month.

A commuted death sentence would be ‘“‘a
most unexpected and most welcome gift to a
young girl starting her life, instead of having
to start her life with her new husband under
a black cloud,” he told Racicot.

“I hope for com-

tence commuted
to life in prison
without parole.

Racicot said he
will issue a deci-
sion today after
he has reviewed
documents and
testimony sub-
mitted at the board’s weekend
hearing.

In the talk with Racicot, McKenzie said
that if he is allowed to live, he will use his
years in prison to find a way of proving his
innocence.

Wearing an orange jumpsuit, handcuffs
and leg chains, McKenzie sat across a small
table from the governor and made his case.

“I can’t say that I accept responsibility for
Lana Harding's death,” he told Racicot, a
former state attorney general. “I feel a great
deal of remorse for the Harding family and
for the suffering that they have gone through
with their loss.”

McKenzie also denied beating nearly to
death Barbara Stiffarm of Harlem in 1970,a
crime for which he was convicted and sen-
tenced to three years in prison.

He said he agreed to plead guilty to the

didn’t do.”

clemency

“| can’t come to you and beg
forgiveness for something that |

— Duncan McKenzie to Gov. Marc Racicot

A ES ETRE

mutation because
it is the only gift
that I can give my
family at this time
to make up for all
the pain and suf-
fering that they’ve
gone through
these 20-some
years,

“I realize the (clemency) request is a really
hard one for you,” he told the governor. “I
understand the political structure of the
country, of the state of Montana, of the
people’s feelings out there over this case.

“All I can say is that I’ve been told that
you’re a fair and you’re an honest man. All I
ask is that you consider this and if you can
find it in your heart and your conscience to
grant this clemency, I would be extremely
grateful.”

Racicot assured McKenzie he would re-
view all information carefully and make his
decision based on his legal responsibilities,
not on politics or passion.

Meanwhile, the Montana Supreme Court
rejected a claim by McKenzie that his March
27 .death warrant is invalid on technical
grounds.

AP Photo
as the
room after hearing

Gov. Marc Racicot bids goodbye to Duncan McKenzie
governor leaves a state prison conference
the condemned man’s plea for mercy.


FROM IA

McKenzie to the front of the court-
room and asked him to choose
whether to hang or die by lethal
injection, McKenzie’s attorney,
Greg Jackson of Helena, said
McKenzie had not had enough time
to consult with his attorneys.

But McKittrick persisted, and fi-
nally McKenzie said in a calm voice
that he would prefer lethal injection.

Tim Ford, another of McKenzie’s
attorneys, had argued earlier in the
hearing that hanging would be cruel
and unusual punishment because it
was likely that officials wouldn’t
know how to hang someone of
McKenzie’s size without decapitat-

ing him. The argument was based
on a case in Washington state.

Ford also argued that a state law
adopted in 1989 that gives death-
row inmate’s a choice of lethal injec-
tion should not apply to McKenzie
because the Legislature did not
make the law retroactive.

Ford also argued that the statute
under which McKenzie was being
given an execution date was
adopted after he was sentenced and
that the Legislature did not include
language to make that retroactive to
McKenzie.

“The reason this case has gone on
a long time is because the state
keeps wanting to apply special con-

ditions to Duncan Mc..<.wie,” Ford
said. “This is a mar: 21 years older
who has shown himself to have 21
years more of a background that
(the sentencing judge) did not have
access to.

“He has watched his execution
date approach seven times,” Ford
said, “and he has been incarcerated
under the worst conditions.”

McKenzie’s case has been to the
U.S. Supreme Court twice and in
January, the high court refused to
hear the case.

Collins acknowledged the possi-
bility of another appeal, but ex-
pressed doubts the courts would
accept one.

4 ete fee Sula arnt i lec seat Beier a
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eae et i eae

PB add sus OLA Ls

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abe teat

epee a +g: ay
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‘Closeup on crime ©.

Counting down to McKenzie death?

State making plans
for execution; latest
appeal unsuccessful

By Tribune Staff

uncan Peder McKenzie's date with
D the executioner inched closer
Thursday when a judge refused the
latest appeal of his death sentence.
McKenzie is scheduled to die by lethal
injection May 10 for the kidnapping and
murder of rural school teacher Lana
Harding 21 years ago.
If no judge or court intervenes, he would
be the first person to be executed in

Montana in more than 50 years.

Lengthy legal appeals have helped him
avoid eight previous execution dates. Will
this time be different?

“McKenzie certainly is closer now to
execution than he ever has been,” says
Great Falls attorney Bob James, who
follows capital cases.

In a tersely worded statement Thursday,
U.S. District Judge Leland C. Nielsen of
San Diego called the most recent appeal
“meritless and repetitive.” McKenzie’s
attorney says there are other avenues of
appeal still available.

Meanwhile, the state is moving ahead
with its execution plans.

Aroom at Deer Lodge where McKenzie
would receive the injection is being
readied. A lottery system is being set up to
determine which members of the media

will be allowed to witness the execution. A
person to administer the lethal injection is
being chosen.

People in Conrad, many of whom knew
the young teacher or her family when she
was murdered, say the appeals have
dragged on too long.

“The consensus around here is that he
should be executed,” said Gloria Auge,
who owns Ed’s Tavern. “If they don’t want
to execute him, they can drop him off on
Main Street and they can have a lottery to
see who gets him first.”

Preparations are also being made by
those opposed to capital punishment. Vigils
and letter-writing campaigns are being
organized by church groups and others
who reject the eye-for-an-eye notion of
justice.

Scott Creighton of the American Civil

Inside today:

b> The chances of McKenzie escaping
next month's execution date / 1B

Coming tomorrow:
p> A detailed look at the preparations

Liberties Union in Billings says much of his
time is spent fielding calls from people
concerned that McKenzie may actually die.

“Even if we can’t stop McKenzie’s
execution, the problem is, once you start
doing it, it becomes easier and easier to
execute people,” he said.

Tribune File Photo

‘Duncan Peder McKenzie is shown

during his sentencing appearance in
Great Falls last month.

Tuesday, March: 28,. 1995.

May 10

#j A

ah, a ee - 3 tees eb =
BE RAR
yy 4

But man imprisoned for murder
21 years ago immediately files appeal

By MICHAEL W. BABCOCK
Tribune Staff Writer

Duncan Peder McKenzie Jr., who
has spent the last two decades work-
ing to avoid the death penalty, was
sentenced on Monday to be exe-
cuted May 10 for the murder of a
rural school teacher 21 years ago.

McKenzie chose to die by lethal
injection after state district court
Judge Thomas McKittrick refused
several motions by defense attor-
neys to block setting the date, in-
cluding one that said the 265-pound
convict weighs so much that he
would be decapitated if he were
hanged.

A notice of appeal was filed within
minutes in the Cascade County
Clerk of Court's office by McKen-
zie’s lawyers.

“This case has gone on for 21
years and all cases should have
closure,” McKittrick said after he set
the execution date. “This is the be-
ginning of closure in the case of
Montana vs. Duncan Peder McKen-
zie. May God have mercy on your
soul.”

McKenzie was convicted in 1975
and sentenced to death for the 1974
murder of Lana Harding, a 23-year-
old teacher in the Pioneer School
near Ledger, a small community
northeast of Conrad.

McKenzie, 41, has been sentenced
to die seven times since and has had
his appeals rejected twice by the
U.S. Supreme Court. He has out-
lived most of the people involved in
prosecuting his case.

“This is the first time an actual
date has been set since 1982 and the

State of Montana is very happy the
court has set an execution date,”
said assistant attorney general
Pamela Collins. “I will do all that is
possible to see that the execution is

:No.320—"11 0th Year":

TEINS REE

=p tare
rant
stiSe?

execution set for McKenzie

But Thelma Bartz of Helena, an
aunt to Lana Harding, said “‘It’s time
that it happened. His victim did not
have a choice and it was cruel and
unusual and it is time he paid for his

upheld.” crimes.”

John Corey gs ‘ Betty Rue of
McKenzie of It S time that it Polson, another
Sho i happened. His victim undies ears

unty, alf- : ; arding, id,
brother to the Cid not have achoice “I'm very sorry
death-row_in- Duncan

mate, disputed
the death sen-

and it was cruel and thee
unusual and it is time

McKenzie’s fam-
ily, but our family

tence. . ; ; » has suffered
“This never he paid for his crimes.” enough”

should have ~_ Thelma BartzofHelena,anaunt Ethel Harding,

happened,” he to murder victim Lana Harding 2 State senator

said. “All of A, er? | CO 11) Lake

these things County, was un-

are cruel and unusual.”

John McKenzie said his half-
brother has become like a father to
him. He said he has visited McKen-
zie four times at the prison and the
two have talked for many hours on
the telephone.

able to attend the hearing. The Sen-
ate is considering the state budget
and attendance is mandatory, Bartz
said.

When McKittrick ordered

See MCKENZIE, 8A

Paver oe

PY

Stuart S$. White photo
Convicted murderer Duncan
Peder McKenzie Jr. is led to
court in Great Falls Monday for
a hearing in which a May 10
execution date was set.

Execution

“FROM IA

tion date, and we are preparing:
for that,” said Beth Baker, an
assistant chief deputy attorney.

Baker sald the court's rea-
soning could affect another
pending legal action in the case
in Great Falls. oy

McKenzie’s attorneys have
asked District Judge Thomas
McKittrick to reconsider his de-
cision to reset the execution
date for May 10. That occurred
after McKenzie’s second ap-
peal before the U.S. Supreme
Court failed.

. McKenzie’s lawyers contend
McKittrick had no authority to
set a new date, as he did in a
March 27 hearing.

Ford said the laws granting
the District Court that power
.were .not in effect when
McKenzie was sentenced and
should not be applied to this
See

“They may just say the whole
thing’s moot because of that,”
Ford said.

Attorney General Joe Maz-
urek responded that the reset-
ting of an execution date is
merely procedural and part of
the District Court’s duties.

He also said McKenzie is just
hunting for ways to delay the
execution, as he has done eight
times before.

“I suppose that the ultimate
irony here is to have fostered
this delay as long as he has, it
gets to the point where he now
says too much time has tran-
spired for there to be an execu-
tion,” Mazurek said. ‘'The logic
of that one escapes me, as I'm
sure it does most people,”

Beth Baker, a deputy attor-
ney general, said a response to
the Great Falls dispute proba-
bly would be filed today.

The last exectition in Mon-
tana was {tn Missoula in Se-
ptember 1943,


LeBEAU, Frederick, hanged at Kalispell, Montana, on April 2, 1909,

THE CRIME *

"The crime for which Fred LeBeau paid with his life, and his companion, Joe Hobbins,
is serving a life sentence in thepenitentiary, was, with one exception, the mst
brutal that has ever occurred in the county. :
"On June 19th last, Riley R. Yaakum and his son William F. Yoakum, were found dead
at their residence about 23 miles from Fortune, Both had been shot and had béen dead
for some time when the bodies were discoverede On the afternoon of the day mentioned
Scott Grubb went to the Yoakum residence, discovered the bodies, and at once sent word
to the officers at Kalispell. Ties ness
"An examination of the premises showed that there-had been no robbery. tn the cabin was
found $225 in cash and a number of certificates of deposit on the Conrad National Bank
for nearly $2500, This dispelled the idea that mrder had been committed for robbery,
and the theory was adopted that Yoakum and bon had quarrelled, and had killed each
other, This conclusion was reached partly because both were known to have violent tem
pers, and had frequently had altercations, .
"When Sheriff O'Connell and Coroner Sherman had made an examination of the premises
the bodies were taken to Eureka, where an inquest was held, All the witnesses who
might beable tov\shed any light on the occurrance were summoned but everything bore
out the theory of a quarrel \between the men, The coroner's jury bought in averdict
to the effect that the men had killed each other, probably after a quarrel, and there
the matter rested, It appeared to be a perfectly plain case, and there was not even a
‘suspicion that a mistake had been made. 7  g.
"Several days later, a young man named Joe Hobbins was in a& saloon at Whitefish talking
about having seen a man shoot the two Yoakums, Little attention was paid to his talk
for a while, as it was believed he was merely trying to attract attention to himself,
but he was so persistent that finally he was placed under nominal arrest and brotight to
Kalispell, Here he repeated the story, saying the man ffho did the shooting was a French-
man named Fred, with whom he had been for a few days, but that he knew nothing more of
him, The officers placed no credence whatever in the story, but as a matter of pree
caution kept Hobbins in custody, and notified the officers along the railroad to watch

g . : mt ;
for such a man as Hobbins had described, . .
"On the 29th Fred LeBeau, ¥M% who answered closely to the description given by Hobbins,
was arrested at Eureka and brought to Kalispell. He declared that he knew nothing of
the killing, and said he had not been on the Yoakums' place at all, When Hobbins was
brought into LeBeau's presence, he identified him at once as the man who had done the
shooting, . .

"Tyo days later LeBeau made a full confession, Hiss tory agreed closely with that

told by Hobbins, exscept that he said that the killing had been planned by the latter,
He told how he and Hobbins had gone to Yoakums' cabin on the afternoon of June
16th and some words with them after byying food, They had been ordered off the
place by the Yoakums. The next day they went back to make further purchases, and had
talked between themselves of shooting both the father and the son, Hobbins stood on
the railroad while LeBeau went to the house, He had some dispute with the Yoakums about
the price of stuff he bought, and said he drew a pistol he had and shot the younger
Yoakum in the abdomen, The young man ran to the house, and LeBeau turned to the fa-
ther who he ‘said had a hoe in his hand and, he thought, threatened him, He shot him
also, and-as he lay oh the ground writhing, shot him again, LeBeau then ran, and as he
crossed the open field the younger Yoakum shot at him a ‘number of times, When LeBeau
feached the fence he threw himself on the ground out of ‘sight, and lay there for some
time, Hobkins saw LeBeau drop behind the fence and thought he had been killed by Yoa-
kum, Not knowing the younger Yoakum had ‘been fatally wounded he did not venture to the
house, At dark LeBeau left the neighborhood, and made his way across the Canadian
boundary. There he saw a newspaper account of the killing of the Yoakums and finding
there was no suspicion as to the facts, he thought it safe to venture back on this
side of the line, He came to Eureka where he was arrested, He told his story with-
out any apparent feeling and related how he and Hobbins planned the killing of the
Yoakums with as little compunction as they would show in preparing for a hunk.
"Tyo days after the LeBeau confession Hobbins went fof the Assistant County Attorpey
Conrow, and in his presence and that of several others, also told in full the rine id F

he killings. cept in unimportant details the two, confessgons were identical, an
ae A teats ar pela Oi ouaa murder that is not often equa ed,

i j +4. Hobbins entered a plea of not guilty, though he

"When the men were arraigned in court, 40 oe could pet light sententes L@Beau
madean offer to plead guilty to manslaughter 11 he :


plead guilty to murder in‘the first degree, although he was cautioned that such a plea
might sentl him to t e gallows, He wasnot sentenced at thés time, but was used assa wite
néssat the trial of Hobbins. The‘jury in the case of Hebbins found him guilty of
murder in the first degree, and sehtencéed him to imprisonment for life. LeBeau later
withdrew his plea of guilty, and stood trial, The jury promptly returned a verdict of
guilty,leaving the‘punishmént to the court. Judge Erickson sentenced LeBeau to deat hy,
on the ground that there were no mitigating circumstances, and that he deserved the x?
he deseryed the heaviest punishment tle*taw could inflict, The time was set for LeBeau's
execution, but application was made to Governor Norris for a pardon on the ground that
LeBeau was insane, e granted a reprieve until April 2nd and Dr. Scanlan, an alienist
at the ispane asylum was sent to Kalispell to examine LeBeau, He reported that LeBeau
was saneand the governor issued instructions to the Flahhead officers to carry out the
‘sentence of the court, ‘
"It is uncertain whether LeBeau has been known by his real name, He intimted a num-
ber of times that he was not, but he persistently refused to disclose any particulars
about his people, further than that his mother's name was McMillan, and that hiss
people lied in a town in Canada where there is a gahass factory."
THE EXECUTION,

"Fred LeBeau was hanged atkthe county jail this morning,...Sheriff @tgagg7% O'Connell
asked a number of feporters to be present’ when the death warrant was read to LeBeau

in his cell, The prisoner had been in a state bordering on nervous collapse for nearly
two hours previous, and in order to quiet him Mr, O'Connell asked Senator Long, who
had been. LeBeau's attorney, and had great influenceover him, to come to the cell, Le-
Beau objected strongly to the reading of the death warrant, but when assured by Mr,
Long that thelaw required it, andaihat it mst be done, he offered no further resist-
ence, , but said he did not want them to use the word murder, for he was no murderer,
When the word occurred in the warrant, herose nervously from the couch on which he was
sitting and struck at the paper. He said several times he was sick, and was seized
with a severe attack of vomiting, It was 7:0) when the reading of thee warrant was
begun. When it had been finished and LeBeau was told it was time to go, he appeared
to regain his nerve, and said he was ready, His hands were strapped to his sides, at
which he protested,. and would not be quieted until Mr. Long assured him that it must
“be done, He insisted that Sen, Long should accompay him out: of the building and al-
though Mr, Long declined at first to do sO, at the request of the sheriff and his
assistants he finally consented in order the keep the prisoner quiet, Le®eau did not
wish anyoyje to assist him or even walk by his side, but Sheriff O'Connell told him he
must walk with him, He went up the steps of the scaffold unaided, and when half way
up stopped and pushed off his loose shoes, saying he was not a cisichchiiced and did not X#f
‘intend to die with his shoes on,

"When he reached the scaffold he stepped on the trap and looked sound before the noose
was adjusted. When it was placed around his neck, he said: 'Oh, God, man that's tight.!
He then ‘asked for Sen, Long and insisted that he should come up and shake hands with
him which was done. LeBeau then looked out over the crowd and said: 'You may have seen
a good many hangings but you never saw one like this, Mr, Long, I want you'to see that
I get a good funeral,' ¢

"Several times during the few moments he declared he was not guilty and jastta as the black
cap was drawn ‘over his head arfd adjusted, he repeated: 'I am not guilty.'

"At 7222 the trap was sprung. After body disappeared there was a convulsive movement
through it arid all was still, Neck broken by fall and pronounced dead by Drs, Taylor ~
and Campbell 7 minutes ‘later, Body allowdd to hang 15 minutes and lowered into basket,
Bo dy interred today in Demersville cemetery. Details of his life unknown,"

DAILY INTERLAKE, Kalispell, Montana, April 2, 1909 (1-1)


r
| ge at 1920
LANE, Alfred, white, 36, hanged Forsyth, Montana, on September 3, 19
\ ae Pass heer !
/ . ;
Gi acaieel” a Rees Peat a ire Es at el ae # Z " ‘
7a 2 * 1, ne ‘ ; .
3 a ae C3 opp 2
Fe : : i
= ’ ~
. pene ore F ; IN THE DISTRICT COURT
* # SaaS r mag tes bo hee Kr: ‘ : 1 : aubtess i ; F
Sha eae ceveiine .W") OF THE FIFTEENTH JUDICIAT, DISTRIC? OF THE STATE OF MONTANA, ee ee
uv i se ry | a $s ¥< j 3
Pree z 3 IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF RosERTID.. . |
bo. at i ‘, :
BES Bory OR iri ae atte De Ne Binion we ne =a0o : boas
eect THR STATE or HONTAN A;
| ‘ }
“al fePlaintife,,
Midis it it
| +Vs- 1 fee 4] DEATH WARRAN
LLPRED. LANE: Soc. eee :
sites 2 "°° Defendant.
+ Se Ny ~oCo-=

THE STATE OF MONTANA, TO TH SHERIFF OF ROSHEUD county, a! EETING: |
ee aia ‘ . sie oa

WHEREAS, Alfred Lune having been duly convicted in the

e

Py |
District Court of the Fifteenth Judicial District of the State of

Montana, in and for the County of Rosebud, of the crime of murder

in the first derree, and a judgment having been pronounced againgt
PIE Yes

“the said ‘Aitred Lane ‘that he be punfshed'by death byshehieing® ‘by yt

Of etre

* ree
if gt the rreck until dead, all of which appears to us of record and
a certified copy of the Rae Saas heirs hereto attached and maae =

a part hereof; 2 owe

NOW, THEREFORE » TULS: LokLo COMMAND YOU, the said Sheriff

| of Rosebud County, to take and keep the said Alfred Lane until eS

Friday, the 3rd day of September, A. D. 1920, : sh
AND THIS IS TO COMMAND YOU, the suid Sneriff of Rosebud .

f: oe
: ; nae rom end.
‘county, aL te on Friday, the said Srd dey of eat asher: A. Rat i

i gine
/1920, to execute the judgment of the Court by hanging the said. Gents
: a

Alfred Lane oy the neck until he is dead, vit Ain the walls or “pee

LE ae eae Lae Bae
me + s

of the jail, or some convenient private place, in the said county ‘l’
-of Rosebud, State of Montana, and after the execution, to make a
return upon this warrant showing the time, mode and manner in seu

which it was executed.

HEREIN FAIL Nov,

‘COUNTY ATTORNEY |!
: ROSEBUD COUNTY
} FORSYTH, } MONTANA '


ness, HON.'Geo. P, Jones” Tudze of the District

| Of the Fifteenth Judicial District of 4c vtana,

Peg rr ie st vit Pentereeehe Cour er mor cmeree ae the coure OTS OT ae Te OB TE hn
: j of posckid this a Ba Fie Of FULW ER = t }
i ee

ATTEST my hand and the seal of
the said Court, this eT fe aoe

of July A. D., 1920,

SO a ere pies bree wen cotaty os we fo

Wee tJt
hs pis trict. Court,

eh ds ¥ sg +4 Ba ho
SRA gg: ee MARE GAR a

“Deptt cy Clerk. Ss

OUNTY ATTORNE Y
ROSEBUD County
FORSYTH, MON: TANA |!

il

|
i
|
i}
|
'


Killer of S.F. Couple Executed

Deer Lodge, Mont. — A drifter from North Carolina
who confessed to abducting and killing a San Francis-
co couple at their ranch house nearly a decade ago
was executed by injection today.

Terry Allen Langford, 31, happened upon the
home of Ned and Celene Blackwood during the
Fourth of July weekend of 1988. In his confession, he
said he found a loaded .22-caliber rifle in the Black.
woods’ pickup truck. The next day, he forced Celene
Blackwood, 48, to tie her husband’s hands and
marched them into their living room, where he hog-
tied Celene Blackwood on the couch.

Langford fired a .22-caliber bullet into Ned Black-
wood’s head and a second bullet into Celene Black-
wood’s left ear. She didn’t die immediately, so he cut
her throat.

Langford was later arrested in Raleigh, N.C., and
confessed to the killings. He has never said why he

killed the Blackwoods. ? = 2% Y 4 yi ‘4

Sa FRAN Cheon

Associated Press

Helena, Mont.

Barring an eleventh-hour re-
prieve by a court, Terry Langford
faces his final day of life today be-
fore being executed by lethal in-
jection for the murders of a couple
from San Francisco almost 10
years ago.

He will spend his last hours

Mor
L-23-9¢

alone in a tiny concrete cell 33
steps from the execution chamber,
a converted house trailer set close
to the wall of the maximum-securi-
ty building at’the Montana State
Prison.

Langford, 31, lost his last bid
Friday to avoid death when the
U.S. Supreme Court denied his ap-
peal and a request to postpone the

Killer of $.F. Couple Nears Execution in Montana

execution, which is scheduled to
take place in the first minutes of
tomorrow morning.
Langford was sentenced to die
for kidnapping and killing Ned
and Celene Blackwood in their
house north of the Montana town
of Ovando. The couple moved
from San Francisco to Montana af-
ter Ned Blackwood’s retirement.

SAN FRANCS CO
ChROMIAeE_

Woe

Subj: Confessed Double Murdered Execucted
Date: 98-02-24 08:47:58 EST

From: AOL News

BCC: Galba33

Confessed Double Murdered Execucted

.c The Associated Press
By TOM LACEKY

DEER LODGE, Mont. (AP) - A drifter who came to Montana to become a mountain man and wound up murdering a couple
was executed this moming, taking any hope of an explanation for the killings to his grave.

In the nine years Terry Allen Langford was on death row, he never said why he tied up and killed Ned and Celene Blackwood
at their ranch home in 1988. The question haunted him as well, his aunt said.

“He said, “Every day | lay my head on the pillow, | ask myself what happened,” said Brenda Prangley, who spoke with
Langford frequently by phone.

Langford, 31, was executed by injection after nine years of swinging back and forth between resignation and court appeals.
Within hours of his arrest in 1988, he had confessed and requested the death penalty, but as late as Monday night he asked
Gov. Marc Racicot for a delay. It was denied.

It was only the state’s second execution since 1943.

The North Carolina cabinetmaker had planned to live in the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains but stumbled on the
Blackwoods’ home. He raided their garage refrigerator, found a loaded .22-caliber rifle in Blackwood's truck and forced Mrs.
Blackwood to tie her husband's hands. Then he tied both of them up in the living room and talked with them for several hours
as they lay captive.

“There was a point where they were getting along fine," said Chris Prangley, Langford's uncle. “He said they were really nice
people."

Langford fired a shot into the back of Blackwood's head and a second bullet into Mrs. Blackwood's left ear. She didn't die
immediately, so he cut her throat. He was 46, she was 48.

He was captured the next month in Raleigh, N.C.
Strapped on the gumey with his arms outstretched, Langford declined to make a final statement.

AP-NY-02-24-98 0844EST

Copyright 1997 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise
distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press.

To edit your profile, go to keyword NewsProfiles.
For all of today's news, go to keyword News.

Sunday February 26,1996 America Online: Galba3s Page: 1

Killer of ex-Laf

3

A4 a

& No remorse shown, no
‘mercy sought by man who
tied up, shot pair at their

“ranch in Montana in 1988

By Bob Anez

OCIATED PRESS

-- ‘ DEER LODGE, Mont. — The con-

fessed murderer of a former
‘Lafayette couple awaited execution

’ Monday, apparently resigned to his
'» fate. He requested no mercy and

sought no solace from family or

~-Clergy.

«<

His death by lethal injection was
scheduled for early this morning,
‘shortly after midnight Montana time,
at the State Prison near Deer Lodge.

The U.S. Supreme Court turned

< down Terry Allen Langford’s latest

= appeal Friday, and no more have
~ been filed. He didn’t apply for

clemency from the governor.
Langford spent his last day in an

isolation cell near the execution
chamber, a house trailer set against
the rear of the maximum-security
building.

He asked for a last meal of fried
chicken, potatoes and gravy, and a
banana split, but did not request
counseling from prison staff or
clergy.

An aunt flew from Atlanta to be
with him, but Langford refused Sun-
day to meet with her.

Langford, 31, sat on death row for
nine years after confessing to the ab-
duction and killing of Ned and Ce-
lene Blackwood at their ranch house
near Ovando in July 1988. He ini-
tially asked for and received the
death penalty. He later changed his
mind and appealed.

But Langford’s last-minute efforts
to escape the death penalty by claim-
ing the state’s decision to abolish
hanging had unconstitutionally de-
prived him of a challenge to his ex-

a

ecution found little sympathy in the
courts. Both state and federal courts
rejected the notion over the last three
months.

Blackwood, 46, had been a suc-
cessful San Francisco stockbroker
before he and his wife, Celene, 48,
chucked city life to become cattle
ranchers in the heart of the Rocky
Mountains six years earlier.

Donald Martin, a former neigh-
bor of the couple in Lafayette, said
he does not feel any pleasure about
Langford’s execution, although he
said he felt differently 10 years ago.

“I'm opposed to capital punish-
ment ... in this case two dear sweet
people were murdered, but my feel-
ing is Langford just needed to be
kept out of society. There’s no way
he should be out and about, capable
of hurting someone else.”

Jim Pedder, a friend of Ned Black-
wood and fellow former trader on
the Pacific Stock Exchange in San

Contra Coster CA Fae ae *: TUES DAY. FEBRUARY 24, 1998
| CONTRA COSTA + BAY AREA ©

yette couple set to

Francisco, said he and his wife are
pleased Langford would be executed.

‘I'm delighted, but this is a very
private time for us,” he said Monday.

Montana’s last execution was in
May 1995. Duncan McKenzie Jr. died
by lethal injection after spending two
decades on death row for killing
Conrad schoolteacher Lana Harding.
McKenzie, however, never admitted
his guilt. McKenzie’s was the first
execution since 1943.

Langford, a drifter from Raleigh,
N.C., toted his camping gear across
country in late June 1988 and set his
sights on the Bob Marshall Wilderness
with ideas of being a mountain man.

Instead, he got off the bus at
Ovando and sometime over the
Fourth of July weekend happened
upon the Blackwoods’ home.

Using a rifle he found in the
garage, Langford confronted Ned
Blackwood. He forced Celene Black-

wood to tie her husband’s hands an
marched them into their living roon
He hogtied Celene Blackwood on th
couch and bound Blackwood to

rocking chair.

Langford fired a .22-caliber bu
let into the back of Blackwood’s hea
and a second bullet into Celen
Blackwood’s left ear. She didn’t di
immediately, so he cut her throat.

It was more than three week
before Langford was linked to th
crime. Indiana officials found a du:
fel bag full of guns that had bee
stolen from the Blackwood home

Witnesses reported seeing Lang
ford carrying the bag while tryin;
to rob a motel in Indiana a few day:
after the Blackwoods’ bodies wer:
found.

Langford was arrested in Raleig!
and confessed to the murders.

Staff writer Celeste Ward con-
tributed to this story.


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end to

7» HELENA (AP) — Attorney Gen-
‘eral Joe Mazurck has joined his
“éeumterparts in nine other states in
urging Congress to adopt laws that
would move death penalty cases
through the courts more quickly.
* The House on Wednesday
passed a bill to impose a one-year
imudt on federal appcals by death
.féw prisoners.
Mazurek added his name to 2

letter sent to Congress in advance

‘at that vote. |
» “The letter certainly relates to

‘our experience in Montana.” he .

aaid Thursday. “When you consid-
er cases like the Duncan McKenzie
case Uiat has dragged on for 20
years, it is no exaggeration to de-
seribe the federa] habcas corpus

Bozenan Caowrana)
CAky CHeowice €

tate joins call for quicker
death penalty appeals

review process as intrusive, cum-

‘ bersome and time consuming.”

McKenzie was sentenced ta
death for the $974 torture inurder
of Conrad-area school teacher Lana

Mazurek also said the lengthy
appeals are expensive for taxpayers
and emotionally exhausting for the
victims’ families.

Mazurek said he believes mos!

‘Montanans want the criminal jus-

tice system to have same finalily
and to be more responsive to (he
victims of crimes.

“As it’stands today, the system
is lopsided,” he said. “Despite our
efforts at the state level, all the ac-
tion on death penalty cases hap-
pens in the federal courts.”

T

MON.
2713°9S

Montana To Execute Killer
AP 9 May 95 17:12 EDT V0450
Copyright 1995 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The information contained in this news report may not be published,
broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority
of the Associated Press,

DEER LODGE, Mont. (AP) -- A man who raped and murdered a
schoolteacher awaited lethal injection early Wednesday in the first
execution in 52 years in a state that was legendary for dispensing
swift frontier justice.

Duncan McKenzie Jr., 43, was to be put to death shortly after
midnight, barring a court stay or a grant of clemency from Gov. Marc
Racicot, a former attorney general. McKenzie’ s case rested with a
federal appeals court Tuesday. |

McKenzie was convicted in the 1974 kidnapping and murder of
23-year-old Lana Harding, the teacher in a one-room rural school near
the town of Conrad in Montana’s wheat country. He denied killing her.

The last person put to death in Montana was Philip Coleman, hanged
on Sept. 10, 1943, for murdering a railroad foreman who had hired him
days earlier. Seven more convicts await execution in Montana.

In 20 years of fighting his death sentence, McKenzie avoided eight
scheduled executions.

Pleading for mercy in a meeting Monday with the governor, McKenzie
said he felt sorry for the Harding family. But he added: “I can’t come
to you and beg forgiveness for something that I didn’t do."

In 1974, McKenzie, then 22, was fresh out of prison after a
three-year sentence for assaulting a woman . He had just bought an old
truck.

He was heard boasting that he “broke in" his vehicles by having sex
in them. He said he preferred teachers and told a co-worker he had one
in mind.

Hours later, Harding was attacked in her living quarters next to the
school, Her body was found in a snowy field. She had been raped, choked
and beaten. A rope was tied around her neck, and the right side of her
head lay open.

McKenzie's truck was seen driving toward the field the night of the
murder. His bloody gloves were found nearby. Blood was found in the bed
of his truck, along with purple fibers that matched Harding’s sweater.
Brain tissue and blood matching Harding’s were found on an auto part in
the back of the truck.

Since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in
1976, 276 people have been executed in other states.


Thursday, April 27, 1995 Great Falls Tribune

MONTANA

Questions or news tips? Call City Editor Linda Caricaburu, 791-1491 or 1-800-438-6600.

Court to consider McKenzie appeal

Ruling on execution’s delay
may be handed down today

The Associated Press

HELENA — A federal appeals
court has agreed to consider the
latest appeal of condemned killer
Duncan McKenzie Jr., but has not
postponed his May 10 date for exe-
cution.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap-
peals on Tuesday set up a schedule

for McKenzie’s lawyer and the
Montana attorney general’s office to
submit their written arguments by
May 4.

Meanwhile, a federal magistrate
in Missoula was expected to rule
today on a request to postpone
McKenzie’s execution.

A Helena lawyer representing

McKenzie has argued that McKen-
zie must be kept alive to testify in
lawsuits that he and other
maximum-security inmates filed
over the bloody 1991 prison riot.

The appeal to the Circuit Court in
San Francisco challenges last
week’s decision by U.S. District
Judge Leland Nielsen of San Diego
to dismiss McKenzie’s arguments
against execution.

McKenzie had claimed before the
Montana Supreme Court and Niel-
sen that the setting of the execution
date last month and the execution
itself violate the U.S. Constitution.
In both instances, his lawyer said,

the state ap-
plied laws to
McKenzie that
were passed af-
ter his convic-
tion and death
sentence were
handed down
in 1975.

The appeal
reached the
Circuit Court after the state Su-
preme Court and Nielsen rejected
McKenzie’s contention.

McKenzie

The federal court ordered
McKenzie’s attorney, Timothy Ford

of Seattle, to file his arguments b
Friday. The state must respond b
May 2 and Ford can reply by May 4.

If the court wants to hear or
arguments in the case, they will b
held May 6, four days befor
McKenzie is scheduled to die b
lethal injection.

He was convicted in 1975 of th
torture murder and aggravated kid
napping of Conrad-area_ school
teacher Lana Harding. McKenzie’
case has been the subject of stat:
and federal court appeals for th
past two decades.

:sy SUSAN GALLAGHER
\ssociated Press Writer

ONRAD (AP) — It’s hard to find anyone
in Conrad who does not want Duncan
McKenzie Jr. executed next month for
the torture murder he committed near
here 21 years ago.

After two decades of appeals and eight execution
postponements, McKenzie may become the first
oerson executed in Montana since 1943.

A judge has ordered him to die by lethal injection
May 10 for the 1974 kidnap and murder of teacher
Lana Harding near her one-room school northeast
of Conrad.

The mood in town: This time, do it.

“We just feel it’s been drawn out way too long,
iaxpayer dollars have been used and abused, and
the legal system has been abused to the max,”’ said
Bonnie Poser at The N’Thing, a clothing store on
Main Street. ‘‘This man is guilty. He should have
ceen hanged a long time ago.”’

~The case has endured as part of life in Conrad, a
town of 2,900 in Montana’s wheat country. In Bible
Study groups, in coffee shops and on the pages of
the weekly newspaper, people talk and read about
McKenzie.

New generation

_. The story has been passed on to the new genera-
tion, and to the transplants bringing mild growth to
the community.

“J think pretty near every kid in town knows,”’
said Dale Sheldon, a Pondera County commission-
er;

“McKenzie was 22 when he kidnapped Harding, 23,
about two weeks after he went to work at K and K
Seed Co. in January 1974.

Authorities said Harding was choked with a rope
at the teacherage adjacent to Pioneer School. She
was raped, dragged into the back of McKenzie’s
pickup and taken to a field. McKenzie used the ex-
Aaust manifold from a vehicle to crush her skull.

The day after Harding failed to show up in the

é He hasn't changed. He couldn't
tell you the truth if his life depend-
ed on it.’

classroom where she taught five students, her body
was found over the tongue of a farmer’s grain drill.

In 1975 McKenzie was convicted of aggravated
kidnapping and murder by torture and sentenced to
die.

Anger grows

People in Conrad and Pondera County had no
clue his journey through the legal system would
last so long. For many, the anger has grown as the
years elapsed.

‘‘Given what I saw, I wouldn’t have a problem in-
jecting him myself,’’ said Jack Lee, who publishes
the weekly Independent Observer and developed
the crime-scene film for investigators in 1974.

The lawyer for McKenzie said he has been await-
ing execution longer than any other condemned
person in the United States. At 43, McKenzie has
spent half his life on Death Row.

Life in the Conrad area has gone on and even the
school building where Harding worked has a new
purpose: It was moved to Dupuyer and houses the
Baptist Church. But people will not put the case be-
hind them.

“Conrad’s never forgotten,’’ said Jerry Hepp, a
farmer who was a high school senior at the time of
the murder.

Even fellow participants in a Roman Catholic
Bible-study group voiced unanimous support for
McKenzie’s execution on one occasion some years
ago, Hepp said, despite their church’s stand against
capital punishment.

This month, the state’s two Catholic bishops reit-
erated the position of the church in a statement
read at Easter Masses. At St. Michael’s Catholic
Church in Conrad, some people didn’t like what
they heard.

Ihe Independent Record. Helena. Mont., Sunday. April 23, 1995

MONTANA _

Conrad remembers McKenzie

“It was said, at that moment, to the wrong peo-
ple,’”’ parishioner RutheMary Kronebusch said of
the message read by a visiting priest.

Kronebusch, who refused to state her opinion of
McKenzie’s sentence, said many ‘‘who have waited
for justice’’ had trouble accepting the reassertion
against the death penalty. The church statement in-
cludes words of compassion for crime victims, and
support for alternative penalties such as life in
prison without parole.

‘‘Many people are struggling with their con-
sciences about the issue and see the teaching of the
church as a painful challenge,”’ said the Rev. Tom
Haffey of St. Michael’s, who was at an outlying par-
ish on Easter.

At the seed company where McKenzie used to
work, his former employer isn’t struggling. He
wants McKenzie executed.

“The justice system should be totally embar-
rassed,”’ said Don Keil. ‘‘He had a fair trial and his
peers said to hang him. The justice system has
taken 20 years to carry it out.”’ He believes the
death penalty can deter crime, but not when there
is a delay of two decades.

“This sets a poor example for other people,’”’ Keil
said. ‘‘He’s a privileged man.”

McKenzie's past

McKenzie went to work for Keil after an equip-
ment dealer in Spokane, Wash., called and said the
man was looking for a job. Keil needed some help,
and before long, McKenzie drove up in subzero cold
with his wife and kids.

Keil said that nothing in his talk with McKenzie
or his written application indicated a criminal past.

But McKenzie was fresh out of prison after complet-

ing a three-year sentence for assault.

Keil was astounded when authorities named his
employee in the Harding case. At the seed compa-
ny, McKenzie showed up on time and did his work.
The day of his arrest, he was putting up paneling in
the house that came with his job.

‘‘We had a couple of Ph.Ds working in plant
breeding and they said, ‘It looks like we’ve finally
got some good help around here,’ "’ Keil remem-

6 This sets a poor example for
other people. He's a priviledged
man.’

bers.

Sheriff remembers

Former Sheriff Walter Hammermeister investi-
gated the Harding murder and studies the case to
this day. In the early years, when McKenzie was
expected to die in a noose and sheriffs were respon-
sible for hangings, Hammermeister believed he
would have a hand in the execution.

He doesn’t buy McKenzie’s arguments, presented
again in an appeal Wednesday, that his death sen-
tence should be blocked because he is a different
man now.

‘‘He hasn’t changed,’’ said Hammermeister. ‘‘He
couldn’t tell you the truth if his life depended on
it.”

The appeal submitted to a federal judge in Cali-
fornia says the death penalty would be unconstitu-
tional, and amounts to cruel and unusual punish-
ment. The judge rejected the appeal Thursday,
calling it meritless.

After his arrest, McKenzie did not deny he killed
Harding, but he claimed insanity and lack of the
mental capacity to kill intentionally. In a 1994 news
paper interview, he declared his innocence and said
he had never seen the woman.

Hammermeister remembers ‘‘Duke’’ McKenzie
as an inmate who had to be watched closely, asked
for girly magazines and complained his 70-degree
cell was cold.

At his farm, Hammermeister still has a piece of
evidence from the case that defined his career. He
continues to store the black 1948 Dodge pickup that
McKenzie used to take Harding from the teacher-
age. Hammermeister said he would be uncomfort-
able letting the truck go before the case is over.

And like a lot of people in Conrad, he won't con-
sider it over until McKenzie is dead.

Questions or news tips? Call City Editor Linda Caricaburu, 791-1491 or 1-800-438-6600.

McKenzie launches federal appeal

Killer’s argumenis
same as rejected
by state high court

By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer
HELENA — Convicted killer Duncan

McKenzie, scheduled to die by lethal injection
in three weeks, asked a federal judge Wed-
nesday to block his execution.

Tim Ford, McKenzie’s lawyer, argued the
setting of the May 10 execution date last
month and the execution itself violate the U.S.
Constitution. In both instances, Ford said, the
state has applied laws to McKenzie that were
passed after his conviction and sentencing 20
years ago,

The appeal also contends execution would
be cruel and unusual punishment because
McKenzie already has been locked up and
awaiting execution longer than any other
condemned person in the country.

The same arguments were raised before the
Montana Supreme Court earlier this month,
and the justices unanimously rejected them on
April 11.

Assistant Attorney General Pamela Collins
said Wednesday the federal appeal was not a
surprise.

The appeal asks for postponement of the
execution to allow for a hearing on the consti-
tutional claims.

The appeal was forwarded to U.S. District
Judge Leland Neilsen of San Diego, who was
appointed in January after Montana’s federal
judges removed themselves from the case.

McKenzie, 43, was sentenced to die for the
1974 kidnapping and murder of Conrad-area
school teacher Lana Harding, 23. Appeals in
state and federal courts have delayed his
execution for two decades.

Ford contended in Wednesday’s appeal that

changes made in sentencing and death pen-
alty laws during the 1980s have been wrongly
applied to McKenzie’s conviction and sentenc-
ing in the 1970s.

He complained those laws prevented the
judge from considering
whether the death sen-
tence is appropriate. He
also argues District
Judge Thomas MckKitt-
rick of Great Falls did not
have jurisdiction over the
case on March 27 when
he chose the May 10 date.

Ford said changes in
capital punishment laws
long after McKenzie’s
conviction deprive him of important rights
and protections provided by the old laws.

For example, the revised laws no longer
require a doctor, and the sheriff and prosecu-
tor from the county where the trial occurred to
attend the execution. The new laws reduced
from five to three the number of witnesses
McKenzie can have at the execution and do

McKenzie

not allow him to know the name and qualifica-
tions of the executioner.

Such changes remove safeguards against
the execution being botched and that has
McKenzie concerned, Ford said.

“Mr. McKenzie’s fears are reasonable be-
cause hanging and lethal injection are both
methods of execution in which negligent or
intentional errors can cause a person exe-
cuted prolonged, intense suffering or disfig-
urement,” he wrote.

The reasons given for sentencing McKenzie
to die 20 years ago are no longer valid, Ford
said. The state has the option of giving him a
life sentence without parole, and McKenzie
has proven himself to be a model prisoner and
not the dangerous man seen by the sentencing
judge in 1975, he added.

Ford also argued that McKenzie has suf-
fered enough by being imprisoned under a
death sentence for nearly half his life. ““The
execution of a person after such a long period
of delay would be cruel and unusual punish-
ment, and a fundamental miscarriage of jus-
tice,” he said.


oY

The Independent Record, Helena, Mont.,

Saturday, Apri! 29, 1995—

Racicot willing to talk with McKenzie

By KATHLEEN McLAUGHLIN
IR State Bureau

Gov. Marc Racicot said Friday he
would consider meeting with convicted
killer Duncan McKenzie Jr. before
deciding whether to allow him to die by
lethal injection on May 10.

McKenzie’s death sentence is still in
the appeals process. The governor was
asked Friday by McKenzie’s attorney to
review the case and change the sentence

Racicot

to life in prison.

McKenzie is scheduled to die by lethal
injection in two weeks for kidnapping
and murdering rural schoolteacher
Lana Harding near Conrad 20 years ago.
If the sentence is carried out, McKenzie
would be the first person executed in
Montana in 52 years.

In December 1988, shortly before he
left office, Democratic Gov. Ted Schwin-
den commuted a death sentence for con-
demned killer David Keith, after a sur-

4

prise meeting with Keith at the Montana
State Prison a few weeks before the
scheduled execution.

Schwinden also spoke with the family
of Keith’s victim before making the de-
cision to grant Keith a sentence of life in
prison. Schwinden’s decision mirrored a
recommendation by the state Board of
Pardons on Keith.

““(Keith) certainly manifests a deep
sense of remorse ... He is a very strong
Christian,” Schwinden said at the time,

explaining his decision.

Racicot, a Republican, said in his
weekly press conference Friday that he
supports the death penalty. However, he
will not comment on McKenzie’s sen-
tence and won’t speculate as to how he
will handle the plea for executive clem-
ency.

But Racicot said he would consider a
request from McKenzie to meet face-to-
face before the execution.

“I’m not averse to that,’’ said Raci-

cot.

Racicot said he doesn’t enjoy the pros-
pect of being McKenzie’s last hope, but
he accepts that as part of his responsi-
bility as governor.

“We're talking about the ultimate
sanction here, and a matter that has
been the subject of great debate and
consternation from the beginning of
time,”’ said Racicot.

McKenzie asking for clemency

By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer

Thirteen days before his scheduled execu-
tion, convicted killer Duncan McKenzie Jr. on
Friday asked Gov. Marc Racicot for clemen-
cy. ;

In a letter to Racicot, a lawyer for
McKenzie urged the governor to commute his
death sentence to life in prison without pa-
role. However, the letter did not ask Racicot
to delay the May 10 execution while the clem-
ency request is considered.

_—

=

McKenzie: See page SA

The letter to Racicot was included in
McKenzie’s formal application for clemency,
which was filed with the state Board of Par-
dons late Friday afternoon.

State law requires the board to review the
application, conduct a public hearing and
make a recommendation to the governor.
Craig Thomas, executive director for the

board, said a hearing will be held next week
and a date would be announced Monday.

McKenzie, 43, is scheduled to die by lethal
injection for the 1974 kidnapping and torture-
murder of Conrad-area teacher Lana Hard-
ing.

In addition to the clemency request, he has
two appeals pending in federal courts.

Thomas refused to release a copy of the
clemency application, saying, ‘‘All informa-
tion that the board receives is confidential.’’

However, the arguments for
clemency are outlined in the let-
ter to Racicot.

It was written by Helena law-
yer Ward Shanahan. He is work-
ing on the case with McKenzie’s
attorney of the past 18 years,
Timothy Ford of Seattle.

He also said the death penalty
law under which McKenzie was
sentenced has been changed and
the reasons cited by the sentenc-
ing judge 20 years ago are no
longer valid.

When McKenzie was ordered to
die, the judge expressed concern
that the alternative prison sen-
tence at the time would have
made McKenzie eligible for pa-
role in as little as seven years,
Shanahan recalled.

However, he said, today’s laws
allow McKenzie to be locked up
for life without a chance for pa-
role.

Shanahan complained of ‘‘ir-
regularities” in McKenzie’s trial

)

Execution:

FROM IA

The chamber, in a trailer formerly
used by state Highway Department
on construction jobs, has been re-
modeled for just the one purpose. It
has not been used before, although
in 1988, McKenzie was just three
days from execution.

McKenzie has been scheduled to
die eight times prior to this spring.
He chose lethal injection over hang-
ing at a hearing in Great Falls March
27.

If the execution comes about, Day
explained, McKenzie will be led into
the chamber after having spent
three to six hours in a holding cell
just inside the gray concrete maxi-
mum security unit that sits in a
corner of the prison compound.

The holding cell is 8-feet by 12-
feet and is equipped only with a
Stainless steel toilet and sink. Bolted
to the wall is a bed with three
blankets already folded and waiting.

Day said security is the para-
mount reason for taking McKenzie
to the holding cell. It also will give
McKenzie some private time and
prevent him from trying to harm
himself.

There, he will be able to meet with
his attorney and, if he wishes, a
clergy member. He can have a tran-
quilizer there if he chooses.

When he is taken to the death
chamber, McKenzie will be strapped
down to the gurney. Later, the 24
witnesses will be escorted to the
chamber. No one will leave until the
execution is complete. First in will
be the media witnesses, then the
state witnesses and finally any wit-
nesses invited by McKenzie. They
will leave in reverse order.

McKenzie will be given a combi-
nation of three drugs, including a
tranquilizer, and will die from the

onstruction

combined effects of two drugs —
one which induces cardiac arrest
and the other that causes paralysis.

Two sets of intravenous tubes will
be used. One is a back-up system.
The tubes will pass from McKenzie’s
body through the wall to a room
containing the executioner and an
alternate. Death will take only a few
minutes, official say.

Identities of the two executioners
will not be released, which is ac-
cording to state law. The two are
volunteers.

McKenzie will be pronounced
dead by the Powell County coroner
and the state medical examiner. The
witnesses will be de-briefed by
prison officials.

Any special requests by McKen-
zie, a last meal for example, will
come within the last 48 hours. No
requests have yet been presented.

Tribune photo by Mark Downey
This trailer directly beside the maximum security building at the
Montana State Prison houses the execution chamber.

“If they fit into the plan, if they do
not interfere, we will try and carry
them out,” Day said. :

McKenzie, who told a Tribune
reporter last year that he didn’t kill
Harding, will be given an opportu-
nity to make a statement.

Day said it will cost about $30,000
to execute McKenzie. He said he had
no estimate of the state’s cost to the
in the 20-year-long legal battle with
the convict. Officials have been talk-
ing with McKenzie about the execu-
tion.

“He has been very cooperative
about procedures at this point,” Day
said.

While there will be up to 24 wit-
nesses to the execution, Day said
only news reporters have expressed
any interest to date. The only state
witness selected so far is former
Pondera County Sheriff Walt Ham-

trailer converted

HELENA (AP) — Ethel Hard-
ing, whose 23-year-old daughter
was killed 21 years ago by Dun-
can Mckenzie Jr., will make sure
her voice is heard when the state
Board of Par-
dons consid-
ers his request
for clemency.

Harding
said Monday
she will attend
the clemency
hearing at 11
en am. on Sat-
Harding urday and let
board mem-
bers know she favors the execu-
tion of McKenzie that is sched-
uled for May 10.

“It will be the first positive
thing that I’ve been able to do for
Lana in this whole ordeal,” she
said. “It’s just clemency for a
killer who has brutally planned

Victim’s mom says hearing
a chance to do something

and plotted, and did away with a
productive life.”

Craig Thomas, executive direc-
tor for the three-member board,
said the purpose of the Saturday
hearing is not to debate the death
penalty but to decide whether it
should be applied to McKenzie.

The board will hear testimony
from people favoring and oppos-
ing McKenzie’s request that his
sentence be changed to life in
prison without parole.

The board will make a re-
commendation to Gov. Marc
Racicot, who must decide
whether to commute McKenzie’s
sentence.

Harding, a state senator from
Polson, said she will not be
among the 12 witnesses to
McKenzie’s execution by lethal
injection. Other family members
will attend the execution, but
Harding declined to release their
names. .

mermeister.

It was Hammermeister who ar-
rested McKenzie the day after Lana
Harding disappeared. Hammer-
meister has said he wanted to be the
one to pull the lever if McKenzie
ever was hanged.

Day said security around the
prison will be intense when
McKenzie is executed. He said Pow-

ell County sheriff's deputies and the
Montana Highway Patrol will help
beef up the prison’s perimeter.

Mike Mahoney, a prison bureau
warden, said McKenzie’s mood has
not changed in the last few weeks.

“He seems very accepting and
ready,” Mahoney said. “And the
staff have addressed it in a very
professional manner.”

CREAT FALLS TRIBUNE Corenrana) THES, MAY 2, 999


by Racicot

state board,
judges hear
case today

By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer

HELENA —: Gov. Marc Racicot
refused Friday to postpone next
Wednesday’s execution of Duncan
McKenzie Jr., sentenced to die 20
years ago for murder.

The decision set the stage for
Saturday’s showdown over one of
McKenzie’s federal court appeals
and a clemency hearing before the
state Board of Pardons.

“This is a critical weekend,” said
Attorney General Joe Mazurek.

A decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals on whether to
block the execution could come Sat-
urday and will surely be appealed to
the U.S. Supreme Court by the los-
ing side, he said.

Although he would not speculate
on whether the execution would
occur as scheduled, Mazurek said,
“We're going to keep marchihg for-
ward. We believe in what we're
doing.”

McKenzie, 43, was convicted in
1975 of the torture murder of Con-
rad-area teacher Lana Harding.
Various state and federal court ap-
peals have delayed the execution
since then.

McKenzie had asked Racicot to
delay his execution by lethal injec-
tion for 18 days to give the board
more time to review the clemency

“He has done nothing
to earn the mercy he asks
for. He has

never
accepted
responsi-
bility for his
crimes. He

has never
accepted
any remorse. He does
not have a good prison

record.”
— Joe Mazurek,
Montana attorney general

@ Web of evidence
implicated McKenzie in
brutal murder / 12A

petition and make a recommenda-
tion to the governor. He also said his
lawyers need more time to prepare.
McKenzie submitted his clemency
request April 28, asking that his
death sentence be commuted to life
in prison without parole. The board
will hold its hearing in Deer Lodge.
In rejecting the request to post-
pone the execution, the governor
said the board can decide for itself
whether it has enough time to re-
view the clemency request. But he
dismissed the notion that McKen-
zie’s attorneys need more time.
Racicot noted McKenzie has been
under a death sentence for years
and the latest death warrant was

See HEARINGS, 12A


Evidence against McKenzie strong

Judge termed
Harding murder
‘conscienceless’

By AMY BETH HANSON
Associated Press Writer

HELENA — It was the winter of
1974, and 22-year-old Duncan Peder
McKenzie Jr. had just bought a 1948
Dodge pickup truck.

McKenzie was putting his life
back together after serving time for
assault. He had a new job in the
farm community of Conrad. The job
came with a new home, a house near
the Pioneer School] in Ledger, where
McKenzie lived with his wife and
three children.

Now he also had acquired the
truck, promising to pay the owner
$50 with his next paycheck from K
& K Seed Co.

Based on his first two weeks on
the job, he seemed like a safe risk
for the money. Co-workers said he
showed up on time and did his job;
they were glad to finally have some

“decent help.

But even as things began looking
up for “Duke” McKenzie in Conrad,
a darker side began to show for a
few.

On Jan. 21, 1974, he told several
co-workers that he broke in all his
new vehicles by having sex in them.

David Pray, a 16-year-old co-
worker, would later testify at
McKenzie’s murder trial that Duke
had boasted to him of how school
teachers were “homely” and “easy
to get.” And, Pray testified, Duke
said “he had one in mind.”

Jan. 21 was also the last day of

Lana Harding’s life. Sometime after
McKenzie’s boast, the 23-year-old
teacher was choked and raped at her
teacherage near the Pioneer School.
She was dragged away and taken to
a snowy field, where her skull was
crushed and her half-naked body
dumped.

McKenzie is scheduled to die by
lethal injection Wednesday for her
murder.

No one may ever know exactly
what happened to Lana Harding in
the final, tortured hours of her life.
But what de-
tails are
known sup-
port what the
Montana gov-
ernor’s office
has called
“the elevated
heinousness
that qualifies
the convicted
for execu-
tion.”

When Harding did not show up at
school on Jan. 22, 1974, a search for
her began. A trail, indicating a body
had been dragged, led from the
teacherage to a spot where blood
was found. A wristwatch belonging
to Harding was found in the same
area as the blood. So was evidence
that McKenzie’s truck had been
parked there.

McKenzie was arrested.

The next day, Harding’s body was
found lying across the tongues of
two grain drills in a snowy field
about four miles from the teacher-
age.

She was wearing only a shirt,
sweater and bra, all pulled up
around her neck. She had been

Harding

raped, choked and severely beaten.
A rope was still tied around her neck
and the right side of her head lay
open from the fatal blow.

Evidence against
quickly amassed.

A witness said he saw McKenzie’s
pickup driving toward the field the
night of the murder.

Harding’s purse was found
nearby, as well as a pair of gloves
with human blood on them. The
gloves were identified as the same
pair McKenzie had worm at work the
day of the murder.

Investigators also found a pair of
overshoes with blood and brain tis-
sue on them. Im-
pressions on the
overshoes
matched the
heels of a pair of
boots taken from
McKenzie’s
house.

Human_ blood
was found in the
bed of McKen-
zie’s pickup
truck, along with purple fibers that
matched a sweater Harding was
wearing.

A coil of wire in the cab of
McKenzie’s truck was identified by
FBI experts as having broken off
from a coil of wire in Harding’s hair.

An exhaust manifold in McKen-
zie’s truck contained brain tissue
and human blood matching Hard-
ing’s blood type.

McKenzie was charged with mur-
der, kidnapping and rape on Jan. 24,
just three weeks after Montana’s
mandatory death penalty went into
effect.

A Cascade County jury convicted
him of aggravated kidnapping and
murder by torture on Feb. 1, 1975.

McKenzie

McKenzie

The trial had been moved out of
Conrad, the county seat of Pondera
County, to Great Falls on a change
of venue.

The judge told jurors if McKenzie
was found guilty of either kidnap-
ping or murder, they did not have to
reach a verdict on five lesser
charges, including rape.

On March 3, defense attorneys
Barney Reagan of Shelby and Char-
les Jacobson of Conrad asked for a
new trial or at least a less severe
penalty than death. They argued
McKenzie was insane at the time of
the murder, which would have been
a mitigating factor. :

District Judge R.J. Nelson of Great
Falls denied both motions and sen-
tenced McKenzie to die, saying the
evidence ‘‘discloses a brutal, con-
scienceless torture, rape and delib-
erate killing of a human being.”

McKenzie has appealed the con-
viction and sentence on various
grounds, including the constitution-
ality of the death penalty and
whether or not the judge reneged on
a plea agreement that would have
meant 50 years in prison.

He has evaded the executioner
eight times. He came within four
days of being hanged in 1977.

Twenty-one years after the mur-
der, McKenzie and his current attor-
ney, Tim Ford of Seattle, stili are
appealing the sentence.

In one current appeal, Ford argues
it would be cruel and unusual pun-
ishment to execute McKenzie after
having spent 20 years on Death
Row. He asked that the state com-
mute McKenzie’s sentence to life in
prison.

But the appeals were finding little
sympathy among judges who have
considered — and rejected — his
pleas for more than 20 years.

Hearings: On tap

FROM IA
issued March 27, which was 39
days ago.

“As a result,” he said, “legal
counsel unquestionably has had
an extensive opportunity to re-
quest and prepare for a clemency
hearing.”

He also defended the decision
by corrections officials to forbid
McKenzie from attending a por-
tion of his clemency hearing out-
side the prison Saturday. Instead,
the first part of the hearing will be
held inside the prison.

The need to ensure the security
of the prison, its inmates and
McKenzie justified that stand, he
said.

While the hearing is under way,
lawyers for the state and McKen-
zie will be in Pasadena, Calif.,
arguing before the 9th U.S. Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals over a re-
quest to put the execution on
hold.

McKenzie claims his long stay
on death row is unconstitutional
cruel and unusual punishment
that should not be compounded
with his death. The state says the
long wait is McKenzie’s fault.

Two other appeals before the
Circuit Court also could affect the
execution.

McKenzie argues in one that he
cannot be killed because he must
be allowed to testify in lawsuits
filed against the state by himself
and other inmates over the 1991
prison riot.

The third appeal is similar. Fel-
low death-row inmate Terry
Langford contends McKenzie
must be kept alive to testify if
Langford gets a new trial on a
murder conviction stemming

“| don’t know that
the deterrent effect ...
has been very well

established.”

— Ward Shanahan,
McKenzie attorney

from the riot.

At today’s hearing, Mazurek
said he will tell the Board of
Pardons that McKenzie does not
deserve a break.

“He has done nothing to earn
the mercy he asks for,” he said.
“He has never accepted responsi-
bility for his crimes. He has never
accepted any remorse. He does
not have a good prison record.”

Ward Shanahan of Helena, who
will be McKenzie’s lawyer at the
hearing, said Friday he will raise
concerns about the way his client
was sentenced to die two decades
ago.

Today, the courts have an alter-
native to the death sentence in
such a case as this and the judge
in 1975 failed to consider psycho-
logical problems that McKenzie
had, Shanahan said.

He also will question the value
of executing McKenzie after so
long.

“He’s been in prison for 21
years and he’s certainly moved up
to the edge of the grim reaper
several times,” he said. “I don’t
know that the deterrent effect of
all that has been very well estab-
lished.”

\

This is the table on which convicted murderer Duncan Peder McKenzie Jr. is scheduled to be
executed by lethal injection May 10 at the Montana State Prison at Deer Lodge.

Helena judge rejects appeal; clemency hearing Saturday

By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer

HELENA — A federal judge re-
fused Monday to postpone the May
10 execution of Duncan McKenzie
Jr., and a hearing on the convicted
killer's request for clemency from
the governor was set for Saturday.

Monday's ruling by U.S. District
Judge Charles C. Lovell of Helena
will be appealed to the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals, said law-
yer Ronald Waterman.

That will put two requests from
McKenzie to delay his execution
before the San Francisco court.

Last week, Seattle attorney Timo-
thy Ford asked the appeals court to
block the planned lethal injection
based on a recent U.S. Supreme
Court order in a similar Texas case.
Two appeals remain before a federal
court based in San Francisco.

The second appeal centers on the
contention that executing a man
who has spent 20 years on death
row, as McKenzie has, would be the
kind of cruel and unusual punish-
ment prohibited by the U.S. Consti-
tution.

Attorney Ford noted that the U.S.
Supreme Court last Thursday or-
dered a Texas execution delayed so

that the federal courts could con-
sider that issue. That case involves a
man sentenced to death 17 years
ago.

Although McKenzie's two-decade
delay in the execution is a result of a
series of appeals in state and federal
courts, Ford said, McKenzie is not to
blame. The fault rests with state
courts and prosecutors who com-
mitted errors and then prolonged
them by mistaken rulings and objec-
tions, he said.

Ford said McKenzie’s wait to die
has been a form of torture. “Mr,
McKenzie's 21 years of punitive in-
carceration facing execution, com-

| (over)

Tribune photo by Mark Downey

Witnesses’ chairs sit
afew feet from gurney

By MICHAEL W. BABCOCK
Tribune Staff Writer

DEER LODGE —' In a faded yel-
low trailer just 10 steps from the
maximum security unit at Montana
State Prison, a gurney stands ready
for Duncan Peder McKenzie.

The linen and a pillow are there
and the restraints for his arms,
ankles and torso are open and wait-
ing. Folding chairs are lined up just
a few feet away for witnesses,

One-way glass at the head of the
bed will shield the face of the execu-
tioner from those who will watch as
the state punishes McKenzie for the
murder 2] years ago of Conrad-area
teacher Lana Harding.

On Saturday, a clemency hearing
is scheduled and unless McKenzie
prevails, or unless a federal court
intervenes, McKenzie will die by

° lethal injection sometime early the
: morning of May 10. It would be the
. first execution in Montana in more

than 50 years.

At a news conference Monday in
the prison chapel, officials from the
state Department of Corrections, the
prison and the governor's office ex-
plained the execution process and
answered questions from the two
dozen reporters on hand.

But it was the death chamber with

~' its two ticking clocks, direct line

telephones to the highest officials in
Helena and the waiting gurney that
were the stark reminders that time is
running out for McKenzie, Nothing
separates where McKenzie will die

bined with the eight occasions on
which he has had to watch the
approach of a specific date and time
for his demise, amounts to such
cruelty ...,"" he told the court. The
appeal also complains the state ap-
plied laws to McKenzie’s execution
that were passed after he was con-
victed and sentenced.

The Lovell decision Monday re-
jected a claim by McKenzie that he
should not be executed because his
live testimony is needed in lawsuits
filed by himself and other
maximum-security inmates over
their treatment by guards after a
1991 prison riot.

Tribune photo by Mark Downey
Rick Day, director of the state
Department of Corrections and
Human Services, explains the
execution process to reporters
Monday in Deer Lodge.

from the witnesses. No one-way
glass, no curtain, just a low room
divider,

“It’s designed primarily to com-
plete an execution in an effective
and efficient manner,” explained
Rick Day, director of the Depart-
ment of Corrections and the man
ultimately in charge of executing
McKenzie.

See EXECUTION, 6A

Lovell concluded he does not have
the authority to halt the execution.
But even if he did, the judge said, he
would refuse.

McKenzie has no constitutional
right to testify at a trial on his suit
and has other means of presenting
his testimony, Lovell said. In fact,
McKenzie was scheduled to provide
videotaped testimony about the riot
aftermath in a deposition on Tues-
day.

Lovell called the claim meritless
“Were it otherwise, any condemned
prisoner could delay execution in-
terminably by simply filing civil
suits,” he wrote.

‘She was the neatest thing...’

Parent, students recall the day
Harding didn’t come to school

By MARK DOWNEY
Tribune Staff Writer

CONRAD — Lana Harding’s tor-
‘ase.and murder in 1974 was like a
‘apge sharp rock heaved into the still
p@ol of rural life near the little town
ofLedger.

One ef the people closest to that
vielent point of impact was Val
Dailey. -

“DP was the first one at the school

M@@e initiated the search for her,”
aid» Dailey, 50, who is remarried
maw, lives in Dupuyer and com-
mates to Conrad, where she is a
dispatcher for the Pondera County
Sheriff's Office.

Back then her last name was
Drishinski and she and her husband
‘ampmed 2'2 miles from Harding’s
ome-roomn schoolhouse.

@n the eve of Duncan McKenzie’s

Weutien for killing Harding,

-ailey clearly recalls pulling up out-
‘i@@ the schoolhouse on Jan. 21,

1974, to drop her boys off for school.

Her boys — James in third grade,
Darren in second, and Zane, a kin-
dergartener — made up the majority
of Harding’s class. The other two
students were Maureen and Susan
Jessel.

James is 31 now and manages an
irrigation store in Salina, Utah. It
wasn’t until a Tribune reporter
called him Tuesday that he knew of
McKenzie’s imminent execution.

“Yes,” he shouted over the tele-
phone. “I’m glad to hear it’s going to
happen.” He paused, then added, “I
don’t rejoice in another person’s
dying.”

Harding was fresh out of college
in her first teaching job. She re-
placed a strict disciplinarian at the
old schoolhouse, James said. She
was enthusiastic and fun and en-
couraged creativity, he said.

“She just won my heart,” he re-
called. “She was the neatest thing
this little farm boy had ever seen.”

- On the day after her death, “‘it was
a calm day and there was a small
amount of snow on the ground,” Val
Dailey recalled of when she pulled
into the schoolhouse driveway. : '

Usually the doors to the school
were unlocked and the students
could come in, shed their heavy
coats and take their places for class.
All around, the long grain fields
stretched into the distance.

But that day the door was locked.
Dailey went to the door of the at-
tached teacherage where Harding
lived and found that door also
locked. She peered into the bed-
room window to find no one around.
- James, who was 10, remembers it
being strange that Harding’s shoe
was lying in the driveway.

The authorities were called and
within 48 hours the murder of Hard-
ing was known.

“They knew something had hap-
pened to her,” Dailey said of her
children. ‘You had to say this man

Victim: Lana

Harding, a 23-
year-old school
teacher near
Ledger.

@ Crime: She
was kidnapped,
beaten, raped,
tortured and
murdered in
January 1974.

M@ Trial: A Cascade County jury in
February 1975 convicted Duncan
Peder McKenzie Jr. of aggravated
kidnapping and murder by torture.

@ Sentence: In March 1975, District ff

Judge R.J. Nelson of Great Falls
sentenced McKenzie to death.

@ Appeals: In the 20 years since,
McKenzie evaded execution eight
times.

had come and killed her.

“We didn’t go into the details
because it was such a hideous crime.
You don’t even go into the details
with adults,”

In the following weeks, James
feared that if he liked the new
teacher as much as he had Harding,

ane bad would also happen to
er.

Within three years of Harding's
death, the school was closed, .re-
called Linda Curtis, who was the
Pondera County School Superinten-
dent then, as now. ,

The school building now is home
to a Baptist Church near Dupuyer.

AP photo

Marietta Jaeger, left, of Detroit, Mich., speaks with Eve Malo of Dillon Tuesday night during a
protest against the death penalty near the Montana State Prison. Jaeger, who had a daughter
kidnapped and murdered near Three Forks in 1973, made a special trip to join the protest.

Death penalty opponents gather

DEER LODGE (AP) — Death
penalty opponents sang songs of
peace by candlelight Tuesday
night as officials at the Montana
State Prison two miles away pre-
pared to carry out Montana's first
execution in 52 years.

About 15 people held their vigil
in a field just inside the prison
grounds in the hours before the
scheduled execution of Duncan
McKenzie Jr.

The demonstrators included
Marietta Jaeger of Detroit, Mich.,
whose daughter was abducted
from a tent near Three Forks in
1973 and murdered.

Jaeger, who has since become
an activist against the death pen-
alty, held a sign reading: “Justice,
not revenge.”

McKenzie was sentenced to
death 20 years ago for the 1974
kidnapping and torture murder of
country school teacher Lana Hard-
ing near Conrad.

The crime was horrible and the
Harding family has suffered, but “I
just think it's plain wrong that the
state is killing someone,” said Al
Smith, who drove from Anaconda
for the vigil.

Executing McKenzie won't re-

Také Uda/Tribune

solve the crime, said Smith, a high
school junior when Harding died,

He said he found it hard to
believe that after 20 years on death
row, McKenzie was within hours
of losing his life.”

“] actually thought (Gov.) Marc
Racicot's moral principles would
come to the forefront, rather than
his political and legal mind,”
Smith said. Earlier Tuesday,
Racicot refused to grant the clem-
ency that would have spared
McKenzie’s life.

Mark Ross of Butte said
McKenzie was a sick man when he
killed Harding, and the state mir-
rors a sick society by carrying out
a death sentence,

“When the state of Montana
kills someone in my name ... | feel
angry,” Ross said. Revenge is the
only function of the death penalty,
he said,

The protesters were not the only
demonstrators, however. About 40
yards away, there is a group of 10
death penalty supporters, includ-
ing four University of Montana
students with a sign reading: “Just
do It”

“It should have happened years
and years ago,” said Reed Scott of
Helena, “Hopefully there will be
some more in Montana following
this. It’s very unlikely these people
on death row can be put back into
society and not kill again.”

The death penalty supporters
also included some high school
girls from Deer Lodge.

Rondi Perry, 16, said that she is
dissatified with the amount of
money spent to keep McKenzie in
prison for 20 years.

“If they would have taken all
that tax money to help the poor or
children in need — why do we
have to spend all this tax money to
keep this guy?” she asked. “I think
he’should have gotten a lot worse
than lethal injection.”

Chapter of Conrad’s
history quietly closes

By MARK DOWNEY
Tribune Staff Writer

CONRAD — “I feel like cheering,”
Conrad resident George Knobel said
— but he didn’t.

Knobel, like some others in Con-
rad, stayed awake after midnight to
watch news of the execution of Dun-
can McKenzie, who died after a
lethal injection early this morning.
Knobel said his elation was tinged
with a touch of the sadness that's
natural when anyone dies.

The former rodeo calf roper, who
once owned the OK Feed Service
here, remembers when he first
heard of the Lana Harding murder.

“Somebody comes in and does
something like that, you have no
mercy for them,” he said.

Now that it is over, Knobel com-
pared the 21 years of McKenzie's
incarceration and a series of court
stays to a wound that was continu-
ally reinjured. “Get him out of there
and forget it,” he said.

In many ways, Tuesday was like
any other in this small town.

A waitress poured coffee at the
Keg Family Restaurant while pa-
trons chatted with friends and
neighbors. A woman pulled two
children in a wagon across the
town’s Main Street that features a
single stop light. And pheasants
slipped from the grain fields at dusk
to pick gravel from the roadsides.

But in another way, this Tuesday
was like no other.

Just after midnight, a chapter in
Conrad's history was about to close.

This is the town whose name has
unwillingly become associated with
the savage 1974 torture murder of
23-year-old Ledger teacher Lana
Harding at a rural school north of
here. Her killer, Duncan McKenzie,

was set to die a few minutes after
midnight at the Deer Lodge prison.

This time, after many appeals, it
looked like it was going to happen.

At the Keg Restaurant, the kitchen
staff and restaurant patrons
crowded around the TV set to watch
the 5:30 evening news, said bar-
tender Lisa Hawley.

“There's definitely a lot of inter-
est,” she said as she turned to wipe a
smudge from the bar's surface.

“I think most people are glad that
it’s going to be resolved," Tom Ham-
merbacker, mayor of this town of
2,900. ‘‘The vast majority, I'm sure;
think that justice is long overdue.”

The voice of dissent here has been
the Catholic Church.

An Associated Press reporter in
terviewed two local people after a
message from the state’s two Catho-
lic bishops opposing the death sen-
tence was read at St. Michael's
Church last month.

“It was said, at that moment, to
the wrong people,” parishioner Rut-
he Mary Kronebusch said.

Kronebusch, who declined to state
her opinion of McKenzie’s sentence,
said many ‘‘who have waited for
justice” had trouble accepting the
reassertion against the death pen-
alty. The church statement included
words of compassion for crime vic-
tims, and support for alternative
penalties such as life in prison.

“Many people are struggling with
their consciences about the issue
and see the teaching of the church
as a painful challenge,” said loca)
priest, the Rev. Tom Haffey, in the
AP interview several weeks ago.

George Knobel, also a Catholic,
said he thinks the church is wrong
on the issue. “An eye for any eye,”
he said over his supper Tuesday
before walking onto the street.

Belt native Browning
voted for execution delay

By Tribune Staff

A former Montanan was in the
three-judge minority voting Tuesday
to delay Duncan McKenzie's execu-
tion in order to hear another appeal
from the convicted killer.

A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals voted 8-3 not to
schedule another
appeal hearing
in the Montana
murder case. But
retired chief
judge James
Browning was
among the three
who cast dissent-
ing votes.

According to
an Associated
Press report, Browning noted that a
postponement of the execution
might be in order because the U.S.
Supreme Court stayed the execution
of a condemned Texas prisoner last
month on the same grounds raised

Browning

by McKenzie.

The eight judges who rejected the
appeal, however, cited a 1990 deci-
sion rejecting an Arizona prisoner's
claim of cruel and unusual punish-
ment due to a lengthy incarceration
on death row,

That ruling said it would be “a
mockery of justice” if the delay
caused by pursuing unsuccessful le-
gal claims could be converted into
grounds for a successful claim.

“If that were the law, death row
inmates would be able to avoid their
sentences simply by delaying pro-
ceedings...,” the 1990 ruling said.

Browning, a native of Belt and a
graduate of the University of Mon-
tana Law School, was appointed to
the federal appeals court in San
Francisco in 1961 by President John
F. Kennedy.

He rose to the chief justice posi-
tion and served in that capacity from
1976 to 1988. Since then he has been
on senior status, working part-time
when caseloads dictate.

ws

Wednesday, May 10, 1995

MORE READERS’ OPINIONS

On our minds: 3-7-77 are the dimensions of a grave

Here’s your answer

Re the article, “Historians battle
romantic view of vigilantes,” on
May 1, 1995, which states that the
meaning of “3-7-77” has never been
resolved.

“One Man’s Montana,” by John K.

Hutchens says:

“George Ives was hanged in the
moonlight and the next day the
Montana Vigilantes were born,
taking a stern oath and adopting as
their sign the numerals 3-7-77 (the
dimensions of a grave, three feet
wide, seven feet long, seventy-seven
inches deep).”

SID DEPNER, 1326 6th Ave. N.

Uphold the laws

Each of us has the responsibility
to government to obey its laws.
Anyone who does not obey suffers
the consequence of his actions. Even
not knowing the law is no excuse.

When Duncan McKenzie made
the statement that each new vehicle
(to him) was “broken in” by his
raping a woman init, it struck me as
being premeditated murder.

He should bear the whole
consequence of his action and be
executed per government laws.

Do you say you are a Christian?
Then read again Romans Chapter 13
and stand behind your government
and what it does for God.

Don’t stand up for a murderer but
stand for good. Don’t lay
McKenzie’s deeds around your head

upporting him.
sa a matter of retribution
or payback. This is a willful
breaking of the law and
consequence.
Stand for good. Applaud our
overnment and those who uphold
it, including the governor of our
state, Supreme Court, judges and so
many that have worked on his case.

FRED GREEN, 1917 Smelter Ave.,
Black Eagle

§=10-q5 Coukife -Journal  (Louisviié, ky.)

WATCHING THE CANDIDATES

Candidate: Bob Babbage
Election: Governor, May 23
Democratic primary e1
Producer: Grunwald, Eskew &
Donilon No parole for
violent criminals _
ScRIPT: se
NARRATOR (over news clippings, crime
and jail scenes and key phrases): Armed
robbers at the supermarket. A teacher
murdered at school. In Kentucky, fear of
crime is going up, but sentences for
violent criminals have gone down — “Real enforcement of the death
down to less than nine years for murder, penalty.”
three years for dealing drugs. Not one
death sentence carried out since 1962.
(Babbage talking vigorously on farm, with key phrases on screen.) Bob Babbage
has a real plan to change that. Tough mandatory sentences, with no parole for
violent criminals. Real enforcement of the death penalty. Read the Babbage plan

yourself. Join the fight to change Kentucky. (“Call for your copy of the Babbage
plan: 1-800-721-2240.”)

ANALYSIS:

Babbage continues to run the most misleading TV ads of the year. This one is
titled “Not One,” a reference to the narrator's complaint that no one has been
executed in Kentucky since 1962. The phrase is underlined in red on the screen.
This ad, which apparently ended a five-day run on Monday, falsely implied that
the state has had a death penalty since 1962 and has failed to enforce it.
Actually, the U. S. Supreme Court declared state capital-punishment laws
unconstitutional in the early 1970s because they were not fairly enforced. In 1976,
Kentucky enacted a law that was ruled constitutional, and many defendants have
been sentenced to death, but their executions have been delayed by repeated
appeals. Babbage campaign manager Jim Andrews said Babbage would put
more emphasis on the issue, but death-penalty appeals are defended by the
attorney general, who does not take orders from the governor.

This ad had other problems. Its statements that sentences have gotten shorter
were based on figures from 1992 and 1993, too short a span for valid
comparison. In those years the state was changing its reporting methods, making
the comparison all the more suspect. “It’s like comparing apples to oranges,”
said Debra J. McGovern, the state Justice Cabinet supervisor who assembled the
data. Andrews said the campaign had no reason to doubt the data and “there is
no point in issuing government reports if they are inaccurate.”

That may be true, but there is also no point in making an issue of the death
penalty. All the major candidates support it and say they would enforce it.

— AI Cross, political writer

Enforce the

Great Falls Tribune

20 years later, murder case goes on and on

GREAT FALLS (AP) — Sunday
was the 20th anniversary of the day
that Lana Harding was found stran-
gled, raped, tortured and beaten to
death near the rural Conrad-area
school where she taught. She was 23.

A Great Falls jury convicted
Duncan Peder McKenzie Jr. of the
kidnapping and murder, and he
was sentenced on April 30, 1975, to
hang. He is now 41 and has been
on Death Row at the Montana State
Prison longer than any of the seven
other condemned men.

“He's gained 20 years. He's dou-
bled his lifetime,” said Paul John-
son, the assistant attorney general
now handling the case. “Every
month he can win in that sense is a
victory. He continues to roll up a
life, even if it’s not much of one.”

McKenzie has won eight post-
ponements of his execution, first in
state courts and then in federal
courts. On March 1 his latest appeal
will be argued to three judges of the
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. No

matter what they decide, the result
will be appealed to the full court.

“In theory, there is and should
be an end to it,” Johnson said. “But
in practice, as McKenzie illustrates,
it can go on and on.” :

McKenzie maintains that he did
not kill Lana Harding.

Lana Harding’s mother, state Sen.
Ethel Harding of Polson, is distressed
by the prolonged appeals process.

“Somehow that needs to be
remedied,” she said. “Then we see

a trend in the East to liberalize’

(criminal penalties) more. It’s sad.”
Since McKenzie was sentenced,
the special prosecutor has died. The
judge has died. A crucial witness
has died. Lana Harding's father has
died. McKenzie's wife has died.
Walter Hammermeister has re-
tired as Pondera County sheriff,
but has no doubt that he arrested
the murderer. He proudly recalls
that Montana Supreme Court Jus-
tice John C. Harrison “made it pub-
licly known that was the best-inves-

tigated case he had ever read.”
Lana Harding failed to show up
at Pioneer School on Tuesday
morning, Jan. 22, 1974. Farmer
Danny Pearson, who lived across
the road, summoned Hammermeis-
ter afler seeing the school’s five
students milling about. He recalled
that a man had come to his door
the night before asking for a tow.
Hammermeister found a pool of
blood and Lana Harding's wristwatch
near where the man's pickup truck
had been stalled. That night he ar-
rested McKenzie, 21, who was on pa-
role for brutally beating a woman in
Blaine County four years earlier.
McKenzie's house yielded a pair
of boots that would later match
prints found at the murder scene.
Lana Harding’s body was found
the next day in a snowy field, lying
over the tongue of a grain drill. She
had been strangled with a cotton
rope, dragged away from the
teacherage and bludgeoned with
the manifold of a car engine.

6 BOZEMAN DAILY CHRONICLE, Monday, Janiiary 24, 1994

G66L SOL Seq (ezepuod) BIN SIT Seatya Sap Sweoung *HTZNTOW

| Great Falls Tribune
Sunday, April 16, 1995

Killer could delay
execution with

clemency request

The Associated Press

HELENA — Duncan McKenzie is
scheduled to die at the state prison
May 10 and is running out of ap-
peals, but he apparently could buy
some extra time if he asks Gov.
Marc Racicot for clemency.

Craig Thomas, executive director
of the board of pardons and parole,
says if McKen-
zie does request
clemency, state
law requires
the board to
make a_back-
ground check,
hold a_ public
hearing and
make a recom-
mendation to
the governor.

The process usually takes about
30 days, Thomas said, but added,
“We would do everything we could
to attempt to complete the process
prior to May 10.”

When asked if McKenzie could
guarantee a postponement by mak-
ing a last-minute clemency request,
Thomas said, “I can’t comment on
that.”

McKenzie

Racicot is not saying how he
would respond to a request to com-
mute McKenzie’s death sentence.

He said Friday that, even though
he is a practicing Catholic and
Montana’s Roman Catholic bishops
have opposed the death penalty, his
decision would be based on state
law, not on his religious beliefs.

“I swore an oath to follow the
law,” Racicot said. “I intend to fol-
low it as it is written.”

McKenzie’s lawyer, Tim Ford of
Seattle, said he had not given a
clemency request much thought.

“We're still waiting for answers
from the Montana Supreme Court,”
Ford said.

Last Tuesday, the state Supreme
Court denied McKenzie’s request
that he spend the rest of his life in
prison instead of dying by lethal
injection. His lawyers argue the exe-
cution, after two decades in jail,
amounts to cruel and unusual pun-
ishment.

No one has been executed in
Montana since 1943.

McKenzie, 41, was condemned in
1975 for the kidnap and torture-
murder of Lana Harding, a Conrad-
area teacher, in 1974.

Cap their appeals

Delays in execution: Is this what a
Supreme Court justice says should nullify
capital punishment? I feel he should be
removed from office for thinking this way.

The courts should put a cap on how many
appeals criminals are entitled to anda
length of time between appeals so the
punishment could be carried out ina
reasonable time frame. Who pays?
Taxpayers, victims’ families and the
community as a whole. Do these lawyers file
these appeals on their own time with their
own money? I think not.

Justice John Paul Stevens: the execution
orders would not stand forever if they were
carried out as they were ordered. If delays
nullify executions, the lawyers of the world
will be knocking down the doors of the
courthouses across the country to file
appeals at the expense of the taxpayers, The
catch 22 is, do not bite the hand that feeds
you, it can slap back. This is the only cruel
and unusual punishment that is being
handed down through the courts.

McKenzie has a choice today: to die with
dignity, a choice he obviously did not give
Lana Harding. Her death was far from being
dignified, at best.

DAVE RICHARDSON, 924 5th Ave. N.

Second from left: Dr. Jno. Stephens; center, Henry ' Left: Deputy George Williams; right, Dr.
Herbert Metzger.

¥
x
%
S
es
e

;

Left to right: Dr. J. M. Kumpe, Metzger, Dr. Stephens,
Deputy Williams.

yp 25


‘enntaees:
ead ’

4 METZGER, Herbert, white, hanged at White Sulphur Springs, Montana, on May 5, 1905.

ms
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Bee MANGING

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on ‘ » 4 ae
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sa oe ‘a .

Woolsey Stage Station about half-way between White Sulphur Springs and Neihart—late 1890's. Area now
Dean Thorson Sheep Creek Ranch.

Three miles above this stage station was Homer Ward’s Sheep Creek cabin, ominously
deserted in the winter darkness of Thanksgiving Eve on November 23, 1904. John Payne,
ranch hand of D. P. Mumbrue, sensed the foreboding atmosphere several days later when he
rode to the scene to see about Ward. Ward’s horses, wearing broken halters, had appeared at a
neighboring ranch and aroused suspicions.

Events pieced together through evidence on Ward’s premises showed that Ward, last seen
in White Sulphur Springs on the 23rd was shot through the window as he sat at his table. The
barn was burned and an attempt made to burn the cabin as well, thereby destroying tell-tale
evidence. For lack of oxygen, the cabin fire smoldered and died. Authorities discovered the
theft of a rifle, a coat, a new hat and a harness. On the cabin floor lay a battered hat of an
unusual style and like the hat worn by a certain Metzger. According to witnesses, Metzger had
been wearing it in White Sulphur Springs on his last trip to town just before Thanksgiving also.

The battered hat led Sheriff Charles H. Sherman's posse to O’Brien Creek, seven miles west
of Neihart, where Metzger and Oriet had a camp. Metzger, preparing to make a get-away, was
in possession of the stolen articles, one new hat included. Prosecutors were N. B. Smith,
Meagher County attorney and George Pease, Bozeman. Powell Black was attorney for the
defense. Testifying for the prosecution were Mumbrue, Payne, William Woolsey and others.

Metzger’s death by hanging took place on May 5, 1905.

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2); PACIFIC 265
KING, Thomas, white, hanged at Boulder, Montana, on June 6, 1890,

(Trial) "After last evening's recess, Alexander Gilliam was put upon the stand in the
King mrder trialand confirmed the evidenceof previous witnesses’ statements of the
affair throughoutout. The first witness was Deputy Sheriff James Mitchell, who arrested
King at his cabin and found in his possession two revolvers = one a..38 caliberk Smith
and Wesson, one chamber of which contained an emty shells; the other a long-barreled
45 Colt's fully loaded,
"Deputy Sheriff J. H. Forbs was examined as an expert in firearms, and testified that
-the empty shell in the. smaller weapon and the cylinder was somewhat corroded, showing
that the cartridge had been discharged some considerable time before he examined it,
He found evidence of smoke and freshly burned powder in the barrel of the other wea-
pon and one of the cartridges in the cylinder had been recently placed-therein,
"Sheriff balford had examined the weapons when placed in his office and sustained the
evidence of Mr, Forbes in reference to the condition of the fire arms,
"Dr. E, A. Brooke, who attended Fogarty after the shooting, testified the death re-
sulted from the gunshot wound,
"John Fogarty, a brother of the deceased testified to a statement made by. the latter
shortly before his death that King shot him down like a dog and that he had given him
no provocation, whatever.
"Charles W. Lesher recognized the Colt's revolver in evidence as belonging to King and
said that K&XK4a the Smith and Wesson belonged to his brother, Witness had fired one
chamber of this latter gun,several weeks before the tragedy occurred, and had left bhe
emty shell in the cylinder when he returned to the cabin. , King was lodging at the
cabin at thetime,
"John Harrington, a lh-year-old boy, and James Higgins, heard King ttell Peters (also
indicted and received severance) he would kill the ---G@----- ---- - and for Peters
to mash the --e= p= <==,
"Ww. R. Lhoyd added some unimportant details and the state rested.
"John Kirby of Leadville, Col., Andy Quilty, Seth King, and Mrs. Tusch of Granite,
Mont., were called by the defense as to the character of. defendant King. Thay had
known him in Colorado in 1885 and 1886 and gave him a good character for peace.
"Mrs, Slater, Mrs, Nicholson, and Miss Dunlap, of Elkhorn, had danced with King on
“the night of the occurrence and said his conduct throughout the evening was most
exemplarye
“Wm, Bennett saw King. in the cabin when arrested and heard him declare he had no in-
tention of shooting and would not have done so if he had the long gun in place of
the short one,
"George Peters, co-defendant with King, was then placed upon the stand and emphatically
“-denied that- King ever told him to 'smash the o<= -e= ---= when he came down stairs!
or that he (King) would kill Fogarty. He related the incidmts of the quarrel in
the ball room and afterwards in Lloyd's saloon where the crowd jumped on him and
King interfered in his behalf. Witness then escaped from the saloon and was again
attacked outisde by two men whom he could not identify, He got away and ran a few feet
and then walked. down the streets, saw Fogarty strike King and, then heard a pistol shot;
did not see King shoot Fogarty.
"Thomas King, when called to the stand to testify in his own behalf, told, a plain story
of the occurrence,,. He denied having made any threats against Fogarty, and claimed bhat
that the shooting was accidental, When Fogarty struck him he drew the small revolver from
his right hand pocket in pantaloons and struck at Fogarty with the weapon which being
self-acting was accidentally discharged, W. J. Rogers was recalled in rebuttal, but
nothing of importance was elicited, and Attorney Cowan preceeded with the opening
argument for the state. His arraignment of the defendant was a,strong one. W. L.
Hays' reply lasted until after 9 o'clock, and was a good presentation of his case.
GeorgeD. Greene arraigned the sitnesses for the prosecution for their evident determina-
tion to swear: away thelife of Thomas King, and made a magnificent effort in behalf of
his friendless client. Thomas Joyes closed for the state and the jusry was charged by
the court and retired at 11 o'clock,
"This morning King was brought into court, looking haggard and worn, His face was pale and
almost bloodless.- The jury returned a verdict of mrder in the first degree, The pri-
soner was remanded to jail. He, will receive his sentence Friday afternoon. at. &&% 3:30"
JEFFERSON OCOUNTY SENTINEL, Boulder, Hom aie Jane 30, 1890,


"The only business.in the supreme court yesterday was the hearing of Thomas King's
application for a new trial, says the INDEPENDENT. The arguments were submitted and
the case taken under advisement, A decision may not be'rendered under a week, King,
who is now in jail'at Boulder under sentence of death will be executed on May 8th
unless a.favorable decision is secured from the supreme court or a respite is grantéd
by the governor, The erime for which he was convicted was committed on the morning
of November 29, 1889, at:Elkhorn, Jt was the result of an ordinary barrooom row,
which was begun at a ball. King and a few friends attended,a dance at Gilliam's
Hall on the evening of the 28th. Ms there was a scarcity of women, King and his
friend, George Peters, danced together until Matthew Fogarty, who managed the dance,
interfered and ordered them off the floor. Bad blood was started, and after the
dance the men adjourned to Colberg's saloon near by. Then they went to Lloyd's saloon,
when an all-round fight was commenced in which all participated except King, They went
outside, when therow continued and the murder was comitted. Several witnesses swear
that King pulled a revolver from his overcoat pocket and fired a shot at Fogarty.
King says that the revolver went off adcidentally as he was in the act of, bringing
it over Fogarty's head. The bullet entered Fogarty's. left side and he died shortly
afterward. King was arrested and tried on Jan, 30, and was found guilty of murder
in the first degree. He was sentenced to be executed on March 27, but a respite
was secured until May 8," JEFFERSON COUNTY SENTINEL, Boulder, Mont,, 5-1-1890 (2=3).

'The Supreme Court yesterday handed down a decision affirming the decision of the
lower court in. the case of Montana vs. King. Acting Gov. Rickards yesterday granted
a respite until June 6, .He was under sentenced of death to be executed today,
Thursday. The man will now be brought before the governor and the board of pardons
but it is likely that King will be pardoned or that his-sentence will be commuted.
"The above is taken- from +the-INDEPENDENT. Mr. King acts as though his days were
numbered, although he is in good spirits and hopes for the-best,- He-is pleasant and
genial with the officers and sives them no trouble whatsoever, He sgys bat little
about his late difficulty, and seems to, take everything as.a matter of fact.
"If he goes, to the gallows, he will be a second Bryson so far as nerve is concerned,
but. those up in the law think he will have a commutation of sentence.
"He is very philosophical, about thematter. No bragadocio, neither does he play the
baby act. he knows and feels his position exactly. ‘There might have been a momentary
Malice in the matter, but scarcely any premeditation, It is probable that there would
-have been trouble between them had they met a year afterwards, but we think the,re-
sult would have been different,
"King is not what we would call a 'bad man,' but when his feathers arg 'smoothed!',
the wrong way, he undoubetedly 'gets there’ some way or another,- The general opinion
is that his sentence shouldbe commuted to life," SENTINEL, Boulder, 5-8-1890 (10-3)
: . Ellis
"A SENTINEL reporter, through the courtesy of! Sheriff Halford and Jailer BMZS, was
allowed an unrestricted interview Tuesday afternoon with Thomas King....Of course he
takes the matter seriously because it is a serious matter, He met the reporter
with a hearty welcome, but had nothing particular to say on subject...'All I can say
is I'm getting a punishment I do not deserve, Has theGovernor sayd anything in my
favor yet." Reporter said no and asked how he was treated, King said: 'Better than
I expected. . Sheriff Halford has been very kind, and the jailor,.Mr, Ellis, and the
cuards Graham and Finney have been all that anyone could wish.' King said: .'My
father is dead; have no relatives in this country; my mother, who lives in the old
country, is an Italian, and my father was a.@erman, I have not written to my mother
since I came to Montana, over a year ago, but have always sent her money until I
got in this trouble, I have supported my mother since my father died. My mother
would be worried to death if she knew the trouble I was in now. I feel as good as any
man could under the circumstances, I was brought up a Catholic, but leaving home
when I was young, have occassionally gone, into the by-ways and hedges, and consequehtly
havenot bem a good one, I came to Butte one year ago last May, on the 8th; stayed
there only ten days and then went to Granite, ,Wish I had never left Granite, and the!
I would not be in this trouble. I went from there to Elkhorn, Got there about the
20th of Yctober last. Was there five weeks before I got any work,, I then went to work
for A. P, Smith, who had a contract to sink a shaft, Worked for him for days and a

half. On Thanksgiving Day evening I went to a dance. fou know a res
Several witnesses swore falsely against me, I had no idea whatever of killing Fogarty


KING, Thomas, white, hanged at Boulder, Montana, June 6, 1890 - Continued.

befause 1 wemt right after the gun went off to my cabin, Gus Peters came to me
about a half an hour afterwards and said: 'what are you doning here? Don't you
know that you shot @man?¢’°>T'replied: 'Is that so,' and Peters said 'Yes, that

is so.' That is the first intimation TI’ had that I had shot anybody. “I did not
shoot Fogarty intentionally, JI struck at him and the gun went off, I did not
shoot him, (the supposition is that-he did not do it purposely}! King said
several times during the interview that he did not shoot him,....fhe jailor in-
forms us thathe is a most exemplary prisoner, and that he takes his misfortune in
a philosphilcal way. The prisoner can neither read nor write, ZSUX#XxXKAKAKXE
ASAHUKKE This probably annoys him somewhat, from the fact that he would like to
read for himself, ¢

"King is aman about 36 or 37 years of age, very dark, black moustache, eyes and
hair. He has a scar over his right temble, which looks like he had been scalded
at some time, He is pleasant in manner, smooth voice, but is as keen as a whip,
le gave what: information we received just to please the public taste, but as to his
past life or anything connected with any prior.trouble he keeps sealed and silent,
We would not judgehim to bereally a bad man. He evidently has quite a temper, and
probably at times can hardly control it. But when everything is quiet and serene,
then we take him to be rather’a companionable fellow, considering he can neither
read nor write, He seems to be pretty nervy, and will probably go‘to the seaffold
like a man." HQ@X JEFFERSON COUNTY SENTINEL, Bulder, Montana, May 29, 1890 (2=2),.

"Boulder has had another hanging bee, Thomas King paid the penalty for murdering
Mat Fogarty at Elkhorn some time ago. King went to the scaffold like a man, For at
least an hour before the time, Father Follett was in close seclusion with the pri-
soner, administering all the consolation he could, At just 11 o'clock the sherriffs,
lead by alford, were escorted to the cell of the prisoner, who was clad in black,
and looking a little pale, The death sentence was read to him by the sheriff, after
which, a statement from the doomed man was read which is as follows: 'Boulder, Mont.,
June 6, 1890. I want to tell you all that I am being punished for a crime not
committed, thaa although guilty of the act, 1 am innocent of the intention in which
wase no,,.man can be found guilty of murder, But the law says 'a life for a life' and
here i am to give my life for the one I unintentionally took from Fogarty, this I
would gladly do if by so doing I could give him back his life for he was a stranger
to me and God knows I had no reason to want to take it from him, If I had intended
to kill him I would be satisfied knowing it to be no more than right that I should
be so punished, as it is I feel the injustice of my punishment, There are men living
free and happy who are not so innocent of murder as myself, I have had to look out
for myself since I was 8 years old and have always lived honestly and dealt fairly
by everyone and never expected to come to this kind of a death, But so it is fate,
fatewas too strong for me. I would like for everyone that ever knew me and those
now presesh to deal as kindly with me ih their opinions as possible and try to bee
lie e me as I claim myself to be innocent of the crime of murder, I want to thank
my lawyers for their efforts in my behalf, They done their best. As to the officers
re ving me in charge, from them 1 have had the best of treatment. They were not only
kind to even me a criminal but thoughtful and careful of my comfort more so than lL
could expecte They aregentlemanly and efficent officers, Yhxyxiiingxt<Pisyxitingy
Thos. King,' The prisoner was then escorted to the scaffold in the rear of the
jail yard, and he walked there with a steady step. His lips were a trifle pale, but
aside from that he showed not the least agitation, He stood firm while the sheriff
put on the straps and adjusted the noose around the condemned man s neck, and at
11:1) the rope was cut, and the prisoner flew into the air, His neck was dislocated
but he hung on to life tenaciously, After hanging &ifkeex 15 minutes and a half,
life was pronounced extinct. Drs. Rudd of Jefferson; Fletcher of Boulder, and
Riddell of Elkhorn, were in attendance,
"There were quite a numier who thought that King would weaken when the finale came,
but in that they were disappointed, he was not quite as cool as Bryson, but was very
quiet and resigned throughout the trying ordeal he was about to face, The affair was
very sole,n throughout. Several sheriffs were in attendance from adjoining counties,
besides a few ex-sheriffs. Quigley, of Deer Lodge, Jeffrie, from Lewis and Clarke,

Lew Colman, Sam Trice, of Butte and several otherse


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SERY WitL BE EaTABLisHeD
 FAIRGROUR Dg FOR CARE OF
ILORENSPPREE Clinic DUR.
@ FAIR FSH EXAMINATION OF
ILOREN BY/bOMPETENT PHY.

oe ~

‘bo in charge of the nursery and

: im her care will receive
Women's Clud has arranged for

¥eMnis during Wednesday and
sday*pf the fair at which time
ate desiring to do so may have
ehildren thoroughly examined
Ofeost by = physician. These
% ane. meeting with. success at
fairs dnd the Club decided to es-
puiah. One for the Rosebud county
with the object of making it per

things humming every
hte; ,"We know al about their
» SGt are mot at liberty to divulge
hat. this ‘time, It ‘Would. spoil all
fim fog those who stay. for .the
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pereciate the fun im. store for

te, , Fey,

om K: Wheeler (4). ;
enant Governor:

G. Linebarger (r) 154

an Oliver (r) ~---—--——......._. §2
hison Story, Jr., (tr) —y->—-—168

332

Wid Hilger (4) -—~-—..._...... 60
y General: Raghs

parles B. Avery (T) 86

WV WRaantton fr) ...... .. 67

EPAYSDEATHPENALTY

FOR MURDER OF H. THEADE

ROSEBUD COUNTY
FAIR: OPENS NEXT
WEDNESY SEPT. 8

BIG AGRICULTURAL DISPLAYS
; WILL’ BE SHOWN BY FARMERS
#FROM ALL SECTIONS OF THE
COUNTY. WOMENS DEPArr.
MENT WILL BE FILLED To ov.
“ERFLOWING, = 6

BIG AMUSEMENT PROGRAM

BIG MOONSHINE STILL AND FOUR
BARRELS OF MASH FOUND ON
“LAND LEASED BY CLAUDE MAR.
CY ABOUT THIRTY MILES

SOUTH OF FORSYTH.

Upon investigating the premises of
Claude Marcy on Chromo Creek thé
first of the week Under Sheriff
Church and Barney Blum found one of
the most complete whiskey tills yet
uncovered end about four barrels of
mash in a state of fermentation. At
the time of the raid the stil was not
in operation dw to one of the doilers
being out of commission on account of
aileak. -

Following the discovery the officers

788 Across Claude Marcy. driving in a

wagon tn the direction of the still
with over 200 pounds of raisins. When
questioned about the raising Marcy
sald he was taking them to a sheep-
herder who ,w&s going to can them.
Being in doubts about the ability of
the sheepherder to Properly can the
raisins the officers took them in
charge as well as the stif and appara,
tus,

eateeeunee,
FARM SHOW AT VANANDA
WILL BE A GOOD ONE

‘According to the reports coming
from Vananda the agricultural show
to be held in Vananda September 7th
will be on a large ecale. The mer.
chants of that town have offered some
good prizes for corn, grains and for.
age crops.and it is understood that
the competition will be keen.

Following the local show the exhi-
Sits will be drought to the county fair
for display next week as a community
exhibit and it is predicted that Vanan-
Ga farmers will give the rest of the
county a hard run for first honors.

: OF PRIMARY ELECTION

Wellington D, Raikin (r)

Loujs 8. Irvin (4)...

A. H. McConnell (d) __.
Secretary of State:

Harry D. Barr (r) ovevecipi

J. H. Bohling, (r)

Frank Cone (r) .

C. T, Stewart (r) .

R, A. Haste (4)

‘Herbert M. Peet (d)
State Treasurer:

Thomas D Butterfield {r)

- Just a few more days and the big
Rosebud County fair will open for its
annual agricultural and stock show.
The county fair commission anvoun-
ces that everything is in rea liness to
entertain the oig crowd whica will at-
tend the fair this year.

fO Arod couiusion in tie VAriOns
departments the superintendents ask
that all exhibitors in Fors: th and vi-
cinity make their entries on Tuesday.
In this way they will be able to more
efficiently take care of the erhibits
that will come from the other parts
of the county Wedues tay,

The race and amusement program
thiq year will outdo anything in the
hist@ry ‘pf the county fair according
to Bert Hammond, superintendent of
that department. . Mr. Hammond says
he bas arranged the best race pro-

gram ever seen in eastern Montana

and that there will be no delay tol-
erated on the part of the riders. They
must be ready for every race or they
will be run without them. The people
are coming to the fair to see a real
Program and the pudges are going to,
see that they get a run for their
money.

FORSYTH SCHOOLS
TO OPEN MONDAY
FORREGISTRATION

Th Forsyth schools will open Mon-
day morning for the fall term and
Baperintendent Bussert urges that all
who expect to attend school this year
be on hand Drompuy that the work
of registration and assignment to
Classes be disposed of a8 s00n as pos
sible.

The faculty will all be here for the
opening day and will want to get ac-
Quainted with their pupils and start
the year’s educational program off
with the teast delay possible
With the booster spirit that-developed
in the schools last year under the
leadership of the high school boys and
girls it is Predicted that the same spir-
it will move the students to greater
activities this year. Let’s start the
mew year off with a lot of Pep, organ.
iz@ @ basketball team, a football ele --
en and engage in all kinds of athle
‘les, That's the kind of stuff that

| Puts life into the student body and

m1kes tbe school a place of social ac
tvicy. where the boys and girls wan‘
to go.

Until last year athletic activity at

|

SENTENCE OF THE COURT To
HANG BY THE NECK UNTIL
DEAD CARRIED OUT BY SHER. -
'FF GRIERSON; ABOUT 75 PER.
SONS PRESENT AT EXECUTION,

Without a faltering step, without a
(witch of a muscle, without the ~
slightest Indication that she feared
death that awaited him, Alfred Lane
sentenced to hang for the murder of
Harry Theade at his ranch about |
April 26th, walked out of his cell in *
the county jail here this (Friday)
morning to pay the penalty exacted by
the lawn of the state for the crime ot:
which he was convicted.

At no time during his conflaement
in the “death chamber” did Lane ever
show by action or 63 word of mouth
that he feared death. He lauzhed
and talked about the fate that awalt-
ed him with those about him. He ate
heartily up to and Including the last
meal and the last nigh: undressed and
went to bed as usual and fefJinto a
round sleep.

When Deputy Sheriff Dick Wright
awakened him a short time before the
time set for the execution, he showed
no signs of nervousness and immedi-
ately dressed himself and said he was
ready whenever they ° were. When
asked if he could stand the final test he
replied, “never fear, I'll not break
down,” and he calmly walked out of
the death chamber with his keeper
and spirithal advisers to meet his
fate. He walked deliberately upon the
Scaffold which had been erected in the
lobby of the jail and stood perfectly
still while his feet were firmly bound
by Sheriff Austin Middleton of Custer
county.

Sheriff Grierson then asked him if
he had anything to say and he replied,
“No, but I want to shake hands with
you Henry,” Father Ledoux then
Prayed for him.

His hands were then tied behind
him and the black hood adjusted on
his head after which Sheriff Grierson
Placed the noose over his head and
called Drs. Huene and Cotton to *x-
amine it to see that the knot was prop.
erly placed. At a given signal the
trap was sprung at 4:49 a. m. and
Alfred Lane dropped into elernity thus
baying the price exacted by the laws
of the land for the terrible crime of
which he was convicted. Death was
almost instantaneous with not a twitch
of the body evident and thus his life
was ended. >

Alfred Lane was 36 years old and
came to North Dakota 11 years ago
and settled in Montana four years ago
on the ranch at Hathaway which lat-
ter was the ecene of the murder for
which he paid the penalty with bis life.
His parents, five brothers four
sisters are living but he n r gave
their addresses, saying he did not want
them to know about the trouble he
was in,

PRECINCT COMMITTEEMEN
NAMED AT PRIMARY

The following precinct committee-
man for each party were elected in
Rosebud county at the primary elec
tlon held last week, according to the

” } :

bf 2.

OSIRIA IE


1

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ARS ET eas

4

a
Bid

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neg

APE HER Sates

| ALFRED LANE,

IN THE DISTRICT COURT

AQMD AR
pee MAE ee ate

On
i)

OF THE FIFTEENTH JUDICIAL DI ost NA,

IN AND. FOR: THE

COUNTY o7

ae
erm,

Present Hon.

THE STATE OF MONTANA,

tes
AG ao

ieee ae
3 j Tay tea A a j
epost shat ay Pee Uh

Dlaint

d

rf
irs,
Pritt

\°T
os tH

es

ID

JUDG
-VS-
CONVICTION OF NURDER IN
FIRST DEGREE.
Defendant.

oh ae
AME ig
Saree

The County Attorney, with the Defendant, Alfred Lane,

4

seit baadinrstoemon ee

and.

ij
ik

|
Hi}
{
|

|

|

‘OUNTY ATTORNEY /!
ROSEBUD COUNTY
FORSYTH, MONTANA

his counsel, F, F, Haynes, came into court.

Esq., The derendant

was duly informed by the Court of the nature of the information

siath ae
found against him for the crime of MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE, +
I

committed on the 26th day of April, A. D. 1920, of his Semen

€
2:

‘
iasys om

*
f

‘
< and plea of "Not guilty as charged in. crs information, # ‘oF hiss 5

trial and the verdict of the jury on the 20th dey of July A. D.

1920, "Guilty as charged in the information." The defendant was

then asked if he had any lerful cuuse to show why gBdmnee should

not be pronounced against him, to which he replied that he had

none. And no sufficient cause being sown or appe ring to the .

Court, thereupon the Court renders its judgment: nat ee

the said Alfred Lane has been duly convicted in this court of. the

=
2,

crime of MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE,

1 *

‘IT IS THEREYORE ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED, That the | —
said Alfred Lane be punished by Beats by hanging ty the neck

until dead, and that he be fenanded to the custody of the Sheriff

of Rosebud County to carry the sentence into execution.

It is further ORDERED that Friday, the 3rd day of’ cere.

ber, A. D., 1920, be fixed as the day of said execution. Aaeeitica: | Sate
‘Done in open court this 23rd day of vuly A.D. 1920, :

GEO. FP. JONES
JUDGE.


| State of Montana,
| County of Rosebud,
| office of the Sheriff.

Ls Henry Grierson, Sheriff of Rosebud County, Montana,

aighel Baht
UPON CONVICTION OF “URDER IN (HE FIRST DECRT? inthe case of the am

hereby certify ‘that rT received the Death Warrant and Riders

State of Montana versus Alfred Lane, and under and by virtue of

the provisions therein contained, and by. the authority of said
Death Warrant and JUDGMENT UPON CONVICTION OF MURDER IN THE FIRST ae
DEGREE, I executed said judgment of the court by hanging the said ae

“A

Alfred Lene by the neck until he was dead;

I further certify that said execution was held in
}

>
Rosebud County, Montana, within the walls of the county jail of
Rosebud County, and at the hour of 4:55 A. M. on the Srd day of ot

: ss September A. De. 1920; that. said hanging was” done in the presence
| Spslerser oie at least twelve reputable citizens of the; State of Montane i!) ied
ah * selected by me, and that the body of cela Alfred Lane Was. allowed §4/

5 't0 hang for a period of fifteen minutes until pronounced | Aaad. by" op ae

: i | doctors H. J. Huene and Wendell Cotton, both of } Forsyth, nosebud
| County, Montana; that the County Attorney in and for Rosebud ab
ma County was present at said execution, and that at the request. oft}.
| said Alfred Lane, Father LeDoux was also present, but no ‘relatives

nS) 33 :
of the said Alfred Lane were oresent, and said Alfred Lane nade, Bee:

24

no request for the presence of friends or relatives at aoe ext
rt bee 2 . . : ae . i
a, cution; Biter wo ae

Sy - ie And I Se Srues Servite that thereupon,
Oe said Alfred Lane was delivered by me to the coroner, F..
endl ~ County Coroner of Rosebud County, Montana, for the proper ais

a posal of the same.

0 | Awest : > Dated at foreyth this 4th day of September A. D.¢.

31. |i

ee Sang a . ee
33 : | (ps ae
ve Te : } Pa ee (gid A? es gas

Sheriff.

“|
i} -

COUNTY ATTORNEY


a

—

~~)

ees ae Be PR i ae . 'y PT ye MBI Ne ee et ead | er eee

LANE, Alfred, white, 36, hanged Forsyth, Montana, 9-3-1920.

Rosebud County Library
Horspth, Montana

Forsyth, Montana
April h, 1975

Dear Mr. Espy:

I am enclosing pha®s of all the material I covld find on the Jane murder cases.
These photos are not particularly: good as many of the articles were in the center
of the newspapers which made it very difficult to photograph them. I hope that
you can get the informatior that you want fron them...

I asked several old timers about this case but couldn't set toemany facts.
However, one fact that the’ all agreed on was that Theace's wife was evidently
having an affair with Lane. This was not brovght out in the newspaper articlés:.
Also, you will note that Lane was afraid of being lynched according to the
nespaper accounts. A lynching had eccurred eicht years vefore this murder

in the Hathaway community so he had cood reason to be afraid.

Hope that this information helps you.

Sincerely,


McKENZIE, Duncan, Jr., white, LI (MTS; (Pondera} May 10, 1995

Killer Executed In Montana. Pee as :
AP 10 May 95 3:05 ED? v0708 — |
Copyright 1995 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The information contained in this. news report may not be published,
broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority
of the Associated Press.

DEER LODGE, Mont. (AP) -- A man who raped and murdered a
schoolteacher was put to death by injection early Wednesday in the
first execution in 52 years in a state that was legendary for
dispensing swift frontier justice. =. | :

Duncan McKenzie Jr., 43, had lived on death row for 20 years and
avoided eight scheduled executions. He denied: committing the murder.

Gov. Marc Racicot,; a former attorney general; refused Tuesday to
grant clemency. Ninety minutes later, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals denied a request for a stay of execution. The U.S. Supreme
Court did. the’ same...° ot BEE ENS se Dare | ;

The last person put to death in Montana was Philip Coleman, hanged
on Sept. 10, 1943, for murdering a railroad foreman who had hired him
days earlier. Seven more convicts await execution in Montana.

Pleading for mercy in a meeting Monday with the governor, McKenzie
said he felt sorry for the Harding family. But he added: “I can’t come
to you and beg forgiveness for something that I didn’t do.” ;

In refusing to stay the execution, the 9th Circuit cited a 1990
decision rejecting an Arizona prisoner’s claim that a lengthy death-row
stay amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. |

"If that were the law, death-row inmates would be able to avoid
their sentences simply by delaying proceedings," that ruling said.

McKenzie was convicted of the 1974 kidnapping and murder of _
23~year-old Lana Harding, the teacher in a one-room rural school near
the town of Conrad. in Montana’s wheat country. |

McKenzie, then 22, was fresh out of prison after a three-year
sentence for assaulting a woman, He had just bought an old truck.

He was heard hoasting that he "broke in“ his vehicles by having sex
in them. He said he preferred teachers and told a co-worker he had one
in mind. | 4 Begun ay a

Hours later, Harding was attacked in her living quarters next to the
school. Her body was found in a snowy field. She had been. raped, choked

and beaten. A rope was tied around her neck, and the right side of her |
head lay open. —— 8 AEROSOLES Been

McKenzie’s' truck was seen heading toward the field the night of the
murder. His bloody gloves were found nearby. Blood was found in the bed
of his truck, along with purple fibers that matched Harding’s sweater.
Brain tissue and blood matching Harding’s were found on an auto part in
the back of the truck. PE Ae

He was the 277th person to be executed since the 1976 Supreme Court
decision allowing states to resume capital punishment.

s


Advice for Racicot

“E” day is fast approaching for Duncan
McKenzie, and it aapeArS that he is about
through playing footsie with the court
system. Itis a reasonable assumption that
the last dodge could be to ask the governor
for clemency. i

Mr. McKenzie has been the beneficiary of
the liberal and misguided “Miranda
injustice charade” for 20 years. So, Gov.
Racicot, if you have to make the final
decision, I hope you will decide in favor of

real justice and let this rat have his poison.

Ask yourself how muchmercyMr.
McKenzie extended to his helpless victim, :
Lana Harding, and try to rationalize the

mental suffering her family and friends have
been subjected to for 20 long years.

President Harry Truman said it best: “The
buck stops here.”

CHARLES BARTELT, Box 73, Choteau

Hang him high

ER 10a,

APRIL 28, 1995

You: editorial April 11, “End cruel
punishment,” on Duncan McKenzie’s latest
appeal of his death sentence was right on

the mark.

His lawyers really do take the cake.
Everyone wanted to hang this misfit high,
the day after he did his heinous crime. But

they kept him on death row, using our taxes

for his comfort and luxury, and God only

knows how much of our money landed in =)
their pockets, already, and now they want

more.

Why do they call it “cruel and unusual” go ?

punishment while they are trying to get him tq | 5
more of the same? Lana’s family and friends !

are suffering cruel and unusual punishment

— not that animal.

The court system in this country is getting .
way out of line. A good example is the circus
going on in California. Money speaks. It’s
fine if the rich want to throw theirs away,
but the courts spend our money and we have
no Say. It’s no wonder so many people have

high blood pressure.

We think McKenzie has enjoyed enough
“cruel and unusual” punishment. Send him
where he belongs, or we will be seeing more

militiamen cropping up.

MARCELLA GOERGER, 500 34th St.

GREAT FALLS
TRIBUNE

(monrana)

Great Falls Tribune
Wednesday, April'5, 1995

5 .
Hang ’em high
I read with disbelief the letter from _
Therese Marie Furois (“Execution ae
wrong,” March 23) decrying the impending
execution of Duncan McKenzie.

The fact that it has been years since
Montana executed anyone may bean
indication of our humanity to her; it
certainly is not to me.

So far as I know, the law of “An eye for
an eye andatooth fora tooth” is still in the
Bible. That to me makes it a very current
law — not an ancient relic to be discarded
as no longer fashionable, no matter which
century we live in. We do agree that az
McKenzie’s desecration of Lana Harding _
“murder” is far too tame a term for his acts
— was wrong; we do not agree that he was
or is a human being. His act then, as well as
his life since, qualify him in my book asa
festering boil on the backside of society.
The sooner he is eliminated the better.

vengeance more right than
compere I will leave that imponderable
to those with the time and the intellect to
waste on it. My answer is that the public
indeed has the right not to live in fear of
violence.

And execution most certainly does deter
crime; no one who has been executed has
ever committed another illegal act. Nor did
they lounge in unproductivity and sponge
off the taxpayers for years and years. an
did they get a chance to make their secon
or third strikes.

As for McKenzie and his type, my
sentiments are these: Hang ’em high, plant
‘em deep, and forget they ever were.

JOHN J. BENNETT, P.O. Box 178, Simms.

Rec:
MONTANA

Execute a killer

Great Falls Tribune
Monday, April 3, 1995
Number of executions

S. Furois states that i
years since anyone has b
Montana, when actually th

many executions,

Ire

calla

working alone at night ina

ese are on]

execu

People unconce
humanity.

Lana Harding’s e
McKenzie, was a

guilty

lived on for 2

her, Is
Stated

Statistics d

does n

tions in

thas been several
een executed in

ere have been

a Harding.

y a few examples of

Montana — of lives taken by
ted with thoughts of

xecutioner, Duncan
Pprehended, tried, found

and sentenced to death. Yet he has

there an

her life was less

ot deter crime. Could

1 years of life that he denied to
ancient obsolete law that

Precious than his?
0 show that the

death penalty
it be because

the death penalty is seldom enforced?
execution as rendered by Duncan

Yes,

umane, does

Perpetuate

JANET ROGERS, 401 53rd St. S,

Great Falls Tribune
iUfsday, March 30, 1995
ee

S. Furois said that Duncan McKenzie is

a human bein
Sorry, but yo
‘

& and to execute him is wrong.
U are the one who is wrong.

; Iwasa deputy clerk of Court on the

McKenzie trial. Ther
deserving of death t

}_ Ms. Furois, you were

flarding’s family suffering, to
b]

See, to read his pre-sent

eisnoone more
han he,

Not there to see Ms,

ry to
ence investigation,

f my understanding, I will say without fear,

*Thy will
The chi

\

iny tax dollar, not a
and others of his kind. Th
nes with no respect for life,
i There is now

dog. They
than a rab
4

be done.”
Idren and

are destroyed,
id dog. Our pri

the elderly are in need of
murderer like McKenzie

ey truly are the

ay to rehabilitate a rabid

This man is worse
Sons are

Despicable actions

There has never before been a
that holds life

s irreverent. In Previous Senerations, the

no outcry. Thirty
Percent of all babies Conceived in the USA

are aborted, which means 17] every hour of

WANDA NIELSEN, Box 275, Vaughn

»

McKenzie
asks Racicot
for clemency

By BOB ANEZ
Assoclated Press Writer

HELENA — Thirteen days before
his scheduled execution, convicted
killer Duncan McKenzie Jr. on
Friday asked Gov. Marc Racicot for
clemency.

In a letter to Racicot, a lawyer for
McKenzie urged the governor to
commute his death sentence to life
in prison without parole. However,
the letter did not ask Racicot to
delay the May 10 execution while
the clemency request is considered.

The letter to Racicot was included
in McKenzie’s formal application for
clemency, which was filed with the
state Board of Pardons late Friday
afternoon.

State law requires the board to
review the ap-
plication, con-
duct a_ public
hearing and
make a recom-
mendation to
the governor.
Craig Thomas,
executive direc-
tor for the
board, said a
hearing will be
held next week and a date would be
announced Monday.

McKenzie, 43, is scheduled to die
by lethal injection for the 1974 kid-
napping and torture-murder of Con-
rad-area teacher Lana Harding.

In addition to the clemency re-
quest, he has two appeals,in federal
courts.

Thomas refused to release a copy
of the clemency application, saying,
“All information that the board re-
ceives is confidential.”

However, the arguments for clem-
ency are outlined in the letter to
Racicot.

It was written by Helena lawyer
Ward Shanahan. He is working on
the case with McKenzie’s attorney
of the past 18 years, Timothy Ford of
Seattle.

“Duncan McKenzie’s crime,
though terrible, is no worse than
others who have not received the
death penalty,” Shanahan told the
governor.

He also said the death penalty law
under which McKenzie was sen-
tenced has been changed and the
reasons cited by the sentencing
judge 20 years ago are no longer
valid.

When McKenzie was ordered to
die, the judge expressed concern
that the alternative prison sentence
at the time would have made

McKenzie

On 94 campaign
trail, governor
backed execution

By Tribune Staff

Although Gov. Marc Racicot
has not indicated how he might
decide the clemency plea filed
Friday on behalf of Duncan P.
McKenzie, he spoke out clearly
for an execution while cam-
paigning in 1992.

Racicot participated in a tele-
phone call-in session spon-
sored by the Tribune that fall,
and one of
the first
calls he re-
ceived was
from State
Sen. Ethel
Harding,
R-Polson,
mother of
Lana
Harding.

Accord-

ing to Tribune files, here are
the questions posed by Mrs.
Harding and the gubernatorial
candidate’s answers:
* Q. In a case like that of Dun-
can Peder McKenzie — would
you allow him to be executed
or would you commute his sen-
tence?

A. The governor does ulti-
mately have some ability to
intervene in that kind of a situ-
ation and offer commutations
when they are appropriate.
But, you know my feelings
about it. In that particular in-
stance, with what I know pres-
ently, that would not be the
kind of thing I would entertain.

Q. In other words, with what
you know, you would not com-
mute Duncan Peder McKen-
zie’s sentence to anything
other than capital punishment?
» A, That’s exactly correct.

Racicot

McKenzie eligible for parole in as
little as seven years, Shanahan re-
called.

However, he said, today’s laws
allow McKenzie to be locked up for
life without a chance for parole.

Shanahan complained of “irregu-

See CLEMENCY, 10A

larities” in McKenzie’s trial and said
a plea bargain would have been
reached two decades ago if not for
objections by Harding's family.

He said he is “not aware of any
present desire of the Harding family
for the death penalty.” But Hard-
ing’s mother told The Associated
Press last month she favors the exe-
cution of her daughter’s killer.

Shanahan told Racicot that
McKenzie has behaved well while in
prison and helped persuade other

inmates not to harm prison guards
during a 1991 riot.

He also said that executing
McKenzie after his 21 years behind
bars “is more severe than any kind
of punishment allowed at common
law or intended by the people of
Montana in their 1972 constitution.”

The request for clemency was not
a surprise. Ford had talked about the
possibility earlier this week, and the
last time an inmate’s execution was
imminent in 1988, a similar request
was filed 10 days before the execu-

tion date.

Shanahan was not publicly in-
volved in the McKenzie case before
Friday. He is a partner in a law firm
that includes Ronald Waterman,
who has requested McKenzie’s exe-
cution be postponed so the inmate
can testify in civillawsuits stem-
ming from the prison riot.

Waterman, who represents
McKenzie and several other inmates
in the civil suits, said he was not
involved in the clemency request.
He said Shanahan was chosen to

submit the petition because of his
“political connections.”

Shanahan is a longtime GOP ac-
tivist, and Racicot is a Republican. .

Shanahan also is legal counsel for
the Roman Catholic Diocese of He-
lena, and the Catholic Church op-
poses the death penalty. But a
spokesman for the diocese said
Shanahan was not acting on behalf
of the church.

Shanahan could not be reached
for comment Friday.

GREAT FALCS

TRIBUNE

I Oe TTT ORS,

SAT 4-29-93

—

‘Continued From Page Al

sentence Ly handed down somewhere virtu-
.ally every working day, while ignoring the
quiet reality that gpe: of every three is eventu- ,
pally overturned, |," nigtiy

Drawing. from;
“documents. and police.reports and from

scores, of, interviews.,with prosecutors, de-.. ;
“%fense lawyers, judges, Police officers, fami-:
lies and prisoners, this is the story of the two. ,

, killings that occurred: 16 years ago and of
"their ensuing legal lives, which continue day
after day with novsign of ending and which

may’ well: last longer than the lives of the re

murder victims.’ ¥, oT

¢ ath ‘ >

Sex Attack cd Montana
‘Teacher Dies;

aath Ke

Stranger Js I Held

‘mermeister was sipping coffee in his office

Conrad, . Danny Pearson, a young farmer who. ..:

lived across ‘the dirt road from the school-
“house. 13 miles from town, said the school’s
‘five Students eng niling around without:a
teacher... te:
Serious crime was. ‘a rarity in Pondera

County, a vast, flat chunk of northern Mon-,
tana with only 7,000 people. But the sheriff

raced to the scene with lights flashing.

There he found a pile of half-corrected -

‘school papers. and: a woman’s shoe in the
yard near a man’s boot print.

As the sheriff and five deputies combed the
yard, Mr. Pearson told them that on the

‘ | Previous evening, a'man had appeared at his’

| door seeking’a tow for his stalled pickup. Mr.

* Pearson showed the sheriff where the truck

‘had been stalled. "There, Sticky in the frozen

“dust, was a pool of blood and, just to the side,
a woman’s wristwatch. ? “

The farmer’s story led the sheriff to Dun-,.
can P. McKenzie, & 23-year-old in just his secs’:

ond week of employment at a seed company. '
--Co-workers told officers that the new man

sometimes talked’ strangely, that he -had ad-

miringly mentioned the teacher he saw'as he
‘drove by the schoolyard every day and that

- he had said he liked to break in every new

:/pickup he owned by having sex in it.

That evening Sheriff. Hammermeister vis-
ited the McKenzie house and asked if Mr. Mc-
Kenzie had seen the missing teacher. Mr. Mc-

Kenzie said he knew nothing.

Outside, the sheriff arrested Mr. McKenzie. t

for simple assault''and read him his rights,

, and.the search warrant. Within three hours ,
} deputies* had ‘seized blood-stained clothing, . i
: boots that matched the print, and the pickup,

‘ spray-painted but with visible bloodstains. .
és On a hunch, Deputy Jerry Hoover and his

~ hunting dog, Chopper, checked fields near the,
«seed-company, andithere in the early after-:

‘noon Chopper froze and pointed.
Miss Harding had been raped and her head

“bashed by heavy ‘metal objects. Her ae,

. Was thrown over some farm machinery. *:

The’ sheriff was maniacally methodical Ag
his investigation. Dozens of rolls of film were’
shot at every scene. Two officers attended
and taped every interview.

So important was the case that the county
attorney appointed a special prosecutor,

Douglas Anderson, who later became county

attorney himself. The local judge appointed

Charlie Jacobson, ‘a Conrad lawyer, as de-

-fense counsel. But when the assault charge

jumped to aggravated kidnapping and, delib-

erate homicide, he! ‘added Barney Reagan to’
thedefense, —

Neither man had handled a murder de-
fense, and Montana’s new criminal statutes
wore Sr weeks old. The future of ex-

ons was uncertain. °

e defense got the trial moved 63 miles to -
Gréat Falls, but drew a, tough judge, Robert.
J. Nelson.

Mr. McKenzie, who had served prison time
for assaulting a woman, refused to cooperate
beyond suggesting that the real murderer
had borrowed his truck. °

Eleven months after the crime and one
month before trial, Mr. Reagan and Mr,

Jacobson sought a meeting with Mr. Ander-. .

son'in a session that the prosecutor now sees
as a defense time bomb that would assist in
seeking appeals. Mr, Reagan recalls agree-
ing on a 60-year prison term. As is usual, the

ousands of pages of court’

prosecutor discussed the proposed bargain‘

‘with the victim’s family.

“We wanted nothing to do with a plea bar- .

gain,”” remembered Lana’s mother, Ethel
., Harding, who is now a State Senator, “We

_ don’t have a justice system to sell away the ~

eh ct

Me. McKenzie was convicted of deliberate

,, homicide. In March 1975, Judge Nelson sen-

“'tenced him to hang. That, as it turned ony
"was just the Niacin

Torture in Florida

‘ ‘A Killing
On Father’s Day

: It was the evening of June 16, 1974, Fa-

,ther’s Day. But 18-year-old Steve Orlando.

was not celebrating. His parents were di-

"he y vorced, and he lived with his mother in gare
When the call came at 9:33 that Tuesday
‘itiorning,” Jan. 22,1974; Sheriff Walter iy ed,

x: sonville, Fla.

‘Mr, Orlando had played pool with friends .

at a Howard Johnson motel. Now, he was
|‘ going to walk five blocks to fetch his stalled
* car.

The next morning, Mr. Orlando was found |

lying in the middle of the sandy road that
leads to a dump. He had been pummeled and

jin the left cheek. And then in the left ear. A
;, Note, impaled in his stomach with the knife,
‘called for revolution by oppressed blacks and

vowed to kill other. whites. Indeed, a week
after Mr. Orlando’s death, another white
teen-age boy was killed in the Jacksonville
area under similar circumstances.

On tape recordings sent to the victims’
families and TV stations, a man described in
_ gruesome detail the torture of Mr. Orlando.
But despite all the fear in the town, the news
““media attention and political pressures, the
y investigation was at a dead end two months
‘ater. Tommy Reeves, a veteran homicide
mn was placed in charge in August

In the cardboard box that contained files

tectives was a handwritten letter of resigna-

tion from some anti-poverty program. It |

‘Jooked familiar.

sp), Sergeant Reeves reached for the note
found by the Orlando body. The writing was

the same. The letter was signed by Jacob :

Dougan, a Vietnam veteran and an organizer
, for black causes, with no criminal record.

The detective sent the letters to the Fed-
,,eral Bureau of Investigation, which got Mr.
.Dougan’s fingerprints from the Air Force.
The agency said both letters were Mr. Dou-
.gan’s. It also said there was a Dougan finger-

» )print on one of the tape recordings. In late _

September Sergeant Reeves and other offi-
“cers arrested the 28-year-old Mr. Dougan.

“°" Ernest Jackson, a respected civil rights
Seb agreed to be one counsel. It was a
1“ tough assignment.

““In return for reduced ‘charges, William ‘'

Hearn: who had driven the car used in the

kidnapping of Mr. Orlando, made a full state-_.

‘ment naming Mr. Dougan as the leader of a
plot to seize a ‘‘white devil’’ and execute him
to promote black revolution.

“Duval County, which includes Jacksonville,
has about 200 homicide prosecutions a year.
‘The seven-member homicide panel, headed
by the prosecutor, Ed Austin, votes to seek
the death penalty in 1 percent to 5 percent of
murders. The Orlando killing was one.

Mr. Dougan’s devoted adoptive parents
‘and church upbringing and even his Eagle
Scout badge erased any doubt in Mr. Austin’s
mind that the young man knew right from
‘“wrong: There was little room for the defense

.- to. maneuver, except to argue temporary in-

‘““ganity caused by racial problems. Mr.

‘Hearn’s testimony persuaded the jury to find
Mr. Dougan guilty.

After the penalty hearing, the jury recom-'
mended death, 10 to 2. On April 10, 1975, a
month later, Judge R.. Hudson Olliff ordered
that Mr. Dougan be electrocuted. In his dec-
ades at the Duval County courthouse, the 64-
year-old Judge Olliff has issued nine death

sentences, but to seven men. With appeals °

‘over the years,.Mr. Dougan has been in
Courtroom 8 three times for the same crime.

‘’ The January 1974 trial lasted three weeks. .

then tortured with a knife. He had been shot’

:thnd literature initially collected by many de- io QM i
Dance on Death Row

2Convicts. _
Battle to Live

There have been 34 legal steps in the deco-
rous struggle over whether Jacob Dougan
will someday: sit in Florida’s worn wooden
electric chair, the seven leather straps buck-

’ led around his ‘chest and limbs, and have

2,000 volts pass through his body.

Both sides have been waiting nearly 17
months for the latest opinion from the Flor-
ida Supreme Court. All this has taken more
than 15 years, and many.more years lie
ahead; the Dougan case ‘has not gone the
Federal appeals court route.

It is a far cry from’1933; when Giuseppe
Zangara shot at President “Franklin D.
Roosevelt, instead killing Anton Cermak, the
Mayor of Chicago. The shooting occurred
Feb. 15 in Miami. On March 9, Zangara
pleaded guilty. He was sentenced ‘March 10.
Ten days later, he was executed. .

Besides Zangara’s guilty plea, the differ-
ence today is a measure of the changing
rules, procedures, precedents and concern
paid to the death penalty on each layer of the
court system, time after time, with each
loser appealing every loss all the way up the
system.

Anexample from the Dougan case:

On April 23, 1975, the defense notified the
State Supreme Court that it would appeal the
conviction. Three hundred sixty-one days
later, the defense filed its brief. Forty-six

_ days later, the state responded. Fifteen

weeks later, the court heard oral arguments.
Six months later, the court affirmed the con-

. viction. Two weeks later, the defense sought

a rehearing. One week later, that was denied.

Nearly’ five months later, the defense
sought a hearing before the United States Su-
preme Court. Fourteen. months later, that
was denied. But meanwhile, following Su-
preme Court precedent in another evolving
legal area, the top Florida court developed
doubts that Mr. Dougan’s defense had had a
chance to rebut everything in the pre-sen-

“new sentence. —

, Court, which took:

tence report. The case was sent back to
Judge Olliff for ‘further argument. Briefs
were filed. Response briefs were also written
‘and filed. New arguments were set. Delays
' occurred because of illnesses,
Two months, later, Judge Olliff issued a

the death penalty again —

and this was also briefed and argued and ap-
“pealed and affirmed and taken to the High
89 days to turn it down.
Elapsed time: six and a half years,

Re-arguments on Punishment
But fearing that in the original sentencing

‘hearing, the first jury might have been

tainted by a reference to the killing of the sec-

‘ond teen-ager, the State Supreme Court or-

be

dered that a new jury hear re-arguments ona

%

“fading. © *°r2

“» punishment. This required that complete. sets
Of new lawyers on

both ‘sides study the sev-

“eral large boxes of papers where the ink is

'* After six months, James S. Thomson, a

work
their

_ California lawyer and one ‘of a national net-
of death penalty opponents who donate
services, sought several months to pre-
pare the defense. Judge Olliff said no. Mr.
Thomson resigned. A new defense lawyer

was appointed and given several months to

. learn the case. The new jury reached the

"Ferguson,

Same penalty verdict, 9 to 3.

' Mr. Dougan’s current lawyer, James E.

works ‘closely with the NAACP
Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc.,

. which, with the American Civil Liberties

~ Union, is among the nation’s most prominent
opponents of the death penalty. Mr. Fergu-
son’s future arguments relate to the racial
prejudice he sees permeating the case, the
murder as a “tragic aberration” for an
- otherwise superlative citizen,” and the al-
leged incompetence of Mr. Dougan’s first

% lawyer, who is now dead, is

Mi : ‘A Legal Game’
_ “It’s become a legal game,” said H. R. Fal-
‘lin, another former Dougan lawyer. “These
“appellate hotshots come in here and take a
year to find error with something I had five
minutes to decide at trial. For them, Dougan
is a tool in a moral crusade against the death

penalty. The issues are limited only by their |

imaginations. And the whole theory is delay,
delay, delay. Every day without the execu-
tion is another little victory for them.”

“~ But Joseph :Nursey, who worked on the
‘Dougan case for a similar group, Team De-
fense Project, denied that delay was the
Strategy. “Death row ‘isa psychological
death,” he said. “You want those people off
there as fast as possible.”

~_He said fairness required full examination
of every point. But he added,

-way of killing people fairly in

tice.’ nn alli :

Few argue against safeguards for such an
irrevocable punishment, “It is the degree of
safeguard that is in dispute. Prosecutors sus-
pect that the characteristic approach of
piecemeal appeals is at best a delaying tactic
by. the defense ‘designed’ to’ await more
favorable precedent-making rulings in other
courts, and at worst sabotage intended to
jam the legal system so that society will sim-
ply give up on the death penalty.

There are signs that this is happening.
While 37 states have the death penalty, 22 of
them have never used it. And in recent years,
half the states have added a new penalty,
true life without parole, without rescinding
execution. oe ye) em ;
.Montana’s Attorney General, Marc Raci-
Cot, sees the death penalty as helpful in en-
couraging plea bargaining. He says he knows
of cases in which county prosecutors have
avoided seeking the death penalty, knowing

“I don’t see any
the name of jus-

the time and costs of future appeals.

While Mr. Racicot vows to uphold the law,

: he does wonder sometimes about the price of

a fight that is never finished. At a cost esti-
mated in millions, seven assistant attorneys
general have handled the McKenzie case.
“My personal experiences Cause me to won-
‘der about the investment’ of -Society’s re-
sources, judging by our results,” Mr. Racicot

Said. “If these cases become an endurance

se eae

---ecutions. Mr. Ford, who devotes half

contest for our legal system’s survival, then
maybe life imprisonment without ever get-
ting out would be an adequate ultimate pun-
ishment.”’ A

~ Mr. Racicot’s legal Opponent in the McKen-
zie case is Timothy K. Ford, a 41-year-old
Seattle lawyer who is now fighting eight ex-
his work
and mucy. personal time to cases referred by
the N.A.A.C.P. organization, estimates that

he has got 25 prisoners off death row.
Both sides have been waiting since Sep-

‘tember fora three-judge panel of the Court of

4
\

Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francis-
co, to rule on a defense appeal of a district
court judgment that there was ho improper
influence when the Special prosecutor.met to
discuss his overdue pay with Judge Nelson, a
month before sentencing, in 1975. Mr. Ander-
son says the case
judge is now dead, yee
Several proposals: to change the system
are being debated or carried out. One would
require that all major appeals points be con-
solidated in one Federal’ ‘appeal. But ‘such
Streamlining is occurring only in Federal
courts. Each state has its own system and
procedures, Florida’s Supreme Court spends
one-third of its time on death penalty cases,
which represent barely 12 percent of its case
load: ' tithe Atty iy SP ERT Said

SOP Rey ce

Toll in 2 States
‘The Pain Is
So Awful’

. The legal impact and personal tolls of these
two death penalty cases ‘continue tomount,
“We will not be beaten procedurally,’”
vowed Mr. Austin, the prosecutor in the Dou-
gan case. “‘We’llexecute him sometime.”
But the trail is getting colder. Several ex-’
perts and witnesses have died or moved, |
Mr. Austin does not blame the defense for;
the laborious appeals. “it’s the judiciary:
that’s permitting itself to be manipulated,”
he said. “They set the rules for all these ap-;
peals, so they can change them. They tell mes
I must give every felon a Speedy trial, within!
180 days, or else he walks free. We've got toi
do something about . capital punishment.
Clean it up or abolish it because it’s eroding}
confidence in our entire justice system wheni
there’s no punishment.” H
In Montana, Pondera County is still paying:
off its initial trial costs of nearly $300,000. ;
In light of the McKenzie Case, the state has;
modified its strategies, andthe courts have:
clarified their rules, " a
Mr. McKenzie, now’38, is one of seven pris-:
oners awaiting execution in Montana. He}
spends his days watching TV. or napping ini
the State Prison in Deer Lodge. He says his;
initial defense lawyers meant well, but were!
incompetent. - Bats, ¢ ; }
“Living with a death sentence is just a}
State of mind,” he said in an interview con-:
ducted through a glass wall. “I take one day,
ata time.” iy '
He added: ‘‘Some days, I get so down, and’
the thought of that trailer out back Sticks its!
head up and says, ‘I’m’still here, Duncan.’ ”’
Sitting out back less than 50 paces from his;
cell is the converted house trailer with the:
gurney, the curtain, the witness chairs and;
the three switches used to administer poison. '
The law practice of Mr. Jacobson, one of!
the defense lawyers, pretty much collapsed}
after the McKenzie verdict. Old friends:
would not sit next to him at the cafe. He says,
he received some death threats. His children!
were ridiculed at school. | i
The other defense lawyer, Mr. Reagan,}
who practiced in Cut Bank, 47 miles away,!
was ostracized, too, for defending a teacher-.
killer. He figures ‘he lost $15,000 in unpaid:
work for Mr. McKenzie.-*‘Somebody had to;
do it,” he said, “but I regret I was ever in-}
volved.” sve i
In 1982, when the NAACP organization took!
over the appeals, Mr. Reagan locked up his
office and walked away, leaving the files on,
his desk. :
Mrs. Harding, the mother of the slain:
teacher, is now a widow. She said her hus;
band could not work for 18 months after the:
slaying and was never himself again. She.
continues as a State Senator and still sup-
ports the death penalty, }
Everett Orlando, the father of the murder’
victim Steve Orlando, is now 60 and a retired
police officer in New Brunswick, N.J. “The,

EB eu teey tyon Gey

o-wesenaawman anu

pain is so awful, I can’t tell you,”’ he said! =

“Every day they don’t go through with the:
sentencing keeps it all alive. They have sen-|
tenced him three times, How many times
must we do that to be fair to the murderer,
when my son, the victim, got no appeals?” f

Mr. Dougan, who refused to be inter.
.Viewed, is said to read a lot and to be a good!
prisoner among thi 319 on Florida’s eath
row. :

.was not. mentioned, The

MekKwe2ss, buntau—- 7

aay

-2Lives Ended, but 2 Co

By ANDREW H. MALCOLM
a Special to The New York Times

CONRAD, Mont. — Sixteen years af-
terward, the year 1974 flickers like a
dim dot in a vast night sky. At this time
in'1974, President Richard M, Nixon
had yet to resign. “Jaws” was a run-
away best seller for beach. reading.

Streaking was a fad. “The Sting” had

won the Oscar for Best Picture. ..
‘o Charles Lindbergh died in 1974, along
with Tex Ritter, Dizzy Dean, Walter
Lippmann and_Duke Ellington. So did
‘Lana Harding and Steve Orlando.

, Miss Harding, a 21-year-old teacher
“a one-room..schoolhouse north of

fee 7

Steve Orlando, above, was
killed in 1974 near Jack-
sonville; Fla., by Jacob
Dougan, right, who is still |
being held on death row
"for the crime.

ee Free Aree

nvicts Survive

The Wait
On Death Row

A special report.

here, was found in a field without her
clothes and the top of her head.

Mr. Orlando, who was 18, was found
lying on his back near a garbage dump
outside J acksonville, Fla. He had been
shot in the left ear, and a note, signed
by ‘the ‘Black Liberation Army, was

‘stuck into his stomach with a knife.

These gruesome killings were unre-
lated. One was urban, one rural. One

‘The Florida Times-Union/ Stan Badz, 1987

Lana Harding was also
killed in 1974, in Conrad,

-Mont., by Duncan P.Mc-  °
‘Kenzie, who also still
‘awaits execution.

WERE AS ye

4 wT. yg hg
Be f t*

die, one‘in Florida, a state ‘where ex-

was sexual, the other racial. Two men,
one for each murder, were methodi-

cally tracked down by veteran invésti-
gators using drops of blood, partial heel
and fingerprints, a shell casing, 4.
hunch or two, a dog named Chopper
and even a forgotten letter, found in an
oldcardboard box, «. ~ AS

Both of the accused were convicted
by juries. And both’ were sentenced to

ecutions have become fairly frequent,

and the other in Montana, which has

not hanged anyone since 1942,
But 16 ‘years after the crimes were

committed, the two convicted murders

still ‘sit safely in .their cement. cells, ;
watching TV, reading, receiving meals '
through slots and: :showering every
other day. Their days are like those of
the 2,345 other men and women who in-
habit death rows in 34 states. i
Some 2,000 miles apart, the legal bat- |
tles over the two murder cases — now
named for the convicts, not the victims
— are a tiny fraction of the legal strug-
gles surrounding the 320,000 homicides
in the United States since 1974. But
they reveal the conscientious and cum-
bersome nature of American justice

and the powerful moral and emotional
ambivalence ofa population and its
political leaders who cling to execution
as the ultimate penalty, political rally-
ing point and divisive debate topic, but
who seem very reluctant to use it.

-. Speedier Process Is Urged

In recent weeks this system has
come under growing attack. Senators,
representatives and the: Chief Justice
of the United: States have offered a
number of proposals to speed the pro- |
cess, which now averages more than |
eight years, while those who would |
abolish the death penalty desperately
seek new legal theorems to undermine
it.

The deadly dance of appeals, unique
in the Western world, is performed |
through volumes of written briefs and
rebuttals, frequent postponements and
extensions, dramatic oral arguments
and surprisingly swift, secret delibera-
tions at shiny wooden tables behind
closed doors. The ensuing judicial de-
bates pass silently down hallways in
clerks’ hands or invisibly through elec-

tronic networks in exchanges that con-|:

tinue for years, unnoticed by the public.

This public. watches as-another death
Hd a pewinpe Si uae _ iets me a
Continued on, Page A10, Colurin 1

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Photographs by William R. Sallaz for New York Times


_SAN FRANCISCO

‘Resentencing Sought in Murder Case —

The lawyer for a Montana man, condemned to death for the 1974 torture murder of
a schoolteacher, told a federal appeals court Tuesday that the case was tainted by a
private meeting between the judge and prosecutor before sentencing.

Although both participants in the meeting are now dead and their conversation
was unrecorded, the possibility that the discussion influenced the judge warrants a
new: sentencing for Duncan McKenzie Jr., his lawyer told the Ninth Circuit U.S.
Court of Appeals.

“We’re not supposed to have advocates meeting with sentencers in capital cas-
es,” attorney Timothy Ford told a three-judge panel. “The party that has the knowl-
edge [of the meeting] should have the burden” of proving what happened, he said.

But Assistant Attorney General Paul Johnson urged the court to uphold a federal

judge’s ruling that nothing in the off-the-record conversation could have influenced .
the sentence by Cascade County District Judge R.J. Nelson.
- Because a state judge’s decisions are presumed to be valid, Johnson said, “the de-
fendant has to be able to demonstrate that the nature of the information passed to
the judge was information . . . that could have affected the judge’s sentencing deci-
sion.” ;

McKenzie was convicted of murder and aggravated kidnapping in the death of
Lana Harding, 23, whose partly clad body was found in January 1974 a few miles
from the teachers’ quarters where she lived near the town of Conrad. McKenzie,
then 21, worked at a nearby seed company. |

Associated Press

p-6
1994

"The Recorder"
San Francisco CA
Wednesday, March 2,


Clemency

n January 21, 1974, Lana Harding, a

rural schoolteacher in Pondera Coun-

ty, had her whole life ahead of her.

Just 23 years old, unmarried, she

could anticipate the fulfillments of
family, career, and service. But before the day
ended, Duncan McKenzie stole it all.

On January 23, her half-naked body was found
draped over a grain drill in a wintry field. The
body told a terrible story. She had been raped,
beaten, dragged, and strangled. Her misery had
ended only when massive blows from a manifold
laid open her head. Duncan McKenzie did these
things in a killing the trial court described as
“brutal, conscienceless ... and deliberate.’

EVERYTHING IN US recoils from this scene.
We avert our eyes from the ghastly evidence,
shiver in the chilling presence of evil, and feel
something, pounding through our veins. We think
it’s a yearning for justice, but it isn’t. It’s an im-
pulse as old as Cain and as near as Duncan
McKenzie, the impulse to exert power over an-
other completely and irrevocably. We want to
kill this man.

So, finally, on May 10, we will. It will be less
brutal, surely, than his killing of Lana Harding,
but even more deliberate. And equally conscien-
celess.

WE SAY WE MUST do this thing to deter
other atrocities, but in conscience, we know bet-
ter. As Justice Brennan noted, to believe in
deterrence, you have to believe that brutal mur-
derers like Duncan McKenzie will kill when life
in prison is the penalty, but will restrain them-
selves when their own deaths would result. Such
reasoned calculations belie the nature of mur-
der, particularly those murders that incite our
own murderous impulses. Invariably, they are
irrational, rage-driven, and stupidly executed.

Even if murderers were always rational and

PASO

OR

MARY
SHEEHY
MOE

smart, a deterring punishment must come swift-
ly and surely, to all and to any who commit the
crime. We prefer to be selective. Robert
McNamara deliberately sends 50,000 Americans
to brutal deaths, and we don’t even call it mur-
der. But the battered body in the farmer’s field
makes us howl for Duncan McKenzie’s life. And
because our notions of justice require us to con-
sider mitigating factors and the possibility of
error, the death penalty takes years — decades
— to execute. No deterrence here.

JUSTICE, THEN, we say. But in conscience,
this is only vengeance. We can’t fulfill the prom-
ise that was Lana Harding in 1974, but we can
make Duncan McKenzie pay. And, oh, how we
want to ... enough to embrace the hypocrisy that
killing is wrong, but killing killers is right ...
enough to drop the hard-won understanding that
a greater power than ours creates life and only
that power should destroy it.

We’re dying to kill Duncan McKenzie, but we
can’t. We don’t have the moral certainty that
justice requires. From the moment Lana Hard-
ing’s body was found, this case has been political
dynamite. How the pressure has affected all the
elected officials meting out justice to McKenzie
over a 21-year period is impossible to gauge, but
it would be naive to believe it’s had no effect.

for McKenzie?

MARY SHEEHY MOE is a teacher at the Hel-
ena College of Technology and writes occa-
sional columns for the IR.

The sabotaged plea bargain agreement, the odd
jury instructions, the dissents in every Montana
appeal ... a study of the record doesn’t lead to
moral certainty. It leads to doubt.

AND EVEN WITH MORAL certainty, we can’t
jump the final hurdle: the satisfaction of killing
Duncan McKenzie is not worth becoming what
he is. It isn’t worth forfeiting the crucial thing
that separates us from him: we don’t give in to
the impulse to kill.

That Marc Racicot, the pro-death prosecutor
and pro-life Catholic, will ultimately decide
McKenzie’s fate presents a denouement worthy
of Shakespeare. So far, the prosecutor seems to
be prevailing. Racicot has asserted that this is
not a religious issue; he must uphold the law.
But to grant clemency is to uphold the law.

It is a telling inconsistency that clemency is
built into a system so carefully crafted to
produce collective judgments, impartially
reached. Every other aspect of jurisprudence re-
flects a suspicion of the individual’s susceptibil-
ity to bias, emotion, and personal conviction. Yet
when life hangs in the balance, the law allows a
condemned man to approach an elected one with
a final request ... for clemency. And the elected
man may grant it for whatever reason he deems
fit.

CLEMENCY TAKES THE governor to that
lonely place where law, religion, and experience
intersect: his own conscience. There, with the
public howling outside, the tough prosecutor,
canny politician, and devout member of a merci-
ful faith must wrestle over what value to place
on human life. May the best man win

Convicted killer set
for execution May 10

GREAT FALLS (AP) — Convict
ed murderer Duncan Peder
McKenzie Jr., who has spent two
decades on death row, was sea-
tenced to die by lethal injection on
May 10.

McKenzie was convicted in 1975
of the rape and kidnapping of Con-
rad-area school teacher Lana Hard-
ing a year earlier.

“This case has gone on for 2:
years and all cases should have clo
sure,” District Judge Thomas
McKittrick said Monday after he
set the execution date. “This is the
beginning of closure in the case of
Montana versus Duncan Peder
McKenzie. May God have mercy
on your soul.”

Appeals have delayed McKeo-
zie’s execution eight times. The
last execution in Montanz was in
September 1943.

McKenzie chose to die by lethal
injection after Judge McKittrick re-
fused several motions by defense

attorneys to block setting the date,
including one that said the 265-
pound convict weighs so much that
he would be decapitated if he were

hanged.

A notice of appeal was filed io
the Cascade County Clerk of
Court's office by McKenzie’s
lawyers shortly after the hearing.

McKenzie, 41, has had his ap-
peals rejected twice by the U.S.
Supreme Court.

“This is the first time an actual
date has been set since 1982 and
the state of Montana is very happy
the court has set an-execution
date,” said assistant atlomey gener-
al Pamela Collins. “I will do all that
is possible to see that the execu-
tion is upheld.”

John McKenzie of Flathead
County, a half-brother to the death-
row inmate, disputed the death
sentence. “This never should have
happened," he said. “All of these
things are cruel and wousual.”

-Duncan Peder McKenzie Jr., left, is escorted Monday to the Cas-

AP

cade County Courthouse in Great Falls where he was sentenced

to be executed May 10.

But Thelma Bartz of Helena, an
aunt fo Lana Harding, said “It’s
time that it happened. His victims
did not have a choice and it was
cruel and unusual and it is time he
paid for his crimes.”

Bozenan Cmonrawa)
DAicy CHRONICLE

TUESDAY, MARCH 28, '99S

The victim’s moter Ethel Hard-
ing, a state senator from Lake
County, was unable to attend the
hearing. The Senate is considering
the state budget and attendance is
mandatory, Bartz said.

McKenzie
turns to

9th Circui?

up - 2S “GS
From The Associated Press Rr

Condemned murderer Duncan Peder McKenzie Jr.

- is seeking review of his case by the 9th U.S. Circuit

Court of Appeals in hopes of blocking his scheduled
May 10 execution, making it the third appeals court
he has turned to in less than two weeks.

The Montana attorney general’s office on Monday
released a notice from McKenzie’s lawyer of his in-
tent to appeal to the 9th Circuit and his request to a
federal district judge for clearance to proceed.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Leland C. Niei-
sen of San Diego, Calif., took only a single day's
deliberation to reject McKenzie’s latest appeai. The
judge called McKenzie’s appeal ‘‘meritless as a suc-
cessive and repetitive petition. ...

‘Therefore, on the court’s own motion, the said
petition is denied, the petition dismissed and the re-
quest for stay of execution is denied,’’ said Nielsen.
who was appointed in January after Montana’s fed-
eral judges removed themselves from the case.

ON FRIDAY, DEFENSE ATTORNEY Timothy
Ford asked for legal permission — called a certifi-
cate of probable cause — to take that issue to the 9th
Circuit.

Ford argued Nielsen was wrong to reject
McKenzie’s appeal ‘without findings, without a re-
sponse, without a review of the record and without
an opportunity for briefing or argument.”

Montana Attorney General Joe Mazurek said last
week he expected Ford to take the case to the 9th
Circuit Court, and promised the state will seek a
prompt dismissal of it there.

McKENZIE, 43, WAS SENTENCED to die for the
1974 kidnapping and torture murder of Conrad-area
school teacher Lana Harding, 23. Appeals in state
and federal courts have delayed his execution for
two decades.

McKenzie’s appeal argues that the setting of the
May 10 execution date last month and the execution
itself violate the U.S. Constitution. In both instances,
the appeal says, the state has applied laws to
McKenzie that were passed after his conviction and
sentencing 20 years ago,

The appeal also contends the execution would be
cruel and unusual punishment because McKenzie al-
ready has been locked up and awaiting execution
longer than any other condemned person in the coun-
try.

The same arguments were raised before the Mon-
tana Supreme Court earlier this month, and the jus-
tices unanimously rejected them April 11.

McKenzie
suspected

of killing
Idaho girl

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) —
Paul Prety may never know who
killed his sister nearly 22 years ago.

The only suspect in the Slaying of
15-year-old Debra Prety was exe-
cuted early Wednesday at the Mon-
tana State Prison.

As his execution approached,
Duncan McKenzie Jr. had not admit.
ted to the crime for which he was
sentenced to die — the 1974 aggra-
vated kidnapping and torture mur-
der of a rural Montana school-
teacher — let alone an unsolved
murder in the northern Idaho town
where he once lived.

“We've been trying to talk to Mr.
McKenzie for about 20 years,”
Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Dave
Scates said Tuesday.

Debra Prety was raped and stran-
gled Oct. 26, 1973, probably while
she was walking home from a junior
high school dance. Her body was
found in aneighbor’s yard,

Scates said McKenzie lived in Pre-
ty’s neighborhood until a few days
before the Coeur d’Alene killing. But
while the two murders were Similar,
the police chief said investigators
were unable to obtain enough evi-
dence to charge McKenzie,

Detectives from Coeur d’Alene,
attending a crime conference in
Missoula this week, were prepared
to travel to the state penitentiary in
Deer Lodge to talk to McKenzie.

But Scates said the department
did not want to delay the execution.

“If he wanted to talk to us he has
had ample time,” Scates said.

Paul Prety, who now lives in
northern Kootenai County, said he
also did not want to delay the execu-
tion over questions about his sister.

“It would be perfect if he con-
fessed and then was executed,” Pre-
ty said. “I'd like to see him Say yes
he did it and that would be a final
ending. If he doesn’t Say anything or
just denies it, we're in the same
Position as we are now,”

GREAT Frees
TRIBUNE
THURS. S-+1K9S


McKENZIE, Duncan, Jre, white, LI MTSP (Pondera) May 10, 1995.

Music Accompanies Execution
AP 10 May 95 18:04 EDT V0131
Copyright 1995 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The information contained in this news report may not be published,
broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority
of the Associated Press.

DEER LODGE, Mont. (AP) -- The first convict executed in Montana
since 1943 went to his death in Marlboro Country fashion Wednesday,
having a steak for his final meal and listening to country music as he
received the lethal injection. ©

Duncan McKenzie Jr. wore headphones that sent barely audible’ Marty
Robbins songs drifting through the otherwise silent death chamber.

McKenzie was 22 years old when he was convicted of the 1974
kidnapping and murder of Lana Harding, a teacher in a one-room school
near Conrad in Montana’s wheat country. Prosecutors said he raped,
choked the 23-year-old woman and bashed in her head after boasting he
would fave sex with a teacher in an old truck he just bought.

His lengthy appeals ended late Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court
refased to grant a stay of execution. Gov. Marc Racicot refused
clemency after listening to McKenzie deny his guilt on Monday.

Ethel Harding, the victim's mother, said she was was relieved and
she felt better that McKenzie was dead. "It had to happen,” she said.
Corrections officials decribed McKenzie as cooperative and even
jovial as the execution neared. They said he seemed resigned to his
fate. Officials granted one of his last requests, to be allowed to

listen to a cassette tape during his execution.

weKenzie ate a last meal Tuesday of steak, french fries, salad, milk
and orange sherbert.

At 12:06 a.m., Corrections Director Rick Day asked McKenzie if he
hac any last words. McKenzie shook his head "no.” A minute later,
Mctenzie snored six times as a sedative that preceded the lethal drugs
tok effect. He issued a last deep gutteral sound and his breathing
appeared to stop within another minute, but a doctor did not pronounce
rim dead until 12:22 a.m.

McKenzie's lawyer had said no prisoner in the United States had
remained on death row for as long, and that 20 years of waiting for an
execution was cruel and unusual punishment. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals rejecting that argument as the basis for a stay of
execution. ;

Despite Montana’s legendary swift frontier justice, the state had
not executed a prisoner since a 1943 hanging.

McKenzie was the 20th person executed in the United States this

year, and the 277th since the 1976 Supreme Court decision allowing
states to resume capital punishment.


A long road
to the death

chamber

By The Associated Press

Major events in the case of Duncan
McKenzie:
1974
Jan. 21 — Schoolteacher Lana Hard-
ing, 23, is last seen in Conrad about 5

.m.
. Jan. 22 — Harding fails to show up
at Pioneer School, 13 miles from Con-
rad, where she teaches. McKenzie is:
arrested after evidence indicates
Harding had been attacked and
McKenzie was involved. ;

Jan. 23 — Harding's body is found in
a snowy field. She had been beaten,
choked and raped. ;

Jan. 24 — McKenzie is charged with
murder.

Dec. 3 — Trial is moved from Pon-
dera County to Great Falls.

Dec. 17 — McKenzie refuses to enter
pleas; court enters innocent pleas for |
him.

1975 A

Jan. 8 — Trial begins before District
Judge R.J. Nelson. ;

Jan. 31 — Jury begins deliberations.

Feb. 1 — McKenzie is convicted of
aggravated kidnapping and murder by
torture.

March 3 — McKenzie is sentenced

to die by hanging April 30. The execu- |

tion is postponed pending automatic
appeal. ;

. 1976

Nov. 12 — Montana Supreme Court
upholds McKenzie’s conviction and
sentence.

1977 ‘

June 27 — U.S. Supreme Court over-
turns state court and orders reconsid-
eration.

1978

June 7 — Montana Supreme Court
again upholds McKenzie’s conviction
and sentence.

Oct. 23 — McKenzie appeals a sec-
ond time to the U.S. Supreme Court.

1979

June 25 — U.S. Supreme Court
again overturns the state court and
orders reconsideration on other is-
sues.

1980

Feb. 26 — Montana Supreme Court
upholds McKenzie’s conviction and
sentence for third time. :

July 26 — McKenzie appeals a third
time to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Dec. 8 — U.S. Supreme Court denies
the appeal.

1981 :

Jan. 5 — McKenzie contests convic-
tion through habeous corpus proceed-
ing in state District Court. ;

March | — District Court rejects his
claims.

Oct. 29 — Montana Supreme Court
upholds the lower court. 7

Dec. 23 — McKenzie files petition
with U.S. District Court in Great Falls.

1982

Jan. 5 — U.S. District Judge James
Battin issues stay of Jan. 22 scheduled
execution. :

1985

Feb. 6 — McKenzie files appeal of
habeas corpus decision with the Mon-
tana Supreme Court.

April 16 — Montana Supreme Court
denies appeal.

June 27 — McKenzie files second
petition in U.S. District Court at Great
Falls.

Aug. 16 — U.S. District Court rejects

wr? eee PS ae OY OY ee

Pe AI ela Oe RE: ee OE eM Te Pee! ith. ean Same Saco, ©

1986
Oct. 86 — Three-judge panel of 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds
lower court.
1987
March 3 — U.S. District Court re-
jects McKenzie’s 1985 appeal.
1988
March 10 — Circuit Court rejects

McKenzie appeal from 1981 U.S. Dis-

trict Court ruling.

Aug. 8 — McKenzie files fourth

appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.

Oct. 11 — U.S. Supreme Court re-
jects the appeal.

1990

Oct. 9 — Circuit Court reverses Dis-
trict Court’s rejection of 1985 petition
and orders hearing.

P 1992

Dec. 21 — U.S. District Court again
denies McKenzie's 1985 petition.

: 1994

June 24 — Three-member Circuit
Court panel affirms ruling on 1985
petition; McKenzie requests hearing
before the full court.

Oct. 7 — Circuit Court refuses the
request.

Nov. 18 — McKenzie appeals that
_decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

1995

Jan. 17 — U.S. Supreme Court re-
fuses to consider the appeal.

Feb. 23 — U.S. District Judge Leland
Nielsen of San Diego, Calif., lifts Stay
of execution.

March 20 — U.S. Supreme Court
denies McKenzie's request for a re-
hearing.

March 27 — New execution date of
May 10 set.

April 4 — McKenzie appeals Setting
of new execution date to the Montana
Supreme Court.

April 11 — Montana Supreme Court
dismisses McKenzie’s appeal.

April 18 — McKenzie appeals dis-
missal to Nielsen.

April 20 — Nielsen rejects appeal.

April 21 — McKenzie appeals to the
Circuit Court and asks a federal mag-
istrate in Missoula to block execution
So McKenzie can testify in lawsuits
over 1991 prison riot.

April 25 — Circuit Court agrees to
consider appeal of Nielsen's dismissal.

April 27 — Federal Magistrate Bart
Erickson refuses to Postpone execu-
tion; decision is appealed to U.S. Dis-
trict Judge Charles Lovell of Helena.

April 28 — McKenzie asks Gov.
Marc Racicot for clemency and asks
Circuit Court to postpone execution
while his appeal of Nielsen's dismissal
proceeds.

May 1 — Lovell refuses to halt
execution because of riot suits. Clem-
ency hearing set for May 6.

May 3 — Lovell rejects a request to
halt the execution so McKenzie can
testify in possible new trial involving
another death-row inmate.

May 4 — McKenzie asks governor to
delay execution until May 28 to allow
more time for clemency request to be
considered.

May 5 — Governor refuses to delay
execution.

May 6 — Board of Pardons unani-
mously recommends no clemency and
Circuit Court rejects two of three re-
quests to block the execution.

May 8 — Governor meets with
McKenzie before acting on clemency
request.

May 9 — Governor denies clemency.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
and the U.S. Supreme Court both
refuse to block the execution.

May 10 — McKenzie is executed by
lethal injection. He is Pronounced
dead at 12:22 a.m.

Killer shows no remorse, ‘nothing’

Montana carries out Ist execution in 52 years in teacher’s death

By Dan Malone

Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News

Duncan Peder McKenzie Jr.
showed “no remorse, no nothing”
when he was executed early
Wednesday morning for killing a

_ g young teacher 21

{ years ago in ru-

ral Montana, a
witness said.

Mr. McKen-
zie, who listened
through = ear-
phones to a re-
cording by coun-

try singer Marty
Duncan McKenzie Jr. Robbins as he re-
ceived a lethal injection, was the
first person to be executed in Mon-
tana in 52 years. His appeal, which
made its way to the US. Supreme
Court five times, was one of the
longest in American history.

Thelma Bartz, the aunt of victim
Lana Harding, was among the 12
people who witnessed the execu-
tion inside a refurbished mobile
home at the Montana State Prison
in Deer Lodge.

“I was one of the ones who ID’d
her body,” Mrs. Bartz said. “I have
to have some closure. I wanted to
make sure that this monster was
taken care of.”

She said the 43-year-old convict
was wearing sunglasses and listen-
ing to music during the execution.
When asked whether he had any
last words, Mr. McKenzie simply
“shook his head. No remorse. No
nothing,” she said.

Ms. Harding, who a year earlier
had graduated from Northwest Naz-
arene College with a degree in ele-
mentary education, on Jan. 21, 1974,
was abducted, raped and beaten on
the head to the point of mutilation.
Her family remembers her as a de-
vout, forgiving young woman dedi-
cated to teaching.

“If he (Mr. McKenzie) were to
make it to heaven, Lana would be
the first person to welcome him,”

DALLAS

said Ms. Harding’s cousin, Connie
Adams of Plano. “That’s just the way
she was raised, and that’s where
her faith was.”

In an interview nine days before
his execution, Mr. McKenzie said he
planned to make no final statement.

“I don’t think I’m going to say
anything,” he said. “Nobody said
life is fair. It’s all been said. Nobody
listened.”

For his last meal, a prison offi-
cial said the 265-pound condemned
inmate ordered a_ tenderloin,
french fries, a half-gallon of orange
sherbet and a half-gallon of whole
milk.

Mr. McKenzie contended that he
was innocent of the crime. Asked
whether he thought execution was
fitting for Ms. Harding’s killer, he
responded, “if they have absolutely
concrete evidence — not a doubt in
anybody’s mind — yes.”

MORNING NewS

WHures-

5-1{-9s

6A — Great Falls Tribune
Wednesday, May 10, 1995

on the
gallows

The last person 3
put to death in
Montana was_.
Philip Coleman,
hanged Sept.

10, 1943, for
. Murdering a

railroad fore- :
‘manwhohad % 49

P

hired him days “ais
earlier. Seven more con-

. victs await execution in
Montana.

Since the U.S. Supreme
Court allowed capital pun-
ishment to resume in

1976, 276 people have
been executed in other
States.

LT PR Ermer eReregmmmerremrme er re

®
Racicot:

@
decisio
‘agonizing’

HELENA (AP) — Gov. Marc
Racicot said Tuesday the task of
deciding whether to spare the life
of convicted killer Duncan
McKenzie Jr. was the most diffi-
cult thing he has ever done.

“My decision is the product of
the most agonizing and searing
analysis and self-examination |

: have person-
H ally and pro-
| fessionally
.J confronted,”’
J he. said in an-
nouncing his
refusal to
grant
McKenzie
clemency.

Racicot,
who was attor-
ney general for four years before
becoming governor in 1993, said
he reviewed all records of the
case and information about
McKenzie’s life inside and outside
of prison.

He said he found no justifica-
tion for commuting the death sen-
tence to life in prison without
parole.

The issue was not whether
Montana should have a death
penalty, Racicot said, and he dis-
missed arguments of capital pun-

ishment foes that executions de-
grade the value of life.

“There is no deprivation of hu-
man dignity when a criminal is
rightfully convicted and pun-
ished,” he said in a letter to
McKenzie’s lawyers. “It is a dem-
onstration that we haven’t lost
confidence in our understanding
of right and wrong. ....”

Racicot said enforcing criminal
laws, including the death penalty,
promotes respect for the innocent
lives of others. “And every crime
that goes unpunished in accor-
dance with the law, takes away
from the safety and security of
every other person’s life.”

Racicot

McKenzie’s
last meal

steak, fries

The Associated Press

DEER LODGE — Duncan
McKenzie requested a tenderloin
steak, french fries, a tossed salad,
orange sherbet and whole milk
for his last meal at about 7:30 p.m.

Linda Moodry, prison spokes-
woman,

said McKenzie’s
day began
with a_ two-
hour visit with
his step-
mother and
son. A_ glass
window sepa-
rated him
from them for
f m@ most of the
, visit, but they
Moodry were allowed
to hug each other at the end,
Moodry said.

McKenzie ate lunch about 11
a.m. He had the same meal as
other maximum-security inmates:
chili, shredded chedder cheese,
saltine crackers, hard roll, butter,
an orange, two sugar cookies, a
Coke and milk.

He spent the afternoon with his
lawyers, Ron Waterman and Greg
Jackson of Helena and Michelle
O’Neill, a paralegal for attorney
Tim Ford of Seattle. Ford has
handled McKenzie’s appeals for
the last 18 years.

“He was kind of quiet and sub-
dued”’ throughout the day, said
Moodry. “He has been very coop-
erative and polite with staff. He
was joking and talking with them
freely.” ;


Appeals court ruling expected. today

The Associated Press

PASADENA, Calif. — A Montana
man on death row for 20 years,
longer than anyone else in the na-
tion, shouldn’t be executed because
the lengthy wait amounts to cruel
and unusual punishment, his lawyer
told an appeals court.

Duncan Peder McKenzie, 43, is
scheduled for execution Wed-
nesday, his eighth date with death
on his odyssey through the appeals
process.

Attorney Timothy K. Ford asked
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Saturday to issue a stay of execution
pending further hearings or void the
death penalty and order McKenzie
resentenced.

A decision by the three-judge
panel is expected today.

McKenzie was sentenced to death
after being convicted in March 1975
of the torture-murder of rural Pon-
dera County schoolteacher Lana

‘You can cause cruel and unusual punishment
without setting out to do it.”’
— McKenzie’s attorney Timothy K. Ford

Harding. Harding’s battered bat-
tered body was found in January
1974, in a field near the seed com-
pany where McKenzie worked.

Ford contended that 14 years of
McKenzie’s wait stems from “state
actions and errors.” He presented
the judges with a chart allocating
responsibility for various segments
of the delay.

“This case is completely beyond
the pale,” Ford said, contending his
client’s rights were violated. ‘You
can cause cruel and unusual punish-
ment without setting out to do it.””

Montana Assistant Attorney Gen-
eral Pamela Collins urged rejection

of both arguments, noting McKen-
zie’s claim could have been raised
much earlier.

“McKenzie could have raised his
claim of unconstitutional delay
nearly 10 years ago,” Collins said.
“But he chose not to raise the claim
at that time. ... To encourage such
obvious manipulation would serve
to undermine the integrity of the
state criminal justice system.”

Ford said he raised the issue
shortly after U.S. Supreme Court
Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a
memorandum March 27 that basi-
cally invited lawyers to challenge
the constitutionality of lengthy stays

awaiting execution.

Ford and Collins sparred with the
judges and, at one point, Judge Alex
Kozinski suggested he and his col-
leagues — as well as the lawyers —
are looking for “tea leaves” to assist
them.

Kozinski and his colleagues —
Judges Robert Beezer of Seattle and
William Norris of Los Angeles —
asked tough questions of both law-
yers.

“You are seeking a stay of execu-
tion,” Beezer said to Ford. “If we
issue a stay, we'll be part of the cruel
and unusual punishment you say is
being inflicted on the prisoner.”

If that argument is accepted,
Kozinski said, it ‘“‘would drastically
affect the calculus in every death
row case. ... Every time you granted
a stay, you would have to weigh the
possibility that by granting a stay
you would be inflicting cruel and
unusual punishment.”

Vigil: Catholic church opposes death penalty

FROM 1A

which opposes capital punishment.
Similar vigils also were planned in
Havre, Lame Deer, Helena, Dutton,
Missoula, Butte, and at the Montana
State Prison in Deer Lodge.

McKenzie, 43, is scheduled to die
by. lethal injection Wednesday for
the 1975 kidnapping and torture
murder of Conrad-area_ school
teacher Lana Harding. The last
state-sanctioned execution in Mon-
tana was in Missoula in 1943.

About 40 people attended the vigil
held at St. Ann’s Cathedral in Great
Falls. They then walked to the
nearby Cascade County Courthouse.

“The problem of violence cannot
be solved with more violence,” The
Most Rev. William Hogan said. ‘‘We
are to forgive. We are to love.”

Montana Catholic bishops Antho-
ny Milone and Alex Brunett outlined
their opposition to capital punish-
ment in a recent press release.

They said they oppose it “because
we do not believe that violence can

be a solution to violence, or that
killing can be an effective means of
demonstrating that killing is
wrong.” Society has effective non-
violent means to protect people
from heinous criminals like long-
prison terms or life sentences,
which leave open possibilities for
reform or rehabilitation, they said.

The death penalty has not been
shown to be an effective deterrent
against crime, they said, adding that
“we believe that every human per-
son, including the capital offender,

is made in the image of God and
thus possesses an inherent dignity
which deserves our respect.”

In an interview before the vigil in
Great Falls, Hogan said the church
has a centuries-old policy of opposi-
tion to capital punishment. He said
he sympathizes with the families
and victims of violent crime.

“There is no easy answer,” he
said. “But I hope we do find one that
is non-violent.”

Great Falis, Montana -:

0.363— 110th ‘Year:

McKenzie dies at 12:22

Appeals run out for
Conrad woman’s killer

By BOB ANEZ
Associated Press Writer

DEER LODGE — Duncan McKen-
zie Jr., convicted 20 years ago in the
torture-murder of a rural Montana
schoolteacher, was executed by lethal
injection early Wednesday at the
Montana State Prison.

McKenzie'’s long string of appeals
ran out when the U.S. Supreme Court
refused to grant a stay of execution
Tuesday night. The 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals had refused a stay
earlier Tuesday, and Gov. Marc
Racicot refused clemency.

McKenzie was pronounced dead at
12:22 a.m. MDT.

It was the first execution in Mon-
tana since 1943, but the 20th in the
United States this year. There have

now been 277 people executed since
the Supreme Court allowed execu-
tions to resume in 1976.

Andrew Malcolm, the governor’s
communications director, described
McKenzie as “totally cooperative
through the evening” as the execu-
tion approached.

He was taken to a holding cell at 9
p.m., and then to the execution cham-
ber at 11:40 p.m., Malcolm said.

At 12:02 a.m., the execution wit-
nesses began entering the chamber
adjoining the maximum security unit.
By 12:06 a.m., all witnesses were
seated and Corrections Director Rick
Day asked McKenzie if he had any
” words. McKenzie shook his head

a 12:07, Day called to the execu-
tioner: “It’s time to execute the order

: AP photo
Duncan Peder McKenzie Jr.,
who died by lethal injection
early this morning, never admit-
ted guilt in the murder of Lana
Harding 21 years ago.

of the court. Please proceed.”

After a minute, McKenzie began to
snore from the sedative that preceded

the lethal drugs, Malcolm said. At
12:17, a doctor checked his pulse, but
made no pronouncement. Five min-
utes later, his pulse was checked
again and the doctor announced: “I
pronounce him dead.”

The execution followed word from
the U.S. Supreme Court at 11:07 p.m.
that it was refusing McKenzie’s ap-
peal. The first sentence of the 42-
word order read:

“The application for stay of execu-
tion of sentence of death presented to
Justice (Sandra Day) O’Connor and
by her referred to the court is de-
nied.” Justice John Paul Stevens was
the only justice listed as favoring a
stay.

McKenzie’s lawyer had asked the
court to delay McKenzie’s execution
pending appeal of the 9th Circuit
decision rejecting McKenzie’s argu-
ment that his 20 years on death row
made his execution cruel ang unusual
punishment.

The 9th Circuit decision, on an 8-3
vote, cited a 1990 decision rejecting
an Arizona prisoner’s claim of cruel
and unusual punishment due to a
lengthy incarceration on death row,

the same grounds raised by McKen-
zie.

In his 20 years of fighting his death
sentence, McKenzie managed to
evade eight execution dates, but had
never come this close before.

McKenzie was sentenced to die for
the 1974 aggravated kidnapping and
torture murder of Harding, the
teacher in a one-room rural school
near the town of Conrad in Montana’s
wheat country.

A series of appeals in state and
federal courts have kept McKenzie
alive for two decades. He denied kill-
ing Harding. :

Montana’s last execution was a

hanging 52 years ago.

The governor's office said Tuesday
telephone calls were overwhelmingly
in favor of the execution, reflecting a
recent poll showing that almost eight
of 10 Montanans support the death

The 12 witnesses to the execution
were to include four members of the
Harding family, two people chosen by
McKenzie, five reporters and the
sheriff who arrested McKenzie 21
years ago.

Prosecutors take the news of his death in stride

By MICHAEL W. BABCOCK
Tribune Staff Writer

HELENA — Bittersweet satisfac-
tion settled in at the Montana De-
partment of Justice early today.

A direct-line telephone call from
the Montana State Prison announc-
ing that Duncan Peder McKenzie Jr.
was dead came through at 22 min-
utes after midnight.

“I would offer this long and pain-
ful ordeal is finally over,” said At-
torney General Joe Mazurek.

“At long last justice has prevailed.
But there is no joy in death. I am

relieved that the suffering of the
families of Lana Harding and Robe-
tta Stiffarm is over with.”

With the announcement that
McKenzie was dead, more than two
decades of legal battles came to a
close.

“It is difficult to think of this as a
victory,” said Mazurek.

“None of us is in the mood to
celebrate,” said Chris Tweeten, a
deputy attorney general. “But re-
gardless of how people in Montana
feel about the death penalty, they
ought to be proud of the work that
has been done.”

Tweeten is one of 14 attorneys
who have worked on the case since
McKenzie’s appeals began 20 years
ago.

Pamela Collins, the lead attorney
on the case, said, “I came in on this
at the end. The attorneys who have
worked on this case have been suc-
cessful throughout.”

Betsy Griffing, another deputy at-
torney, who worked with Collins
said, “This is our job. We are going
to continue tomorrow prosecuting
other death-penalty cases.”

Word from U.S. Supreme Court
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor that

the high court had denied McKen-
zie’s latest appeals came in a tele-
phone call to Cgllins. Then a three-
sentence order was received by the
attorney general’s office by fax.

The order said, “The application
for stay of execution of sentence of
death presented to Justice O'Connor
and by her referred to the Court is
denied. The petition for a writ of
certiorari is denied.

“Justice Stevens would grant the
application for stay of execution.”

It was Justice John Paul Stevens
who the same day that McKenzie
was given his latest execution date

said in a memo that the issue of
cruel and unusual punishment de-
served another look for inmates who
have been on death row for a long
time.

Mazurek first called Gov. Marc
Racicot, who was in his office at the
Capitol, when news from the Su-
preme Court was received.

“We visited about how quickly,
when there is a deadline, matters
come together,” Mazurek said. “We
are both impressed with the serious-
ness of this. We take our job very
seriously. The responsibility was
awesome.”

Inside:

b> Pupil of victim: “She
was the neatest thing
this little farm boy
had ever seen” / 6A

> The last meal:
Tenderloin steak and
fries / 6A

P Racicot: Decision
was most difficult of
his life / 6A

> Protesters gather for
candlelight vigil near
prison / 6A

> State lawyers at work
in Helena to last
minute / 6A

+

Reckoning
day here for
McKenzie?

Actions today
could resolve
fate of killer

The Associated Press

HELENA — Key decisions ex-
pected to be announced today could
determine whether Duncan Peder
McKenzie will be executed as sched-
uled this week.

Gov. Marc Racicot will probably
announce whether he will commute
McKenzie’s death sentence to life
imprisonment. The state Board of
Pardons unanimously recommends
against such a move, and previous
statements by Racicot suggest little
sympathy for sparing the con-
demned man.

In California, meanwhile, a fed-
eral court is expected to decide legal
issues raised by McKenzie.

McKenzie is scheduled to die by
lethal injection early Wednesday
morning at the state prison in Deer
Lodge for the 1975 kidnapping and
torture murder of Lana Harding, a
Conrad-area teacher. He has
avoided eight scheduled executions
over the past 20 years.

A clearer picture of the personal
life of the condemned man emerged
amid the arguments over life and
death at a clemency hearing Sat-
urday.

McKenzie provided the Board of
Pardons with details of a childhood
marked by a broken family and a
father so involved in the rodeo cir-
cuit he had little time for his teen-
age son.

Handcuffed and in leg chains, the
43-year-old McKenzie sat on a chair
and told the story of his life to the
board in an unemotional monotone.

He was born in Chicago and the
family lived there 11 years until his
parents got a divorce. McKenzie
then moved to Reno, Nev., to live

AP Photo

Duncan McKenzie appears
before the state Board of Par-
dons Saturday.

@ TIMETABLE: Duncan
McKenzie is scheduled to die
by lethal injection early
Wednesday.

Mi COURTS: McKenzie has
appeals making their way
through federal courts, with
decisions expected today.
Maneuvering could easily
proceed on Tuesday as well,
since any rulings are expected
to be appealed to the U.S.
Supreme Court.

M@ CLEMENCY: Gov. Marc
Racicot has the power to
commute McKenzie’s death
sentence to life imprisonment.
While Racicot could act at any
time up to the moment of
execution, his decision is also
expected today.

with his father.

McKenzie lived a nomadic life
with his father, following rodeos
and seldom spending more than a
year in one place.

Sometimes his father would leave
in the middle of the night without
warning and his son would wonder
what he had done to drive his father
away. He learned later his father
was restless and when the city be-
gan to close in on him he had to get
out, McKenzie said.

He described his father as a “jack
of all trades” who liked to party
after the rodeos.

“He tried to find time for me as
much as he could,” McKenzie said.
“He worked long hours and it wasn’t
easy for him to find time for me. Dad
and I loved each other a lot.”

He said his father was “quick to
judge.” When someone complained
his son had been in a fight, the elder
McKenzie spanked his boy without
asking whether the accusation was
true.

Living in Chinook, McKenzie left
home and dropped out of ninth
grade at age 16.

40 attend vigil
for McKenzie

By MARK DOWNEY
Tribune Staff Writer

Less than three days before the
scheduled execution of convicted
killer Duncan McKenzie, candles
were lit Sunday evening for each of
Montana’s eight death row inmates
at a vigil for life in Great Falls.

A purple candle was lit for
McKenzie.

The names of the other death row
inmates were read after candles also
were lit for them — Douglas Turner,
William Gollehon, Lester Killsontop,
Vernon Killsontop, Terry Langford,
David Dawson and Ronald Smith.

The vigil was one of several held
in Montana Sunday. They were
sponsored by the Roman Catholic
Diocese of Great Falls-Billings,

See VIGIL, 6A


By MICHAEL W. BABCOCK
Tribune Staff Writer

Justice Department lawyers, in a
response they plan to file Soon, said
that when McKenzie appealed to the
high court last month, he divested
the district court in Cascade County
of its jurisdic.
tion in the Case
and the high
Court's rejection
Of his appeal
Clears the Way
for his May 10
execution,

It is the ninth
execution date
McKenzie has
been 8iven
Since he was convicted in 1975 of
the aggravated kidnappi

April 4, they filed a Motion with
McKittrick arguing a number of
0ints, including that the judge
loesn’t have Jurisdiction Over the
“ase,

Attorneys for the state Say that
here is ample case Jaw Showing that
McKittrick indeed does have juris.
liction, but that when McKenzie
ippealed to the State Supreme Court
1€ moved Jurisdiction to the higher
>ourt,

When the Supreme Court rejecteg
‘he appeal Tuesday, it said an Opin-
ion would be Coming later. State

rther appeal! of the.
Owed,

——

I see that the newest rounds of appeals
for Duncan McKenzie have begun. This
makes the ninth and 10th time that the
taxpayers of Montana will have to pay a
liberal, bleeding-heart attorney to defend
him against the cruel and unusual
punishment of death by either hanging or
lethal injection.

This round is based on whether it is too
cruel to hang him as he has gained so much
weight while “living” as a house guest at
the Montana State Prison. His attorney
says that it has been rough on him since he

is only let out of his cell for only an houra
day and is not allowed to talk to anyone.
Well, Lana Harding hasn’t been released
from her grave and hasn't talked to anyone
for the last 22 years. What about her rights?
Then there is the appeal on the basis that
a Supreme Court judge is saying that it is
cruel and unusual punishment to execute
someone after so many years in prison. If
the judicial system and attorneys did not
file appeal after appeal, and the courts take
forever'to answer, they wouldn’t be sitting
around waiting for an execution date.

And as far as not carrying out the
execution since they have been “good
boys” while in prison, what else is it for
them to do? I guess they could riot and kill
more people, but since this state hasn't
executed anyone in almost a half acentury,
why worry? For a state that was founded by
vigilantes and swift justice, it most
definitely has swung in the opposite
direction.

When are we going to stop coddling and
protecting the criminal? It is about time
that we start thinking about the victims.
What kind of life could Lana Harding have
had if she was allowed to have that life?

RONALD J. SAVILLE, P.O. Box 1144, Fort
Benton

tai et

Friday, April 21, 1995

McKenzie: Killer
fights for his lite

FROM 1B
added.

Walter Hammermeister, the
former sheriff of Pondera County
who originally investigated Hard-
ing's death, couldn’t agree more.

“I never thought this would take
so long,” he said.

He recalled a conversation he had
when the case was being investi-
gated: “Somebody asked me when I
thought he might be executed. |
said, ‘Oh, it'll probably take a year.’
They said, ‘Oh that long?’”

And the victim's mother, Ethel
Harding, who now lives in Polson, is

_ ready to have the case come to a

close.
“I firmly believe there are certain
cases where capital punishment is

. justified and I think in this case that

it is,” she said.
Thursday’s federal court ruling is

' seen by some as a severe blow to
: McKenzie’s case.

In the past two decades, eight
execution dates have come and gone
— and McKenzie has seen various
appeals fail.

Attorney Bob James, a partner in
James, Gray and McCafferty in
Great Falls who follows capital
cases, said he thinks McKenzie’s
argument of cruel and unusual pun-
ishment would be hard to win with.

“McKenzie certainly is closer now
to execution than he ever has been,”
James said.

Ironically, however, on the same
day McKenzie received his latest
execution date, two U.S. Supreme
Court justices said they have a prob-
lem with capital punishment when
the convicted person has been on
death row a long time.

Their statements dovetail with|
McKenzie’s claim of cruel and un-|
usual punishment. And McKenzie is|
believed to be the inmate with the
longest death-row stint in the coun-
try.

“Four weeks ago if you said ‘this
is his argument,’ I wouldn't have
given him a 1-in-10 chance,” said
Patrick Cotter, a University of Mon-
tana Law School professor of crimi-
nal law, ‘But this week it is closer to
50-50.”

Cotter, who was an assistant U.S.
Attorney in New York City where he
prosecuted organized crime and |
was a one-time public defender, |
stressed that McKenzie’s chances at’
a reprieve may be less than 20 per-
cent.

But he said McKenzie’s may be
the perfect case to test an observa-
tion by U.S. Supreme Court Justices
John Paul Stevens and Steven
Breyer that it may be unconstitu~
tional to execute prisoners who lin-
ger for long periods of time on death
row.

Stevens issued what lawyers call a
dictum on March 27, the day that
McKenzie was given his newest exe-
cution date. Stevens’ remarks came
when the court rejected a Texas
man’s appeal on a similar argument.

“The clear message was an invita-
tion to both lower courts and law-
yers to raise this issue and really
litigate it on both sides,” Cotter said.
“It is a pretty strong message and

There’s more
Montana news on 9A

sounds like invitation.

“The McKenzie case has got to be
an excellent candidate” for such an
appeal, he added.

Jeff Renz, another UM Law
School professor who for 10 years
was legal director of the American
Civil Liberties Union in Montana,
said the argument McKenzie is mak-
ing has been made for years in
England, but it has never been
squarely presented in the United
States.

“If any case squarely presents it, it
is probably McKenzie,” Renz said.
“His is the ideal case, both because
of the duration and because of his
conduct.

“I have met McKenzie and he is
not a risk (to society,)” Renz said.
“In the old prison, McKenzie used to
sweep the walk out front — I mean
the walk on Main Street there in
Deer Lodge. That’s how dangerous
he was.”

Cotter said that when Stevens is-
sued his dictum last month, he was
inviting someone to present a case
worth considering.

But Renz thinks the message
Stevens was sending isn't that
strong: ‘Stevens said it’s a bad thing
but it’s the law and right now we're
going to follow the law.”

If the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
rejects McKenzie’s appeal, Renz
said McKenzie could ask the U.S.
Supreme Court to review the case.
But he guessed that the high court,
which gets thousands of such re-
quests every year, will not hear
McKenzie's appeal right away.

Before Thursday’s rejection, Renz
said if the lower federal court rules
against McKenzie on strictly proce-
dural grounds, citing for example
the fact he has already had three or
four appeals denied, then McKen-
zie’s case is probably lost. He said if
they rule on the merits of the case,
McKenzie may stand a chance.

“But, beyond the issue of cruel
and unusual punishment, there isn't
much left at all,” Renz said.

Renz characterized McKenzie’s
attorney as one of the best capital
lawyers in the nation. He pointed
out that it was Ford who won re-
prieves for death-row inmates Dew-
ey Coleman and Bernard Fitzpatrick
in Montana.

Coleman now is serving 200 years
for the 1974 slaying of Peggy Ha-
rstad of rosebud and Fitzpatrick is
serving a 300-year term for the 1975
shooting death of Hardin grocery-
store owner Monte Dyckman.

Qvestions or news tips? Call City Editor Linda Caricaburu, 791-1491 or 1-800-438-6600.

y

P)

me NG 3  IATONED

McKenzie scrambles for a way out

But the courts
refuse to stay
his execution

By MICHAEL W. BABCOCK
Tribune Staff Writer

After 20 years on death row, Dun-
can Peder McKenzie desperately
searches for a judge to help him win
what may be the final fight of his
life.

A flurry of recent appeals has
failed to halt his execution by lethal
injection, scheduled for May 10 in
Deer Lodge. McKenzie was sen-
tenced to die for the 1974 kidnap
and murder of
young Lana
Harding, a
school teacher
in the tiny farm-
ing community
of Ledger,
northeast of
Conrad.

The most re-
cent appeal,

By Tribune Staff

The court-appointed attorney
from Seattle representing convicted
murderer Duncan McKenzie can
tick off a handful of issues that he
believes should keep McKenzie
from the execution chamber.

The state has passed a number of
laws since McKenzie was originally
sentenced that are now being un-
fairly applied to the death-row in-
mate, Timothy Ford maintains.

“The state said they want rules
passed in 1978, 1983 and 1989 to be
applied to this case. We said, ‘wait,
| you can't pass a law after the act and
;take away somebody’s rights.’ ”’

He has made
his case in a
number of ap-
peals but on
Thursday the
most recent ap-

peal was re-

jected by a fed-

‘eo eral district
: court judge.

McKenzie “The next

court involved
is the United States Court of Ap-
peals for the 9th Circuit,” Ford said
Friday. “I presume that’s the next
step.”
Among Ford's contentions:
e State District Court Judge

Thomas McKittrick did not have
authority to set the most recent
execution date for McKenzie.

e Executions, by law, should be
handled by a warden, not by Rick
Day, whose title is director of Cor-
rections and Human Services.

e@ The state refused to consider
life without parole as a new option
and they should because McKenzie
is not the same person who was
sentenced to death 21 years ago. He
has been a model prisoner with a
good record, Ford said.

@ New laws have reduced from
five to three the number of wit-
nesses McKenzie can have at the
execution. The laws also do not

Tribune photo by Stuart $. White

Former Pondera County Sheriff Walter Hammermeister, in front of that county’s courthouse in Conrad, says he would not be
_ surprised if Duncan McKenzie once again dodges the executioner. “But | would love to be wrong,” added the man who helped
| investigate the murder and kidnap case.

His lawyer has a handful of ideas to keep him alive

allow him to know the name and
qualifications of the executioner,
which Ford says removes safe-
guards against the execution being
botched.

e@ The execution would be cruel
and unusual punishment. “If you
execute one guy every 50 years, that
is pretty unusual,” Ford said.

Ford, who won reprieves for
death-row inmates Dewey Coleman
and Bernard Fitzpatrick, argues that
McKenzie is being treated differ-
ently than others on death row in
Montana. He says that because
Coleman and Fitzpatrick are now
serving life terms, McKenzie should
receive life in prison also.

“ +4

filed Wed. | firmly
nesday by believe there
McKenzie’s :
court-appointed are certain
attorney, Timo- Cases where
thy Ford of i
Seattle, was re- capital
jected Thurs- punishment
day. The judge js justified,
deemed it , ;
“meritless and and think in
repetitive.” this case that

Ford admit- itis.”
ted he was :
taken aback by — Ethel Harding,
the judge’s mother of Lana
rapid denial, Harding, below
saying: ‘‘It’s

surprising that
he would reject
it out of hand.”

A similar ap-
peal was raised
before the
Montana Su-
preme Court
earlier this
month, Justices

unanimously rejected it April 11.

But Ford vowed Thursday to seek
other avenues of appeal, saying he
would turn next to the U.S. Court of
the Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

The chronology

Jan. 21, 1974: Lana Harding is abducted from her
home at Pioneer School in rural Pondera County.

Jan. 22, 1974: Harding is discovered missing; that
evening McKenzie is arrested at his home.

Jan. 23, 1974: Harding's partially clad body is
found draped over a farm implement in a snowy field
not tar from the Pioneer School where she taught Ina
rural area.

Feb. 1, 1975: McKenzie is convicted of aggravated
kidnapping and deliberate homicide.

March 3, 1975: McKenzie is sentenced to be
hanged.

1977: McKenzie's conviction and sentence are
confirmed by the Montana Supreme Court.

1977: The U.S. Supreme Court tells the state
Supreme Court to reconsider.

1978: The Montana Supreme Court reaffirms Its
decision.

1079: The U.S. Supreme Court again sends the
case back to the Montana Supreme Court.

1980: On the third appeal, the state Supreme Court
again reatfirms the death penalty and the U.S,
Supreme Court denies McKenzie’s request to review
his appeal again.

1981: McKenzie begins state post-conviction
appeals and the state Supreme Court for the fourth
time denies him relief.

1981: McKenzie also begins federal proceedings.
One of the issues Involves a possible plea agreement
in which McKenzie would plead guilty in exchange for a
50-year prison sentence. The plea agreement never
came to be. McKenzie contends the prosecution
withdrew the offer even though the judge had agreed
to accept it.

1985: Judge James Battin denies McKenzie's
appeal that had been based on the plea agreement
Issue.

1987: Battin denies a second appeal in which
McKenzie claimed that at a meeting between a
prosecutor and the judge, McKenzie’s sentence was
discussed even though his attorney was not present. It
is that issue that was subject of the appeal denied
Tuesday by the U.S, Supreme Court.

1988: McKenzie's death sentence is upheld by the
9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court
refuses to hear a McKenzie appeal.

1990: The appeals court orders a new hearing Into
the Zonversation that took place between the

prosecutor and the Judge before McKenzie was
sentenced.

1992: A federal district court judge rules against
McKenzie and says instead the prosecutor and the
judge only discussed the prosecutor's pay for the
case,

Jan. 23, 1994: McKenzie spends year 20 on death
row. He's outlived many of the people Involved In the
case — the judge, the prosecutor and his original
defense attorney — and tells the Tribune he did not kill
Lana Harding and doesn’t know who did.

October 1994: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
denies a petition for rehearing.

Jan. 17, 1995: The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to
hear an appeal by McKenzie and in March it denies a
request to rehear the case.

March 27, 1995: State District Judge Thomas
McKittrick sets May 10 as execution date.

April 11, 1995: The state Supreme Court dismisses
a direct appeal by McKenzie.

April 18, 1995: McKenzie files a third petition for a
writ of habeas corpus In U.S. District Court.

April 20, 1995: AU.S. District Court judge rejects
the appeal as "meritless and repetitive.”

Montana Attorney General Joe
Mazurek was pleased by the judge's
quick decision.

“It is exactly what we would have
hoped for,” Mazurek said, He called
the appeal an abuse of the federal
habeas corpus process in which
prisoners can challenge the consti-
tutionality of their imprisonment.

As the lawyers tussle over ap-
peals, the state prepares a small
building at the state prison in Deer
Lodge for an execution. In Conrad,
some Say it’s about time.

“I think if they need somebody to
pull the rope, I’d do it,” said Tom
Yarger, an owner of Coaches Corner
Pizza. ‘I think that anyone who's
gone through the trial, the appeals ...
they should be executed. All the
appeals have removed any doubt
that he’s innocent.

“The poor girl he killed didn't
have 20 years to think about
whether she'd be allowed to live,” he

See McKENZIE, 2B

|. George Kelly Hanged.
i ste Se senna ene Eanes
:~ George Kelly was legally exe-
‘cuted by the Sheriff about 1 mile}
‘from Kosciusko last Friday at 1:12
o'clock in the presence of no less
than 2.000 people. His neck was
‘cuinpletciy broken by the fall
and he died without .a struggle.
This was the first legal execution
‘to take place in this county in 22
4 23 ycars, and it is to’ hoped
ieatat will have a good moral ef-
toct generally..

s —— reemiaoe