[DL] A real verdict imposed in a real weird west!

["Fantaphage" <zom-b@chipsnet.com>]

I stumbled across this verdict and I just had to share it with the
listserve. The judge must have been feeling a little poetic...or something.

~John


Sentence Imposed In The U.S. District Court Of The New Mexico
Territory In The Case Of U.S. V. Gonzalez, 1881

"Jose 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 Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, the
annual miracle of the year's awakening will come to pass - but you won't be
here. The rivulet will run its pearling course to the sea, the timid desert
flowers will put forth their tender shoots and the glorious valleys of this
imperial domain will blossom as the rose - still you won't be here to see
it. From every treetop, some wild woods songster will carol his mating song,
butterflies will sport in the sunshine, the bumblebee will hum happily as it
pursues its accustomed vocation, the gentle breeze will tease the tassels of
the wild grasses and all nature, Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, will be
glad - but you won't be here to enjoy it - because I command the Sheriff or
some other officers of this county to lead you out to some remote spot,
swing you by the neck from a nodding bough of some sturdy oak and let you
hang until you are dead and then, Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, I
further command that such officer or officers retire quickly from your
dangling corpse, that the vultures may descend from the heavens and devour
your filthy body, until nothing shall remain, but the bare bleached bones of
a cold blooded, blood thirsty, throat cutting, chili eating, sheep herding,
murdering, son of a bitch."

Judge Rice