Albuquerque morning journal., 1921-01-02
VILLA RAID WAS A
MILITARY EXPEDITION
DECLARES LARRAZ0L0
CONTINUED from Page Qne,)

rr
beas cofpus proceeding. and un-
derstand it. were purely matters
of law, and no facts relating to the
guilt or innocence of these defend.
ants were, or could properly be
considered in that proceeding; yet,
unfortunately, and Quite unneces-
sarily. In the Introductory part of
the opinion the court dwells upon
the merits of the case, touching
the guilt or innocence of the ap-
plicants for habeas corpus. That
portion of the opinion is that one
which demands of me, as the exc
cutive of the state, a further state
ment touching it's merits, and this,
| repeat, in Justice to men who are
directly concerned In this matter.
Since the granting of the pardons
to these men by me, they all have
been rearrested upon indictments
pending against them In the district
court of Luna county, charging
each one of them with the crime of
murder, different from that for
which they were serving practical
ly life sentences in the penitentiary,
which crimes of murder are al
legged to have been committed at
the same time, under the same Cir
cumstances as the one for which
they had been convicted, all form
ing part of one whole transaction,
namely, upon the occasion Of that
unfortunate and deplorable raid on
the town of Columbus. On those
charges these men will be called
upon to defend themselves in court,
when their cases are called for
trial. What effect will the opinion
just rendered by the supreme court
of/thi state have upon the trial
Of those men?
These men are said by that opin-
ion to have been "under the lead
ership of one Francisco Villa, the
notorious bandit of Mexico at the
time they crossed the international
boundary line, and made the as
sault upon Columbus. Further on,
in that opinion, they are thus char
acterized: "They were, however,
according to current historical re-
port, members of a company of
bandits, under the leadership of,
villa"
No Evidence of Banditry.
I do not know of any evidence,
of any facts properly before the
court, to authorize that high tri-
bunal in characterizing these men
as "bandits" Certainly there was
nothing in the proceeding before
the court to justify the admission
Of such evidence, and If / am cor
rectly informed, none such was pro-
duced, nor, indeed, was there any
occasion for such evidence to be
presented to the court, for in that
proceeding the questions involved
were purely, solely and exclusively
questions of law, touching the
power of the governor to grant
pardons, under the constitution
and laws of this state.
The thinly veiled criticism that
such characterization of those men
carries with it, against the execu-
tive of the state as for an abuse Of
power, l am willing to disregard,
but what about the fate that awaits
these men who are to be tried for
their lives when the highest tri-
bunal in the land has already ad-
Judged them to be bandits" This
opinion will be read in every homo
throughout the state, and Will
make it practically impossible for
these men to have a fair and i'm
partial trial; in other words. they
are now practically doomed men
and sentenced before they have
been heard in self-defense, and be-
fore their case has been called for
trial. This is. indeed, a precedent
in the history of Jurisprudence
which may well call the attention
the civilized world!
Was Regular Army.
After extensively recording the
history of Villas operations, Mr..
Larrazolo adds:
81 have traced the Villa career,
step by step, for more than one
year previous to the Columbus
raid, and I have conclusively
shown, by undeniable historical
facts, that he was the commander
of a regularly organized army. and
that the men under him were reg
Mar army soldiers"