In case any of you were curious about that infamous attempt by me to deliver a speech at that tournament at San Fernando Valley State College over 50 years ago (That my BFF Louis Ramirez) remembered) Everyone else recited words of Thomas Jefferson, Edgar Allen Poe, or Walt Whitman. I chose some cracker-ass cracker judge from New Mexico! A legend was born. ....here it is. THE COURT: José María Martínez, stand up! José María Martínez, you have been indicted, tried and convicted by a jury of your countrymen of the crime of murder, and the court is now about to pass upon you the dread sentence of the law. As a usual thing, José María Martínez, it is a painful duty for the judge of a court of justice to pronounce upon a human being the sentence of death. There is something horrible about it, and the mind of the court naturally revolts from the performance of such a duty. Happily, however, your case is relieved of all such unpleasant features and the Court takes positive delight in sentencing you to death! You are a young man, José María Martínez; apparently of good physical condition and robust health. Ordinarily, you might have looked forward to die at a ripe old age; but you are about to be cut off in consequence of your own act. José María Martínez, it is now the spring-time, in a little while the grass will be springing up green in these beautiful valleys, and on these broad mesas and mountain sides flowers will be blooming; birds will be singing their sweet carols, and nature will be putting on her most gorgeous and her most attractive robes, and life will be pleasant and men will want to stay, but none of this for you, José María Martínez; the flowers will not bloom for you, José María Martínez; the birds will not carol for you, José María Martínez; when these things come to gladden the senses of men, you will be occupying a space about six by two beneath the sod, and the green grass and those beautiful flowers will be growing above your lowly head. The sentence of the Court is that you be taken from this place to the county jail; that you be there kept safely and securely confined, in the custody of the sheriff until the day appointed for your execution. (Be very careful, Mr. Sheriff, that he have no opportunity to escape and that you have him at the appointed place at the appointed time.) That you be so kept, José María Martínez, until — Mr. Clerk, on what day of the month does Friday, about two weeks from this time come? THE CLERK: March twenty-second, Your Honor. THE COURT: Very well, — until Friday, the twenty-second day of March, when you will be taken by the sheriff from your place of confinement to some safe and convenient spot within the county (that is in your discretion, Mr. Sheriff, you are only confined to the limits of this county), and that you be there hanged by the neck until you are dead, and the Court was about to add, José María Fabiola Martinez, “May God have mercy on your soul,” but the Court will not assume the responsibility of asking an Allwise Providence to do that which a jury of your peers has refused to do. The Lord could not have mercy on your soul! However, if you affect any religious belief, or are connected with any religious organization, it might be well for you to send for your priest or your minister and get from him, — well, — such consolation as you can; but the Court advises you to place no reliance upon anything of that kind! Mr. Sheriff, remove the prisoner.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 20:39:38 +0000
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