Martinez v. State

171 S.W. 1153, 75 Tex. Crim. 416, 1914 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 495
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 18, 1914
DocketNo. 3337.
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 171 S.W. 1153 (Martinez v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Martinez v. State, 171 S.W. 1153, 75 Tex. Crim. 416, 1914 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 495 (Tex. 1914).

Opinion

HABPEB, Judge.

—Appellant was convicted of murder, and his punishment assessed at twelve years confinement in the State penitentiary.

This is a companion case to those of J. A. Serrato, Lino Gonzales and Jesus Gonzales heretofore decided by this court, hut not yet reported. In this case there is this difference between it and those heretofore decided—appellant did not testify, and, of course, his connection with the conspiracy is not admitted, nor is the object and purpose of the men banding themselves together.

To show that he was a member of the armed hand found on Capones creek, the State proved that when Officers Ortiz and Buck were captured by Captain Bangel and his men, appellant was present and was one of the men who assisted in their capture, having a drawn gun in his hands; that he was present at the time when Sheriff Gardner and Marshal White were fired upon; that he was present when Buck and Ortiz were tied and loaded down as pack horses; that he was one of the guards who accompanied Buck and Ortiz to the place where Ortiz was killed; that he went with those who were guarding Buck some forty yards away when Ortiz was killed; that he continued- with Bangel and his men until Buck was rescued, and continued with them until finally they were captured, being one of those engaged in the battle with the posse and soldiers at the time of the capture. While no one can say specifically they saw him fire a shot, yet he was in company with those, some dozen or more of whom were shooting at the posse and soldiers. This authorized a- finding that he was a member of the company, in the absence of any testimony to the contrary. In the other cases, as hereinbefore stated, the men on trial took the stand and testified they had banded together to go to Mexico and engage in armed rebellion. The defendant did not do so in this case, consequently the State had to make other proof showing the object and purpose of the band of men, and whither they were hound. Cline, clearly b;r all the testimony shown to be a member of the company, separated from the others a short time before their arrest, and he was the first one arrested. When arrested there was found on his person a manifesto, which translated into English, reads as follows:

“MEXICANS:

“The hoard of organization of the Mexican Liberal Party views with complacency your efforts to place in practice the high ideals of political, economical and social emancipation, whose supremacy throughout the world will put an end to that already sufficiently prolonged struggle between man and man, which has its origin in the inequality of riches, which emanates from the principle of private ownership of property.

*420 “The abolishment of that principle signifies the annihilation of all institutions, political, economic, social, religious and moral which generates the gaseous atmosphere within which are asphyxiated free initiative and the free association of mankind, who see themselves forced, in order to survive, to engage in deadly competition, from which those who emerge triumphant, are not the good, neither the most unselfish nor the best endowed, physically, morally and intellectually, but the most' astute, the most egotistic, the least scrupulous, the most hardhearted, those who place their personal welfare above every consideration whatsoever of human solidarity and of human justice.

“Without the principle of private ownership of property there is no reason for the existence of a government, necessary only to keep within bounds the disinherited in their complaints or in their rebellion against the deforciants of social riches—nor the church reason to exist whose exclusive object is to extrangulate in man the innate rebelliousness against oppression and exploitation, through preaching about patience, resignation and humility, stifling the cries of the most powerful instincts, and fruitful with the practice of immoral penances, cruel and hurtful to the health of persons, and so that the poor may not aspire to the joys of earth and constitute a danger to the privileged of the earth, promise to the humblest, to the most resigned, to the most patient, a heaven which swings in the infinite space beyond the visible stars.

“Capital, Authority, Clergy, here you have the somber trinity which makes, of this beautiful world, a paradise for those who have succeeded in grasping in their claws by their astuteness, violence and crime, the product of hard labor by the'sweat of the brow, by blood, by tears and sacrifices of thousands of generations of workmen and a hell for those who, with their hands and their intelligence cultivate the soil, move machinery, construct houses, transport products, thus leaving humanity divided into two social classes, with interests diametrically opposed; the capitalist and the laborer. The class which possesses the land, the machinery of production and the means of transportation for the rich products, and the class which reckons only with his hands and his intelligence for his support.

“Between these two social classes there can not exist any bond of friendship or fraternity, for the property-holding class are always disposed to perpetuate the economic, political and social system, which guarantees to them peaceful enjoyment of their plunder, while the working class makes efforts to destroy that iniquitous system, in order to install a medium on the earth, by which the land, the houses, the machinery of production and the means of transportation may become of common use.

“Mexicans: The Mexican Liberal Party recognizes that every human being, from the sole fact of having been born, have the right to enjoy of all and of each and every advantage which modern civilization offers, for those advantages are the product of the efforts and sacrifices of the working class of all ages.

“The Mexican Liberal Party recognizes that work is necessary for *421 the maintenance of the individual and of society, and consequently everybody, with the exception of the aged, the maimed, the weak-minded and the children, must dedicate themselves to produce something useful, so that they will be enabled to give satisfaction to their needs.

“The Mexican Liberal Party recognizes that the so-called right of individual property is an iniquitous right, because it subjects the greatest number of human beings to work and to suffer for the satisfaction and ease of a small number of capitalists.

“The Mexican Liberal Party recognizes that the Government and the Clergy are the support of the iniquitous capital. Therefore, the Board of Organization of the Mexican Liberal Party has solemnly declared war against authority, war against capital, war against the Clergy. _

_ “Against Capital, Authority and Clergy, the Mexican Liberal Party has unfurled the red banner in the fields of action in Mexico, where our brothers are battling like lions, contending for victory against the hosts of the Patricians, or be it, Maderistas, Eeyistas, Vasquistas, Científicas and many others, whose only purpose is to elevate a man to the first magistracy of the country, to do business under his shadow, without any consideration for the entire mass of the population of Mexico, and all of them recognizing as sacred the right of individual property.

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Related

La Coume v. State
78 S.W.2d 203 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1935)
Leedy v. State
21 S.W.2d 679 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1929)
Hollingsworth v. State
182 S.W. 465 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1915)
Cline v. State
178 S.W. 520 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1915)

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Bluebook (online)
171 S.W. 1153, 75 Tex. Crim. 416, 1914 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 495, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/martinez-v-state-texcrimapp-1914.