Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-24
TEXAS LAWS.
A Proceeding to Nullify the En-
tire Criminal Code Of Texas.
One Dick Duncan, Sentenced for MUIR
der, Brings the Case Before the Uni
ted States District Court.
The IlIegality of Texas Criminal Laws, it is
Alleged, Dates Back to Legislative
Action in 1875.
Special to the Gazette.


SAN ANTONIO, TEX. April 16.-One of
the most curious legal proceedings which
has ever come to light III this part of the
country, and which, if prosecuted to its
ultimatum, will be no less startling than
sensational in its results, has been COM
menced in the United States district
court III this city. The proceeding has
for its object the complete nullity Of
as established and practiced since
1876. Even the most casual and
unconcerned can readily see what a state
of anarchy would be forced upon the
people OF Texas if the Federal court sus-
tains the allegations contained in the re-
markable petition, which was filed for
hearing to-day. The issue of the validity
of the penal code of criminal procedure
Is raised in the application for habeas
corpus to secure the release from custody
of Dick Duncan, who, it will be re-
called, was convicted by the state dis
trict court of Maverick county sitting at
Eagle Pass q few months ago, of the
murder of the Williamson family, whose
horribly mutilated bodies were found
41OolIhE- All LllO 1(iO duuS DuuCdu hdS
indicted on several counts of murder,
and on his first trial was convicted Of
murder and the
THE DEATH SENTENCE WAS PRONOUNCED
upon him by Judge Kelso. He has been
in jail in this city since sentence was
passed for safe Keeping, pending the de-
oision of the. COURT Of appeals upon his
case. This. application for a writ of
habeas corpIs is q new route by which he
EXPECTS to SECURE not only his own re-
lease and IMMUNITY ,,but to also establish
that the state of Texas ia absolutely
without a statute .undhr which any Grim
inal act. can be corrected or punished.
The application was first made to Circuit
Judge Pardee at New Orleans Oh the 10th
inst, and Judge Pardee ordered
that hearing on it be had at the
spring term of the United States
district court for Western Texas, which
opens here on May 5. Some of the best
legal talent, not only of Texas, is en-
gagged on the side of Duncan, but the
distinguished Gen. Roger A. Pryor of
New York has been retained to assist in
pleading forsthe alleged murderer, and
it is understood that the petition is the
handiwork mainly Of Gen. Pryor and
Mr.. 7. j. McMinn OF this city. The
case will eventually be carried to the
United States supreme court. The ap-
plication is frightfullY yoluminous doc
ument, and after reciting that the appli-
cant is a bone fide citizen of the United
States, who is unjustly deprived of his
liberty, proceeds substantially as fol-
lows:
''That the Texas constitution of 1876
provided that when the legislature codi-
fed the laws of the state they were to be
released from the operation of certain
restrictions upon the enactment of bills,
but that the fact that they were re-
leased from the operations of these por-
tons of the constitution served to. en-
phasize the operations of other sections;
that among these latter was the section
requiring the legislature in passing bill
to read it on three several days.
The applicant then goes on to state
that the codiers were regularly ap-
pointed under the constitution and sub
mitted to the legislature bill entitled,
Senate bill No. 20, the present penal
code and code of criminal procedure;
that said bill was referred to commit
tee and duly considered by the senate,
but that wnen it reached the house it was
CONTEMPLATED BY THE CONSTITUTION,
but section 1 of the bill, of the Penal
Code, was referred to a committee of
and that section 2, embracing
the code of criminal procedure, was re-
ferred to another committee of fifteen
Further, that sections and 4 were not
referred to any committee, nor was the
bill in its entirety referred to q commit
tee. And again the applicant sets up
that this bill was not read on three several |
days in either branch of the legislature,
as required by the constitution, although |
the time of its taking effect was post
poned ninety days. Again the applica- |
ton alleges that the bill was not consid- |
cred on three several days by either |
branch of the legislature in lieu of three |
several readings. Htie next allegation is |
that no journal of either house was kept |
as required by the constitution, and he is |
driven for information to certain printed
books which are incapable Of veritication |
by any record, and he insists that he is |
entitled to that record, because if it had |
been kept he could indisputably establish |
what he now alleges to be true, namely; |
that the two branches of the legislature |
never came to an identical legislative in
tent on the final passage Of said |
bill. He then says that the
bill was never enrolled, but |
that the enrolment was done away
with by virtue or q certain Joint resolu-
ton adopted in each house, but which
was not signed by the presiding officer of
either house, nor by the governor, and
which -
NEVER HAD THE POWER OF LAW. 4
It is next set up that the amendments
TO the bill were never enrolled, and that
again, on April %, 1879, the legislature
passed an act providing for the ''print-
ng, binding and distribution of the
codes, but afterward inserted an amend
nent providing for codifier, thus alter
ng the purpose of the bill, and intro
iuced a subject different from that ex-
pressed in the title of the bill and di-
7erted the appropriation for ''print-
ng, binding and distributing.
He next asserts that the ap- |
oointment of a codifer with the powers
therein delegating legisla-
i've powers to one j. N. Lyle was abor-
i've, and that all that Lyle did and per-