Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1906-01-20
DEATH PENALTY IN MEXICO.
Public Sentiment Is Generally Averse
to It's Execution.

PubIfc Sentiment Is Generally Averse
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 q life from history or from re-
ports of executions in other countries.
In Mexico City it has been thirteen
wears since the legal execution OF a
private citizen has taken place. In
Monterey it has been nine years. Il
other states years have e. lpsed ance
men paid the penalty for their crimes
with their lives. In the courtyard of
Belem the wall against which the con-
demned men were stood j SCARED with
bullet marks, but prisShers have ceas-
ed to regard 1t viii the terror they.
once might have fit and prison officials
have fallen int9the habit of regarding
it more or kss as a curiosity rather
than as part of the working machin-
cry OF TIE institution.
TheIast time a prisoner was STOOD
before that wall was following the IA
lions assault Of band Of robbers on
a jewelry store in Plateros street. Inc
Mace was looted and the proprietor an
old man. was murdered at time when
the street was crowded. One OF the
robbers was Bruno Martinez. His eX-
ecution was probably one of the most
sensational as we'll as the last that was
ever witnessed in Mexico. He had Sc
cured a knife and at the hour OF his
death ran amuck, wOund$ng the chier
Of detectives and creating almost
manic before he was finally overpower-
cd and forced to receive the bullets OF
the firing squad.
Merely taking advantage of the OPP
nortunities offered by law serves 10 en-
able the condemned man in Mexico TO
escape death for many months, out
after every appeal has been taken II Is
a question Of communication or execu-
ton. Possibly no man condemned 10
doo+b can rest with assurance that by
exercise of official clemency he will es-
cape death, but it is doubtful II there Is
on attorney in the country who would
feel almost confident that in the end ne
could obtain for his client communal
tion 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 rev
years ago there was issued in this coun-
try a food of literature giving the ar
suments against capital punishment
These works were widely read, and the
sentiment thus created has doubtless
done much toward reducing the num-
Der of capital punishments.
As long as capital punishment Is au-
thorIzed by the laws Of the country II
Is probable that the method Of execu-
t1on will be shooting This method OF
legally sending a soul into eternity Is
one that causes the people Of other
countries to shrek with horror, but
after all there probably has never beer
suggested a more humane means OF
ending the life of man. If there car
be assurance that the men with the
rifles shoot straight there can be LITTLE
doubt that death will be as nearly In
Simultaneous as that prescribed by any
other method.
Certainly at the time Mexico adopted
the method Of shooting it was an I'm
provemept over :hN garrOte, a device
not worse and not better than hanging
II merciful executiOner stood SSas-2s,
the post. But not every executione
in the days when the garrOte fourishe(
was a merciful being. 1t was the gar
rote the Spaniards brought to Mexico
AS long as they retained their powe
here it was the common machine Of ex
ecution On the retirement OF TIL
Spaniards the firing squad took tn
place Of the executioner and their rifle
the place Of the garrote.
Executions of soldiers for infringe
ment on military discipline are still no
uncommon, but even executions Of TIL
class are more rare now than they one
were, and it is not impossible that tn
day may come when it must be an eS
ceedingly grave and atrOcious Grim
that will bring for the perpetratol
whether civilian or soldier, heavie
sentence than that which can he give
within the prison walls.-MeXican He1
aid.