The only Canadian man on death row in the United States says he may give up his fight to live, after the federal government said it would no longer seek clemency for him.

Ronald Allen Smith, 50, is awaiting execution by lethal injection in a Montana prison for murdering two men in 1982.

"This life is old. I'm fed up with it," Smith told CTV Newsnet's The Verdict in a feature interview.

"So I'm going to make a decision (on) whether I'm interested in continuing the appeal process at the start of the year."

Last month, the Canadian government announced it would end its efforts to save Smith from the death penalty, after more than two decades of trying.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said repatriating a convicted murderer would send the wrong signal to Canadians about violent crime.

During Smith's trial, he asked to be executed -- a decision he said he made out of remorse, and also because he didn't want to spend his life behind bars. He told The Verdict that his lawyer should have stopped him from making that choice.

"The very least he should have done is called for a psychiatric evaluation," he said. "There should have been somebody who stopped and asked, 'Why? Why is he seeking the death penalty? We've given him an opportunity to be free.'"

He said prosecutors were prepared to give him a 100-year prison sentence with no parole restrictions, meaning he might have been eligible for parole after 17 years.

"And yet, I turned around and asked for the death sentence. Someone at some point should have asked what the hell I was doing, what was going on in my head. But nobody did. Not my lawyer, not the judge, not the prosecutor, nobody."

Smith, who was born in Red Deer, Alta., killed two men after they picked him up as a hitchhiker. The victims were Harvey Mad Man, 20, and Thomas Running Rabbit, 24, both members of the Blackfeet First Nations reserve in Montana.

The father of Running Rabbit has said it would be a "slap in the face" if Smith was sent to Canada, and that he's terrified by the thought of Smith killing anyone else.

During the trial, Smith testified he wanted to kill the men just to see what it would feel like. He later told reporters he had only made the comment to anger the judge, in an effort to be given the death penalty.

Smith told The Verdict he no longer poses a danger to anyone.

"It's not possible. There's no way I could take another life," he said.

"I live with this everyday. I'm the one who has to remember exactly what I did to the families, to myself, to everybody. I couldn't put myself into that position again."

In the past, Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs had said its policy was to seek clemency -- on humanitarian grounds -- for Canadians on death row in foreign countries.

In late October, the department changed its policy, stating it would no longer seek clemency in cases in democratic countries where there had been a fair trial. However, it did not specify which countries it would define as democratic, aside from the U.S.

On Monday, a Harris-Decima survey provided exclusively to The Canadian Press said exactly half of Canadians disagree with the government's new policy, while 43 per cent support it.

The Conservative government also announced earlier this month that it wouldn't co-sponsor a United Nations resolution calling for an international moratorium on the death penalty.

An official with Foreign Affairs said Canada would still vote in favour of the resolution when it comes before the General Assembly in December.

"There are a sufficient number of co-sponsors already, and we will focus our efforts on co-sponsoring other resolutions within the UN system which are more in need of our support," spokesperson Catherine Gagnaire told The Associated Press.

Co-sponsors for the resolution include the United Kingdom, France and Australia.

Canada had co-sponsored similar resolutions every year from 1998 to 2005.

"(The death penalty) is an unnecessary tool," said Smith. "In this day and age, it's an archaic idea that shouldn't be bought in to."

Capital punishment was abolished in Canada in 1976.