Arizona republican., 1905-08-28
DEATH PENALTY I'M MEXICO.
Public Sentiment Generally is Adverse
to Its Execution.

Unless there occurs some check in |
the growth of the feeling of revulsion |
against capital punishment, the next |
generation in Mexico is likely to CLEAN /
all its information regarding that in !
depreciation of justice that demands a /
life for a life from history or from re-
ports of executions in other coun-
tries.
I'm Mexico Cit Il has been Is years
since the legal execution of prlVtte
citizen has taken places. In Monterey
il has been nine years. In other states
years have elapsed since men paid the
penaltv for Their crimes with their
tives. In the court house lard OF Be
lem the wall against which the con-
demned men ware stood IS SCARED
with bullet marks, but prisoners have
ceased to regard il with the terror
they once might have felt and prison
officials have fallen into the habit OF
regarding it more or less as curlos-
, ity rather than as part OF the work
ing machinery of the institution.
The last time prisoner was stood
before the wall was following the
famous assault of a band Of robbers
on a jewelry store in Plateros street.
The place was loted and the proprie-
tor an old man, was murdered at a.
time when the street was crowded
one of the robbers was Bruno Mar
tinez. His execution was probably one
of the most sensational, as well as the
last. that was ever witnessed in Mex
leo He had secured a knife, and at
the hour of his death ran amIck.
wounding the chief Of detectives and
creating almost a panic before ne was
finally overpowered and forced to re
. ceive the bullets of the firing squad.
Merely by taking advantage of the
opportunities offered by law serves 10
enable the condemned man i'm Mexico
to escape death for many months but
. afte- every appeal has been taken 1t Is
: a question of communication or eNecu-
ton Possibly no man condemned TO
death can rest with assurance that oy
exercise of executive clemency he can
escape death but it is doubtful II
there is an attorney in the country
who would not feel almost confident
that in the end he could obtain for his
client a communication of the sentence
to twenty years Imprisonment.
This condition of affairs is due large
" to the feeling in the matter enter
tanned by the chief executive But a
1 few years ago there was issued in TINS
country a flood of literature giving th'
arguments against capital punishment
These works were widely read. anC
and the sentiment thus created mas
doubtless done much towards reducing
the number of capital Punishments'
v As long as capital punishment Is au
e thorized by the laws of the country 1
= ! is probable that the method of eNecu
:, ton will be shooting. This method o
, legally sending Il soul into eternity 1
one that causes the people OF othe
countries to chriek with horror, Du
after al there probably has never bee
- suggested a more humane means
ending the life of a man. If there cal
, be assurance that the men with the RI
fies stoot straight. there can be ou
= little doubt that death will be as near
" instantaneous as that prescribed b
7 any other method.
20 Certainly at the time Mexico adopt
- ed the method of shooting it was a
Improvement over the garrote-H de
vice not worse and not better tina
hanging if a merciful eXecuuoner stoo
behind the post. But not every eNecu
TONER i'm the days when the garrot
nourished was merciful being.
was the garrOte the SpanilrdG brouEs
, to Mexico. As long as they retalne
their power here it was the commo
- machine of execution. on the retire
ment of the Spaniards the firing Squa
took the place of the eXecutioner al
their rifles the place of the garrote.
Executions of soldiers for intrlng
ment on military discipline are 81
not uncommon. But even execution
of this class are more rare than tn
once were. and it is not imposslo