Harrolds.Blogspot.com
"This is a verbatim transcription of the sentence from United States of America v. Gonzales, imposed upon the defendant convicted of murder in the Federal District Court of the Territory of New Mexico in the year 1881, by a United States Judge, sitting at [near] Taos in an adobe stable used as a temporary courtroom.
"José Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, in a few short weeks, it will be spring. The snows of winter will flee away, the ice will vanish, [and the air will become soft and balmy, in short, José Miguel Xaviar Gonzales,] and the annual miracle of the years will awaken and come to pass, but you won't be there.
"The rivulet will run its course to the sea, the timid desert flowers will put forth their tender shoots, the glorious valleys of this imperial domain will blossom as the rose. Still, you won't be there to see.
"From every treetop some wild woods songster will carol his mating song, butterflies will sport in the sunshine, the busy bee will hum happy as it pursues its accustomed vocation. The gentle breeze will tease the tassels of the wild grasses, and all nature, José Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, will be glad, but you.
"You won't be there to enjoy it because I command the sheriff, or some [other] officers of the country, to lead you out to some remote spot, swing you by the neck from a knotting bough of a sturdy oak, and let you hang until you are dead.
"And then, José Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, I further command that such officer or officers retire quickly from your dangling corpse, that vultures may descend from the heavens upon your filthy body until nothing shall remain but the bare bleached bones of a cold-blooded, copper-colored, blood-thirsty, throat-cutting, chili-eating, sheep-herding, murdering son-of-a-bitch."
"The rivulet will run its course to the sea, the timid desert flowers will put forth their tender shoots, the glorious valleys of this imperial domain will blossom as the rose. Still, you won't be there to see.
"From every treetop some wild woods songster will carol his mating song, butterflies will sport in the sunshine, the busy bee will hum happy as it pursues its accustomed vocation. The gentle breeze will tease the tassels of the wild grasses, and all nature, José Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, will be glad, but you.
"You won't be there to enjoy it because I command the sheriff, or some [other] officers of the country, to lead you out to some remote spot, swing you by the neck from a knotting bough of a sturdy oak, and let you hang until you are dead.
"And then, José Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, I further command that such officer or officers retire quickly from your dangling corpse, that vultures may descend from the heavens upon your filthy body until nothing shall remain but the bare bleached bones of a cold-blooded, copper-colored, blood-thirsty, throat-cutting, chili-eating, sheep-herding, murdering son-of-a-bitch."
United States District Court, New Mexico Territory sessions
( true attribution unknown )
sources: http://westernsensibility.blogspot.com/2008/07/good-ol-days-of-death-sentencing-1881.html (+ Wikipedia & various, including the LOC)
On a plaque this quote was proudly hung to greet visitors in to our SAC office, Customs Agency Service, New Orleans Custom House, in the early '70s. Regretfully, most of the 'work-hard, play-hard' agents' are gone now... - rfh
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