The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1906-01-22
DEATH PENALTY IN MEXICO,
PubIic Sentiment Is Generally Averss
10 Its Execution.

| 10 It's
Unless there occurs some check in tn,
growth Of The feeling OF revulsloI
against capital punishment ihe next
generation in Mexico is likely 10 CLEAR
all It's information regarding that in
depreciation Of justice that demands 4
life for Al life from history or from re-
ports Of executions in other countries
In Mexico City il has been thirtcen
years Since the legal execution of q
private citizen has taken place la
Monterey II has been nine years. In
other states years. have elapsed since
men paid the penalty for their crimes
with their lives. In the courtyard nr
Belam the wall against which The con.
demned men were stood is SCARED with
bullet marks but prisoners have ceas-
ed TO regard 1t with the terror they
once might have felt and prison officials
have fallen into the habit OF regarding
il more or less us Il curiosity rather
than as part OF the working machn-
cry OF the institution.
The last time Il prisoner was stood
before that wall was Following the ia.
nous assault of a band Of robbers on
q iewery store in Plateros street, The
place was looted and the proprietor an
old man. was murdered nj a time when
the street was crowded. one OF the
robbers was Bruno MARTINEZ. His OK.
ecution was probably one of the most
sensational as well as the last that was
ever witnessed in Mexico. He had Sc
cured knife and at the hour Of his
death ran amuek, wounding the chief
OF detectives and creating almost u
panic before he was finally oyerpower-
ed and forced 10 receive the bullets Of
the firing squad.
Merely taking advantage Of the .on-
portuuities offered by law serves 10 en-
able the condemned man in Mexico to
escape death for many months, but
after every appeal has been taken IL is
a question Of continuation or exeeu
tion Possibly no man condemned TO
death can rest with assurance that by
exercise of official clemeDcy he will es-
cape death, but it is doubtful IL there is
al attorney in The country who would
feel almost confident that in the end he
could obtain for his client commute
lion of the sentence 10 twenty years
Imprisonment
This condition Of affairs is due large
" 10 the feeling IN the matter enter
tanned by the CHIEF executive. but few
years ago there was issued IN this cOun- |
Try 4 hood of literature giving the ar
gumeats against capital punishment
These works were widely read, aud the (
sentiment thus created has doubtless
done much toward reducing the num-
Der of capital punishments.
As long as capital punishment is au
Ihorized by the laws OF lie country 1t
) probable that the method of execg. !
ion viii be shooting This method of
me that causes the people Of other
to shrek with horror. bur
ifter all there probably has never been
uggested more humane means OF
nding- the life of man. IL there can
,e assurance that the men with the
lies shoot straight there can be little
oubt thar death VIII he as nearly in
as that prescribed by any
ther method
Certainly nj The time Mexico adopted
he method Of shooting It was an inn
royement over the garrote. device
%; worse and not better than hanging
a merciful executioncr stood behind
be post Bur not every eXecutloner
D thu days when the garrote fieurished
vas a merciful being II was the gar
ole the Spaniards brought to Mexico.
IS long as they retained their power
ere II was The common machine of ex-
cution. on the retirement Of the
paniaris the firing squad took the
lace Of the eSecutioner and their rides
be place Of the garrote.
Executions OF soldiers for infringe
lent on military discipline are still not
but even executions Of this
lass are more rare now than they once
'ere. sud ii Is not impossible that rhe
ay may come when it must be an ex.
nedingly grave and atrocious crime
nat viii bring for the peIpetrator.
neither civilian or soldier. a heavier
.ntence than that which can he given
'ithin the prison walls--Mexican Her ;
h.
A Hero of Dundee. ,
4. ~ ID